On
Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 6 pm, the South Weber City council will decide on
amendments to the Easton Village subdivision phase 1 and 2. Allowing the
subdivision to continue without a second ingress/egress. This decision will affect some safety
concerns for neighborhoods and children.
A. Since the only
ingress/egress is shared with South Weber Elementary School, there are some
safety issues we should consider as residents of South Weber, especially those
with children and grandchildren attending South Weber Elementary School.
1. Approving the amendment
allows for only 1 ingress/egress out of Easton Village with 30 new or existing
homes. According to government
research the average number of trips/day/household with two cars is 6. 6x 30 (homes) is an additional 180 cars
on the one ingress/egress daily.
2. Add to that 6 school buses
per morning and 6 per afternoon, 715 students, some of which walk and
additional cars dropping and picking up their children, and all the teachers
and support staff who drive.
3. Add to that the additional
traffic generated by the community center that shares the parking lot with the
school.
This
new ordinance may work for another subdivision, but it is not acceptable when
the only ingress/egress is shared with an elementary school and community
center. This is clearly a
liability to the city of South Weber and poses a dangerous situation for our
children.
B. There is another safety
issue that has recently arisen due to this ingress/egress decision.
Lester St. abruptly ends on the west end at the Jorgensen property approximately
four feet off the ground. To allow
school children to walk to the school on safe surface neighborhood roads a ramp
was built so they could access Lester St.
With the new 6’ fence that needs to surround Easton Village, the ramp
has been removed and now the entire end of Lester St. will be fenced. This now forces the children walking to
school off of safer neighborhood surface roads and onto a busy highway.
Is this something we are comfortable with as a city?