The AJC reports this morning that the City of Decatur has recently met with the Georgia Department of Transportation and that while they likely aren’t open to lowering the speed limit on Scott Boulevard, they may be open to making physical changes to the road to deter high-speed travel through Decatur’s premier car sewer.

“They really don’t want to lower the limit, which we would like,” [Asst. City Manager David Junger] said. “But I think they’d be open to making physical changes, like narrowing the lanes, or maybe doing a series of medians in the middle. We want to make people less comfortable driving fast on Scott.”

As has been reported here previously, a large majority of speeding tickets given out in Decatur are along the Scott speedway.  According to the AJC, Mr. Junger reported that a recent speed study by the city concluded that 85% of drivers went 49 mph or lower along Scott, well above the current posted 40 mph limit.

As we’ve discussed many times before, Scott Boulevard is a state road so any and all changes must be approved by GDOT.  The department calculates speed limits by looking for the magic speed limit number where 15% drive faster and 85% drive slower, so it’s not all that surprising GDOT doesn’t want to lower the limit.

Related: It took three years for  the installation of sidewalks along Scott in both directions to come to pass, so don’t hold your breath for any changes along Scott in the near-term, even if there’s general agreement among parties.

This is quite a rollercoaster of red tape, stalled/restarted efforts, and bureaucratic hurdle jumping. Let’s recap.

Back in January we reported that the Decatur Citizen Survey showed that a majority of residents were interested in reducing the speed limit inside the city.  We then were told by the city that the plan was still alive inside city hall, though it hadn’t seem to have seen .

Then in February, Decatur Heights neighbors took to the podium at City Hall and reinvigorated the conversation, asking the city commission take action on a 2011 25 mph residential speed zone petition for the entire Decatur Heights neighborhood.  At that meeting, Asst. City Manager David Junger told the commission that it had been difficult to move the process forward, due in part to staff changes at the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Now the AJC is reporting that after a recent meeting with the state’s Department of Transportation, Mr. Junger is “encouraged about eventually getting city speed limits reduced”.

“Our next step is compiling a spread sheet of those roads eligible for 25 mph,” Junger said.

Eligibility would include streets with limited visibility and large numbers of children. Junger pointed out that Decatur streets have a “hodgepodge” of limits, but speeding tickets can’t be written until a driver is at least 11 mph over the limit (areas with unstated limits are 30 mph). Junger said the city wants more speed limits with a “residential” designation, meaning tickets can be issued at a single mile over the speed limit.

As we reported back in January, the 2014 Citizen Survey showed that a majority of Decatur residents voiced their approval of a 25 MPH city-wide speed limit for residential roads.  We followed up with the city who told us they were still working through the many questions associated with the project.

At last night’s meeting, the commission listened as residents along Harold Byrd Drive and Maedris Drive in the Westchester neighborhood submitted a petition for traffic calming measures along their streets (four-way light, speed humps, etc), to deal with cut-through traffic from Scott Boulevard and Clairemont.

They then listened as numerous Decatur Heights residents took the podium and asked that the city commission take action on the 25 mph residential speed zone petition for Sycamore Drive the entire Decatur Heights neighborhood, which was accepted by the commission back in 2011, and also address other lingering speed-related issues in the neighborhood.

Later in the meeting, Asst. City Manager David Junger described to the commissioners the many difficulties involved of lowering the speed limit on any residential street in Decatur, let alone across the entire city.

Decatur Heights residents along Sycamore Drive have also separately pursued a 25 MPH Residential Zone speed limit along their stretch on road north of Ponce. So far, they’ve achieved a 30MPH Residential Zone designation. However, the requested 25 MPH hasn’t been accommodated, because of the method used by the Georgia Department of Transportation to determine speed limits. A new speed study request is in the queue.

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The Georgia Department of Transportation is finally getting around to building out a “Safe Routes to School transportation improvement” project and some residents don’t approve of one particular element of the project, moving the entrance to Glennwood Elementary to align with Sycamore Place. A petition created by surrounding residents to oppose the plan states…

“The current plan would result in the loss of existing trees and the current school sign and will create a much shorter front driveway for the school. The shorter driveway will result in the buses loading in the lower parking lot where carpool is currently held. This will result in requiring staggered dismissal times, which will be a considerable inconvenience for teachers and families. It will also result in traffic backups onto East Ponce de Leon, as parents’ cars will not be able to maneuver past the busses into the lower parking lot. Finally, there is a safety concern with having Sycamore Place end directly into our driveway, as a distracted driver may continue driving straight through the light without noticing the transition from street to driveway.”

City Manager Peggy Merriss says that the plan is “part of a Safe Routes to School transportation improvement that the City and the City Schools requested a number of years ago that GDOT is just getting around to completing.”  She adds that the plan “also includes improvements to the intersection at Commerce Drive and Sycamore Place, installation of bike racks and some other items.”

There also seem to be differing explanations of why the plan was conceived in the first place.

According to the City Manager, the current situation along the street is that “…the intersection at East Ponce de Leon and Sycamore Place followed quickly by the entrance to the drive at Glennwood Elementary is a challenging one for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles to negotiate and rebuilding it would improve conditions.”  But opposing residents say the work was initially planned because of increased traffic due to it being a 4/5 Academy and that it is now unnecessary because Glennwood is now a neighborhood school and “many families living within walking or biking distance.”

So it sounds like there are a few different viewpoints on the purpose and result of the project at this point.  Either way, Ms. Merriss also tells DM that “…the City is aware of the City Schools concerns about timing of construction and disruption to the school.  We are trying to get GDOT’s cooperation in reviewing the project to address the concerns.”

Photo courtesy of Google Maps

At last night’s Decatur City Commission meeting, Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon asked that the commission approve a right-of-way agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation along the south-side of Scott Boulevard between Garden Lane and the “Ridley Howard House” (which from the street, looks like the apartments near the intersection with Clairemont).

Like anything with involving GDOT, this agreement has been a very long-time coming.

You may recall that way back in April 2008, the Mayor asked residents for input on whether they’d like this final un-sidewalked piece of Scott Boulevard to be poured or if they’d rather have existing sidewalks along the “Boulevard of Broken Westchester Dreams” repaired. A small sample of DM respondents said they’d rather have the south-side sidewalk connection and it looks like the city commission agreed and had been following through with that plan.

The city will pay Atkins North America $14,700 for “right-of-way acquisition services” and approximately $10,000 to acquire temporary easements.  GDOT will pour (and pay for) the sidewalks for an estimated $272,000.

The commission unanimously approved the agreement.

Steve points to an article in the Augusta Chronicle, which gives the first indications that the state of Georgia may do what was suggested by a conservative rail politico a couple weeks back: move the transportation sales tax vote from July to November.

Todd Long, the planning director for the Georgia Department of Transportation, said the state is weighing the options of moving the transportation referendum, originally scheduled for the July 2012 general primary, to the November 2012 general election.

Turnout for the general election will be much higher, potentially allowing the sales tax vote to get “lost in the shuffle” but also greatly increasing any marketing costs associated with the tax, which cannot be paid using public money, he said.

…What’s on the list likely will sway voters in an area where a Georgia Municipal Association study last week showed that only 12.9 percent of officials polled believed the tax referendum would pass today.

Speaking of which…not much good news for the transportation tax in this poll.

If you live – or drive frequently on – Wimberly Court, East Pharr Road, Garland Avenue, Willow Lane or Greenwood Place in Decatur, congratulations!  You’ll most likely soon be enjoying some brand-new asphalt beneath your tires (or feet).

Tonight’s Decatur City Commission meeting agenda includes an item for allocating $72,028 to repair and milling of these five roads in preparation for repaving under GDOT’s repaving program.

The original low bid of $60,764 had to be increased by a little more than $11,000 because it was discovered that GDOT was skimping on asphalt, paying for only a .75″ overlay instead of the “normal” 1.18″ overlay, according to a letter from Asst. City Manager David Junger to the City Manager (page 23 of tonight’s materials).  Decatur’s Senior Engineer, John Madajewski, recommended increasing it to a 1″ overlay to create a “longer lasting” roadway.