04/22/1996 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MEETING APRIL 22, 1996 Kim Sullivan, 7132 Whippoorwill Lane - Ms. Sullivan said that she also lives in Wenzel Farms and in her opinion the School District is having problems hearing what the citizens are saying about the school project. She thanked Mr. Ahrens for stating that he was speaking to the citizens, not only to the City Council and the school staff. However, when he talked about the priorities of the school plan, he talked about the priorities of the staff, the consultants and the school district and the fact that those priorities for these three groups of people were safety, cost, neighborhood impact, state aid and on-site traffic flow. Ms. Sullivan said, "let there be no mistake, there is no citizen that has a different opinion or concern or priority for that school". When the school district representatives came and spoke tonight, they indicated that they have three concerns safety, state aid support and a signal light. That differs somewhat from what the engineers and the City staff have concerns about. Ms. Sullivan said that she would like to make this point because she wanted the school district to know that the citizens of Wenzel Farms are not trying to stop the signal light or trying to fight the safety issues. They are trying to keep their neighborhood safe in the broader overall plan of a school district and a city. Ms. Sullivan said that there is a broader planning issue here than just the school. There will be an impact on all of the neighboring areas, including the new condominiums, the townhomes, the Shores of Marshan Lake homes and everything that runs up and down Lake drive. The traffic will impact these areas. This project cannot be made a micro -community of the school district and what the school district wants and gets. There is too much of an impact on much more of the City that needs to be considered. Ms. Sullivan said that she agreed with Mr. Wurscher when he said that it appears everybody seems favoring Option F. She said that the school board is an important part of this City, but so are the citizens. The school district may favor Option F, but you will find through research conducted by one of the citizens of the City, that it is not favored by the citizens. Ms. Sullivan said that this citizen will address this concern. Ms. Sullivan pointed out that Option F closes neighborhood easy access and all neighborhood traffic will be thrown in the school traffic during the time it is very busy for the school. There will be a 120 homes from the Wenzel Farms area that will be trying to get through the school streets with 37 school buses every morning and every afternoon. Option F will provide individual accesses for the commercial and industrial properties up and down Lake Drive from Elm Street. Ms. Sullivan said that she did not think that was appropriate especially that since citizens have indicated that they do no want access lost to their homes. Ms. Sullivan said that the map shows 80 students from the Wenzel Farms subdivision that will be impacted in crossing Elm Street. She said, do not kid yourselves, there are homes west of Wenzel Farms where there are children who will be attending this school. In addition there is the Sunnygate development west of the Rice Lake Lane area where many children will be walking. Ms. Sullivan said that Wenzel Farms is not the only neighborhood who will be impacted. She said that the number 80 is not indicative of the actual number of students that will be walking. PAGE 16