The Homer City Council once again took up for discussion the proposal to extend Greatland Street through to Pioneer. Ultimately, the council voted 5 to 1 in favor of postponing a decision on appropriating funds for the street changes.
The ordinance called for appropriating about $670,000 from the Homer Accelerated Road and Trails Program for option A of the Greatland Street Improvements Project. Councilmember David Lewis proposed holding off on a decision until more studies could be done.
"As much as I like option A and it seems like a really smart way, we’ve also had planning and zoning come and say that they wanted us to hold on this. We have been accused in the past of [having] these commission and [not] listening to them. We go ahead and just do what we want," Lewis said.
There were three options up for consideration. Option A is the cheapest and would extend Greatland Street to the north to connect to Pioneer. Option B would conform to the transportation plan by connecting Greatland to the east and west to Main and Bartlett. Option C is the middle ground; it’s cheaper than B as it only would connect westward for a Bartlett/Pioneer intersection.
Roberta Highland spoke on behalf of the Planning Commission, which had not recommended option A. She said in their meeting, they thought the project would benefit from consulting a traffic engineer. In talking with public works, there was a thought Option C might be more appropriate.
"First, it was the money. We just felt like we didn’t absolutely need this right now. Second, it was that we did concur with the transportation plan of the east and west," Highland said.
The long-term transportation plan favors east-west corridors, which this is not. So, there were concerns any changes made at this point would potentially be overshadowed by future projects, meaning more money spent in the long run for the same outcome.
Councilmember Tom Stroozas cast the sole vote against postponing, saying he would be in favor of sticking to option A.
“At out last meeting, I mentioned the transportation plan and if you’ll recall my comment was, well, that was put together a number of years ago and plans are plans," Stroozas said. "Times change, economies change, and our needs change.”
He said the longer the council delayed on a decision, the more expensive any option could become.
“Option A is the most prudent way to go with this, it leaves the most property on the tax rolls, and it gets the job done without creating a bottleneck and a four-way stop," he said.
Councilmember Catriona Reynolds supported holding off on a vote until the council could hear from the commissions. She also said she was in favor of consulting an engineer who could provide a clearer picture of the impacts of the different options on overall traffic flow.
“I was going to suggest a similar motion to postpone and I would like to direct that we have an engineer analyze the junction with option A," Reynolds said. "I think there’s several other benefits to option A in that we lose less trees and green space moving through and going straight up but I would like to know what the impact would be at the junction with Pioneer.”
The council will take up this issue for discussion once again at its June 26 regular meeting.