To Sidewalk or Not to Sidewalk, That is the Question

No decision has been made yet as to a proposal to build sidewalks on Woodland Avenue after a third public meeting to discuss the matter Tuesday night.

City Engineer Andy Hipolit detailed the three plans on the table: no sidewalk, sidewalks on the west side of the street from Bedford Road to Wade Drive, or the east side of the road from Hillcrest Avenue to Wallace Road.

The Department of Community Services has received a grant from the Department of Transportation to improve drainage on Woodland Avenue and repair curbs. DCS Director Beth Kinney said sidewalks were not initially part of the plan until several residents requested it.

The reason sidewalks are being considered, she said, is because Woodland Avenue is a designated Safe Route to School for students in the Washington School.

Hipolit said regardless of which side of the road sidewalks are installed, the cost breakdown is 50-50 between the residents on that side of the road and the city. Hipolit estimates the cost is between $24-$25 per linear foot but depending on the bid prices the city receives it could be lower.

The proposal also includes narrowing the road to 24 feet wide, which it already is in some spots, to allow for traffic calming, Hipolit said, and so sidewalks can mostly be built on what is now existing pavement and not grass. This would help save mature trees along Woodland Avenue and so as to not interfere with telephone poles. City ordinances state, however, that roads 24 feet wide and under are to be no parking zones. Kinney said the portions of Woodland Avenue that currently are 24 feet wide are not accurately signed but will be soon.

The plan which includes sidewalks on the east side of the road would be done in two phases since the city would need a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection because Canoe Brook Country Club has a drainage ditch where the city would be building sidewalks, Hipolit said. The permit could take anywhere from 6 months to a year to get.

Several residents expressed concerns Tuesday night about the homeowners' responsibility to maintain and clear sidewalks24 hours after th end of a snowstorm and about the inconvenience of not being able to park along Woodland Avenue anymore in order to carry in groceries or allow service workers such as gardeners, painters and movers to park in front of the home.

But Hipolit said many other streets in Summit are no parking zones and residents park their cars or service workers' vans and trucks on side streets or on other parts of the road that do allow parking.

"We would not be creating something on your street that is abnormal to Summit," Hipolit said.

Marybeth Robb, a resident on Woodland Avenue, expressed concerned over the plan to build sidewalks on the east side of the road because families who live on the west side would have to cross Woodland Avenue to get on the sidewalk and then cross again to get to Washington school, which is west of the road.

But residents also expressed concerns about the effect sidewalks would have on the character of the neighborhood.

"It's a beautiful road. That's why we bought our house there," said resident Mary Schwartz. "I just don't want to see that ruined."

The residents in favor of sidewalks says they do not let their children walk to school currently because it is so unsafe. One resident said that while many parents raised children on Woodland Avenue in the past without issue, today people drive SUVs, talk on cell phones while driving and go entirely too fast, especially on Woodland Avenue.

While the sidewalk would not technically go all the way to Washington School, several parents said they would "take what I can get."

Lee Webber, a resident at 200 Woodland Avenue, asked Hipolit about the cost differential between the two sides of the street.

The east side, he said, would cost twice as more because it's twice as much sidewalk.

"The city needs to be fiscally responsible. Let's see the city live within its means," Webber said. "... I can't even understand why we're still talking about this."