Borough seeks to share and hear road ideas Ja

MAT-SU—Moving "through traffic" out of neighborhoods and onto a suitable collector road is the aim of a public meeting Jan. 22 at Evangelo's Restaurant, lower level. The new road would provide an east-west corridor to serve a growing community that relies on a single, narrow road with an at-grade railroad crossing.

There is no preferred road alternative. The project team will gather ideas from the public as well as present eight proposed alternatives.

The studied area is south of Trunk Road at the Parks Highway and east of Seward Meridian and south of Fairview Loop. Four subdivisions are in the area and would be helped by this corridor. They are Creekside Preserve, Creekside Heights, Garden Terrace Estates, and The Ranch. A fifth subdivision, called Sweeping Vista, received approval as a subdivision as recently as 2007.

The Ranch subdivision has 52 recently built homes with another 98 lots proposed for development within a few years. At full build-out, The Ranch will contain about 601 new homes. Sweeping Vista proposes another 222 lots in its plat.

A new elementary school is under construction south of the subdivisions and is scheduled to open next fall to serve expected growth in this area and relieve crowding at four nearby schools.

The area’s limited road network cannot handle the existing traffic or the coming traffic. The heavy traffic also affects area residents. To access the Parks Highway, many drivers are using South Abby Boulevard, a narrow residential road built for far fewer than the 1,167 estimated vehicles traveling on it each day (based on 2007 counts). When all subdivisions in the area are fully built out, a projected 7,819 vehicles per day will travel the area and need an adequate transportation network. The Borough is striving to address the pending traffic needs prior to the area reaching gridlock.

Thursday night, the project team will give two presentations of possible road alternatives. The first overview is at 6 p.m., with the second at 7:30 p.m.
A question and answer period will follow each presentation. Written comments are encouraged. A court reporter will be on hand to transcribe oral comments as well. At the meeting, the public will also be encouraged to draw suggestions for a route on a table-size map of the area. The map also will illustrate specific alternatives that have been developed by the project team.

Evangelo's Restaurant is at 2530 E. Parks Highway. The meeting is in the lower room next to the Railroad presentation from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22. Public comments will be later posted to a Borough Web site.

Another meeting with Borough citizens will be scheduled, as well as public hearings before the Borough Transportation Advisory Board, the Borough Planning Commission and the Borough Assembly. The Assembly will ultimately approve a route.
Submit written comments to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Anne Brooks, Public Involvement Specialist, at 1-866-535-1877. Or call Patty Sullivan, Borough Public Affairs Director, 745-9577, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.