In October 2015, many residents in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s seasonally famous Winterhaven neighborhood were surprised to learn that one of their main thoroughfares, East Kleindale Road, had been blocked by two rows of black and yellow striped posts, or bollards. Many would add the modifier “ugly.â€
At Kleindale’s intersection with North Christmas Avenue, the latter splits into two and merges with Kleindale in both directions, forming a triangle around a charming, grassy island shaded by a towering pine. With the bollards in place, drivers now have to jog south and then north on Christmas back to Kleindale.
This seemingly small, $3,000 change in the neighborhood’s infrastructure has sparked a nearly year-long internecine controversy, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a place better known for its Christmas spirit than contentious community meetings, 911 calls and threats of the nearly unthinkable: a light strike during Winterhaven’s signature annual event, the Festival of Lights.
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How tense has it become? One resident said the whole affair was the “straw that broke the camel’s back†and was making plans to move out of the neighborhood.
Potential hazard
So, what happened here? Wading through a number of emails, letters and other documents, as well as speaking with a number of key players, the Road Runner did his best to present a fair summary of the ugly and complicated episode.
It started last April, when several residents approached the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Department of Transportation hoping to find a way to ease traffic on Kleindale. That was followed by a letter dated April 30 from the Winterhaven Water and Development Co. Board of Directors to the city of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s Jesse Soto, who heads the Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program. In that letter, a copy of which was provided to the Road Runner, the board asks for “object markers ... to redirect traffic to the south of the island.â€
Winterhaven resident and board attorney James Kaucher said the letter was intended to simply show support for the already active effort, but other residents interviewed by the Road Runner said they suspect the whole thing was board-driven from the beginning.
The letter’s authors, including Board President Patricia Brescia, who declined to speak to the Road Runner, cite speeding traffic along Kleindale and potential threats to children playing in the area as reasons for the barricades.
In a June letter, TDOT Director Daryl Cole noted that there was “a lack of documented crash experience at this location,†but Kaucher said waiting for an accident to happen to address a potential hazard is unwise.
In June 2015, supporters started gathering signatures at 29 properties near the intersection identified by the city as those most impacted by the potential project. Once they reached the requisite 60 percent threshold, the city OK’d the project. Initially using funds from the nonprofit Winterhaven Public Events to purchase the bollards, money that was eventually recouped from supporters and the donated services of a local contractor, the traffic blockade went up in October, according to Kaucher.
Most Winterhaven residents, including Kaucher himself, did not learn about the project until it was completed, and it didn’t take long for a counter petition to take off. By the end of December it had reached the same 60 percent threshold among the same previously canvassed households to approve removing the bollards installed just two months prior.
Bollard confusion
“We’ve been doing this for almost 30 years,†Soto said of the traffic-mitigation program, which allows ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ neighborhoods to propose resident-funded street modifications to improve safety. “Never have we ever run into this.â€
Interestingly, several signatories inked their names on both petitions, seeming to both support and oppose the bollards.
Shirley Brown, one such signer, said that is certainly not the case. Rather, she said she was misled by the first signature-gatherers into thinking she was simply approving a study of possible measures to cut down on neighborhood speeding, which she does see as a problem. But instead of improving traffic safety, she thinks the bollards have actually worsened it. Another signatory of both said he was similarly misled.
“Get them down,†Brown said. She and her husband “sit in our kitchen and watch the sunset. What I don’t want to see is these stupid poles.â€
Kaucher, the attorney, conceded to the Road Runner that the bollards “aren’t pretty,†but said that taking them down would make the intersection less safe and open the neighborhood to legal problems if something were to happen after the fact.
The bollards nearly were taken down in late March when opponents, who were never issued a permit for the work but thought they were approved to proceed, and a contractor took jackhammers and blowtorches to the bollards, prompting Kaucher to call 911. According to an email from Kaucher, Soto asked the contractor to stop the work after speaking with Kaucher and the original petition’s coordinator, Steve Pageau, who did not return calls from the Road Runner.
Unfair treatment
A number of residents told the Road Runner that the city’s approval of the installation and subsequent denial of a permit to remove the bollards, as well as the city’s stated preference to deal with the water district as the point organization, represent an unfair and inconsistent application of traffic mitigation policy.
All of the back-and-forth left Soto and the city’s Transportation Department unsure of how to best proceed. Soto’s agency had offered to install a traffic circle once the bollards came down on behalf of the neighborhood, but rescinded the offer as the situation became more contentious.
“We’re just letting the neighborhood take it over,†he told the Road Runner. “You can just duke it out over there.â€
A May letter from the Transportation Department’s Cole to residents requested that any future “comments about traffic mitigation in the Winterhaven neighborhood be sent through a single point of contact,†and a June letter laid out Cole’s views on the best way to move forward: The bollards should stay until an alternative is developed, and the water district should establish a committee to develop proposals that will eventually be put to the whole neighborhood,and pay for whatever plan is chosen.
And that’s basically where things stand now. A traffic-safety committee formed by the board has been tasked with coming up with proposals to resolve the situation by Sept. 30, proposals that will eventually be put to residents at the Winterhaven annual meeting.
“The process I think now is working far better, far better, than it did last year and it’s a credit to the people involved in it now,†Kaucher said, adding later that the whole ordeal has been “a clear lesson in how important it is that neighbors talk to each other, try to compromise on things, and try to work things out as collaboratively.â€
But James Schaan, a signer of both petitions and former member of the safety committee until he was kicked out in February, is doubtful that the recommendations of the committee will reflect the desires of the neighborhood. His skepticism of the committee and Winterhaven board more broadly echoed the distrust shared with the Road Runner by other residents.
Jill Hawkins, a member of the safety committee opposed to the bollards, certainly hopes things play out as Kaucher described. Her committee sent out a survey over the summer to gauge the whole neighborhood’s preferences for four proposals, the results of which she shared with the Road Runner.
The top preference was to simply return the intersection to its pre-October self, and the runner-up was to convert the traffic circle to a park with the bollards still in place.
However, another option that includes speed tables but otherwise returns the intersection to the way it was, was also widely supported, suggesting there is majority support for an end to the bollards. A roundabout proposal had more tepid support.
But whatever the final decision, making sure everyone in Winterhaven has a say this time around is necessary to “avoid a blackout in Winterhaven this Christmas. It’s a thought, and it’s more than a thought,†Hawkins said of a possible December light strike.
“After all, Winterhaven residents all have to pay for the electricity and the lights,†she added.
“It’s very hard work for everybody and we love it. And this has soured it very badly.â€
