A group of citizens near my community formally banded together to oppose the county highway department’s plan to improve a rural road in their neighborhood.  The road is about 2 miles long and is located just past the edge of town.  It winds it’s way through rolling terrain past small farms and wooded residential parcels ranging from 2 to 20
acres in size.

The road is in sorry shape – irregular shoulders, crumbling pavement – and is lined in a number of places by large trees, shrubs, and daffodils planted by the locals to spruce things up.  Sight lines can be poor when the plants leaf out.  Speed limits range from 40 to 45 mph, but you’d have to be crazy to drive over 30 in sections.  The highway department determined that the road was becoming hazardous.  They proposed to widen and resurface the road, improve the shoulder, and remove a number of the large trees considered a danger when drivers, bicyclists, equestrians, and folks checking their mailbox share the road.

Like many rural roads near the edge of bedroom communities, this road has become an unofficial bypass around more congested streets and highways.  On most weekday mornings and late afternoons for the last 15 years, the road probably handles more traffic than any traffic engineer or citizen envisioned.  Hence the need for improvement.  The local citizens group saw things differently.  The road and the neighborhood it serves have a rural character they wished to preserve.  An official “save the road” group was formed.  Community meetings were held to bring the locals and the roadbuilders together for discussions. 

The citizens group employed an increasingly common tactic used to stymie development.  Trees thought to be endangered by the project (either by removal, soil compaction by construction equipment, pruning, or land leveling) were marked with colorful ribbon.  Some of the larger specimens were identified by species and age.

After a little over one year of study, public hearings, and plan review, it appears that a suitable compromise has been reached.  Improvements will be made to address major safety and maintenance issues.  But a once rural but now suburban road will not me transformed into something resembling a state highway.  Rather, it will be designated (with accompanying signage) as the county’s 8th Scenic Road.