Citizens Advisory Committee is Valley success story

Palmer’s Citizens Advisory Committee is a success story that reminds us what we can accomplish by working together.

Palmer residents were flabbergasted when the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced plans to construct a one-way couplet to address future traffic increases and to help smooth commuter congestion.

A one-way couplet is a pair of streets — like 5th and 6th avenues in Anchorage, or Benson and Northern Lights — with opposite traffic flow.

The proposed Palmer couplet would have upgraded a portion of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and Evergreen Avenue to three lanes for eastbound traffic. And three lanes of westbound traffic would have moved on Dogwood Avenue, which would have been extended passed Hemmer Road.

But when the Department of Transportation pitched its proposal to Mat-Su Borough residents back in 2009, DOT discovered these plans that worked fine on paper and as computer models were despised by the community.

The Citizens Advisory Committee grew out of the community’s strong negative response the plan.

This week the committee announced its ideas for upgrading local roads to better accommodate the volume of traffic. None of its six proposed road upgrades includes a couplet.

Citizens Advisory Committee solutions:

• Make the Palmer-Wasilla Highway a five-lane road from the Glenn Highway to just past Hemmer Road.

• Extend Dogwood to Felton Street.

• Felton Street to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

• Extend Industrial Way to Springer Loop.

• Align Springer Loop with Helen Drive at the Glenn Highway, and add a traffic signal.

• Add a traffic signal on Arctic Avenue, either at Valley Way or Denali Street.

The new plan put together by the Citizens Advisory Committee is getting positive reviews. So far, the Palmer City Council, the Mat-Su Borough’s Transportation Advisory Board and the borough assembly have endorsed it.

And these resident advocates aren’t done yet. They will continue to work with the Department of Transportation as the projects they outlined move through the design process.

We’re humbled by the tenacity of these volunteers whose efforts have prevailed against the Department of Transportation and its proposed Palmer couplet.

We applaud the efforts of this volunteer group. Thank you for your time and for working together to make the Mat-Su Borough a better place to live, work and drive.