Palmer group advises against one-way couplet

PALMER — On Wednesday night, an advisory committee effectively drove the final nail into the coffin of a proposed one-way Palmer Couplet.

After an overwhelming vote, the committee tasked with identifying solutions for Palmer’s traffic will no longer consider plans for routing traffic east into town on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and then west on an expanded Dogwood Avenue.

The plan originally surfaced as a way to relieve stress on the intersection of Evergreen Avenue and the Glenn Highway. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities agreed to put up money for the project, and the Palmer City Council endorsed the one-way couplet in 2007.

However, the couplet met popular resistance last summer. Business owners were concerned the one-way traffic would not stop at their stores. Residents were worried the new driving patterns would destroy the pedestrian-friendly feeling of downtown.

The plan was halted due to the backlash, and an advisory committee was formed to study alternatives that would still qualify for the state money.

Seven meetings in, the committee still had the one-way couplet option under consideration at its meeting Wednesday. Committee moderator Wende Wilber said there was a small minority of the committee members who did not want to rule it out.

“Should we take the one-way option off the table?” Wilber asked the committee again.

Committee member Ge-orge Strother said no. The group has been tasked with looking at all the options, he said, so all the options should remain on the table.

Lorie Koppenberg, another member of the committee, said the public has already spoken. The committee was formed to present an alternative to the one-way, she said. As such, there is no reason to look at the one-way couplet as an option.

Committee member Richard Best, who is also a Palmer city councilman, said there is still a level of distrust around the project from the public. The only way to solve this is to strike the one-way option from the plan, he said.

With no clear consensus, Wilber asked for a show-of-hands vote. Of the 14 members in attendance, 11 voted to strike the one-way option from any further discussions. Two members voted to keep the couplet on the table, and one member did not vote because he said he still did not have enough information.

In an effort to keep the committee’s work moving forward, Wilber got the dissenting members to give their “grudging consent” to end the discussion of the one-way option.

“The one-way is gone,” Wilber said, prompting applause from some committee members and public audience.

The committee will now determine what proposed alternative it will present to the city council and public. No decision has been made yet, but the committee is still considering extending Dogwood Avenue, but as a two-way street. This plan would also include extending Hemmer Road and Felton Street to run between the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and the future four-lane Bogard Road extension to the north.

Based on traffic models run by Kinney Engineering, an extended and two-lane Dogwood Road, plus the new Bogard Road, plus Hemmer Road and Felton Street acting as north-south connectors, would meet the purpose of need required to get the money from the state.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.