Residents fret about road

To the editor:

In the ongoing saga of the new South Palmer Elementary School, the borough faces a new challenge: gaining access to build a road in a tightly knit collection of homes and longtime subdivisions. Needless to say, many residents of “would be” Nelson Road Extension sites are chagrined. When Lounsbury and Associates, an engineering firm contracted by the borough to survey potential road sites, started knocking on people’s doors last August to inform them that some of their property may be taken for a new road to access the South Palmer School, they were met with less enthusiasm than expected.

It’s no secret that The Ranch subdivision needs new road access in order to continue development. The Ranch developer, Rex Turner, seems by all accounts to be a very savvy businessman capable of getting things done, as evidenced by his success. The Ranch subdivision was originally platted in 1984, 25 years ago. In 25 years, Turner hasn’t gotten a new road into The Ranch subdivision. If in 25, Turner, who stands to gain so much by getting access, hasn’t gotten a new road, why would the borough launch into this fiasco by building a school in the middle of it?

Whatever the borough’s initial reasons were, the reality is that people could face some very hard consequences: a 45-mile-per-hour, 25-foot elevated road with an estimated traffic volume of 100 cars per hour running through people’s backyards; a pristine wetland area being threatened with enough fill to raise a road 25 feet above ground level; an original, never subdivided homestead property in jeopardy of housing the borough’s newest “long range transportation plan” goal; school buses possibly being poured out onto one of the worst intersections on Fairview Loop; and extensive work and materials that may be put into a road that is expected to be cul-de-saced in the future. All of this would be funded by countless taxpayers’ dollars.

There are other options. The borough could go through an already ravaged gravel pit land that has no existing residences, and realign Fairview Loop to make a safer and permanent intersection for buses and other traffic.

For more about the “Extension of Nelson Road,” please come to a community comment meeting on Jan. 22. The meeting will be from 4 to 7:30 p.m. (presentation at 6 p.m.), at Evangelo’s Restaurant, lower level.

Monika L. Swan

Wasilla