Friday, January 13, 2006

The academic village, 10 years from now. . .

The 10-year plan for Hendrix College’s Academic Village is posted at the Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company’s website and we have to say that what is envisioned is far worse than we could have imagined. It is also not a matter of traffic / pedestrian safety as it has been touted by some of the city’s leaders; it is completely about Hendrix College’s growth and nothing more.

Have the planners and developers of Hendrix hoodwinked our city’s mayor and aldermen or are the Mayor and the supporters of this proposal the ones who are hoodwinking the people of Conway. Because clearly this plan is not how the city and the press have presented it. You can’t tell me that this plan will not cost the taxpayers any extra tax dollars or that it is being done in the interest of public safety, Jamie Gates feel free to post your comments.

Not only are they planning a roundabout at Siebenmorgen, reducing the speed to 27 MPH, and adding parallel parking along Harkrider, they also are going to divert the main northward flow of traffic into the village itself making it a traffic nightmare. Interesting enough is the lack of a roundabout at Winfield but in its place is a massive and confusing oval road that offers little in the way of traffic safety.

This 10-year vision of Hendrix to expand its campus is simply not in the best interest of the average citizen and definitely not one the taxpayers should be funding. If the college must expand the let them do it without choking off a main artery of traffic in Conway and at there own expense.

We urge you the citizens of Conway to look at these pictures and decide for yourself what is really going on. If you feel as we do then call or write your state legislators and tell them you don’t want your tax dollars spent to expand a private institution.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So they want it to be median-ed all the way from Sonic to New China? There's not enough room to do that AND it will hurt businesses all along that route. It's hard enough to get into The Gathering without this.

I can see that I'll be contacting my alma mater and telling them "no more money (not that they get any) from me if you're doing to F up the traffic"

Anonymous said...

You won't this in the Log Cabin, but it was in the Democrat Gazette on Feb, 26, 2006. Section B Page 1, continued on page 7B with a graphic showing what may be an updated plan.

Comments on a few of the statemetns from the article:

"roundabouts would make Harkrider ... a safer place for students to cross". What could be safer than the current overpass?

"the city's share of the cost will be roughly the same, about $500,000 as that for installing electronics for a signal system"
"the plan should handle traffic as well if not better than a traffic-signaled highway"
"it may take some tweaking after [the roundabouts] are installed ... the city may have to add some traffic signals"

These three statements worry me the most. The city will be out $500,000 for a system that is supposed to work better than lights. Then they say they may have to install the lights anyway! I which I could spend half a million just to find out something won't work and I will have to pay another half million to fix it with what I should have done the first time.