CHANGE MY LOCATION
Westminster neighborhood has residents up in arms over traffic
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Related Topics: BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Traffic congestion won’t get any better in a Westminster neighborhood, with 219 houses on the way and a vital path out on hold.
When Westminster annexed nearly 150 acres off Old Westminster Pike in 2005 to make way for a new neighborhood, nearby residents were up in arms, distressed over the cars that would back up through their tiny roads to get to Route 140.
“There was great concern about access, particularly the fear that people would cut through those residential neighborhoods,” said Thomas Beyard, Westminster’s planning and public works director.
To calm residents’ fears, the county planned to build a road that would directly connect Old Westminster Pike to Route 140, Beyard said. The developer agreed to pay for the design and planning of the road, and the county has bought most of the needed properties — spending about $575,000 — but another resident’s parcel is holding up the plans.
Roger Mann inherited his mother’s 1.3-acre property on Old Baltimore Road when she died about a year ago. The road would cut through his backyard, but he’s not interested in selling unless the county significantly increases its offer.
“They’re going to intimidate me until they get what they want to get,” Mann said.
Allowing a road on the back of his property would lower his property value and keep anyone from buying the rest, he said.
“They’ve put me in limbo,” he said.
Mike Evans, the county’s public works director, said Mann’s property and another are needed to relieve current traffic congestion that would worsen with the new neighborhood. Construction is to begin next year on the new neighborhood, Beyard said.
Evans said negotiations with Mann were ongoing.
Construction on another neighborhood about a mile away on Old Westminster Pike is under way. It would pump even more traffic into the area.
The county designated $420,000 for the road in its proposed budget for next fiscal year, but it did not include previous costs for the other property purchases.
msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com
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Examiner Reader said:
I guess SF really doesn't want people to come to the City! What a load of crock. Nobody in the SF govt has any business sense. Great, kill the goose that lays the golden eggs (businesses and sales taxes).
4 agree | 2 disagree
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just shoot me said:
sweet - another friggin toll. I already pay $1000/month in commute costs.
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Examiner Reader said:
If there were a viable, reliable CLEAN option then people would be able to not drive. Without that option people must drive. Clean up MUNI, make it dependable and regular and co- ordinate with other transit agencies and people will want to get out of their cars. As it is if you are in a hurry or out of communte hours MUNI is not an option. Also, I am unclear why people love BART!. Signage is pathetic and it is NOT co-ordinated with MUNI or Golden Gate transit, what's the point? Take a look at NYC, London or Paris to get a look at what good transit systems are. Funny, their workers show up and they keep to a timetable. Maybe we could try doing that?
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Bruce Simmons said:
for one, I don't understand how it cost $30 million to instigate the deployment of traffic control officers and traffic cones. Second, how would diverting a traffic jam to El Camino Real alleviate anything. El Camino Real is already questionably jammed up at traffic time and the ensuing flood of motor vehicles would only spill the excess onto the various side streets around that road. Spend the $30 million where it's needed, on the school systems or homeless shelters.
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Examiner Reader said:
R.I.P. DeKeisha Skaggs! We will all miss you! -Jessica G. P.
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Examiner Reader said:
600 Million dollars? Much too expensive and way too late to fix the problem. By the time the road is built, no one will care because the people will be gone.
5 agree | 5 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
These choke points have been around for over 30 years - and the drivers that dart into the lane and slam on their brakes that have not killed themselves are still endangering the rest of us! Leave the Baltimore area for good - I did 12 years ago and life is so much better since I don't have to deal with the crime or the local corporate societal ladder. I love to hear the companies complain about the lack of talent in the region. The problem is everybody in the Baltimore business district is trying to rape each other so what is left is table scraps for the locals - they don't have a problem hiring out of staters and paying them big bucks but if you are a local they hate the fact that they are reliant on you - especially if you are white and have a moral value system.
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ms jackson said:
All this money spent on highway dividers, anti smoking campaigns, youth violence intiatives, dietary labeling, unwanted pregnancies, anti suicide barriers, etc. could be saved by introducing a microscopic brain implant that would cause extreme pain and forced change of action any time somebody begins to behave in a way that creates any sort of societal problems. Of course, this would mean about 95 percent of huimanity would be constantly groaning in pain and apparently changing their minds!
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Examiner Reader said:
oh my gosh that is bad people need to start being more careful
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Examiner Reader said:
When someone does something like this, it not only saves lives, it leaves the rest of us with the knowledge that one of us did a great good thing. I'm so grateful for that knowledge. John Beatty is a really good man.
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San Francisco Voter said:
Wow. I knew there were at least a few good people around here.
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Mike Licht said:
>>Re: Study: Traffic costs D.C. $2B, Baltimore $1 billion annually<< Editorial decision to omit hyperlink to the actual study is a gross disservice to readers.
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William Cooke said:
Great race. Thanks Annapolis, Annapolis Police, and AA County Police.
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