Mayor's Concerns Over Traffic Management, Safety Elements...

In an online article (12:00 am June 18, 2009) about the Manara Academy charter school, Katherine Leal Unmuth of the Dallas Morning News (www.dallasnews.com) reports that Coppell Mayor Jane Peters expressed "concerns about the traffic management plan, angst about the traffic situation" and "serious concerns about the safety elements" associated with the opening of the school.

While I certainly respect and appreciate the Mayor's opinion on this, my question to her, to the City Council and City staff is why do they continue to allow our citizens (predominantly school aged kids) to risk their lives crossing Sandy Lake Road west of Denton Tap Road? Voters approved the bond proposal to rebuild and significantly improve that stretch of road TEN YEARS AGO, but we still see no visible progress towards that end.

The City has been aware for years of the safety issue faced by those trying to cross the road (often students going to or from the high school), but no solution has been put in place. City staff tells of the challenges of gathering right of way access related to the roadway, and to issues of eminent domain related to a possible temporary safe crossing solution, but seemingly nothing has been done.

Please review my earlier blog entries on this important topic for further information and photos. I sincerely pray that the City immediately develops a temporary solution (interim sidewalks, crossing guards, traffic cops, whatever) and moves expediently towards execution on the voter-mandated plan to improve the roadway and upgrade this thoroughfare to the same standards this road already exhibits throughout our community.

We must not tolerate this situation any longer, as an injury or death as a result of the City's delays would be unconscionable.

Coppell-Area Creek and River Paddling Opportunities

Now that the heat of summer is upon us, the chance to enjoy a nearby oasis of cool and shade is enticing. While undeveloped, Coppell has access to some wonderful creek sites ripe for exploration by kayak (or even canoe when the water is seasonally high).

My favorite section of local water is Denton Creek. Access, while not developed, is best gained from Andy Brown Park beneath North Denton Tap at the bridge that crosses the creek. Launching is difficult because of the muddy banks and thick undergrowth, but once you are on the water you will quickly find yourself transformed as the noise of the populated world recedes to reveal the music of the natural world - birds singing, insects buzzing, frogs croaking, leaves rustling in the breeze. Wildlife is often abundant in the form of snakes, hawks, turtles, armadillos, owls, 'possums and others usually out of view in the pace of our usual days. The creek has little current at normal levels, so you can easily explore both upstream and downstream.

Another local paddling opportunity is more accessible but less wild, and in both cases involves an out-and-back route that starts in paddling against the current, though that is rarely a major problem. The starting point is the intersection of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River with East Sandy Lake Road. McInnish Park (a city of Carrollton facility) is the access point, at the well designed launch site on the north side of that complex.

After a much easier launch (concrete ramp) at this site (versus the previously mentioned creek launch), you soon have a choice to make - following the river as it bends to the right (generally north-eastward), or taking the narrower passage offered by Denton Creek as it goes westward. The much wider river passage attracts some light motorboat traffic, is more impacted by nearby traffic noises, and its physical breadth is more impacted by wind than the narrower creek passageway, so if solitude and minimal wind is important, choose the creek.

The creek route is more wild for the first mile or so as it meanders toward the eastern portion of Coppell, ultimately taking the boater into the extended backyard of those suburban subdivisions.

I've not done the section of the river on the south side of Sandy Lake Road (below a flood control dam structure), but I expect that route would be less interesting and wild as the map shows a rather straight (perhaps man-made) route until the river is well south of Belt Line Road.

The challenges not yet mentioned on any of these routes include downed trees that block passage depending upon the water level, high levels of trash (primarily cans, plastic bags and bottles of all types that are swept into the water via storm drainage systems from Coppell and other communities upstream) and the widely varying water level itself.

Users of these waterways can and should have impact on some of the challenges: through greater awareness the city of Coppell could, perhaps, become interested in developing creek access at Andy Brown Park; the downed trees issue could be reduced through local advocacy and involvement of the local drainage authority; and trash could be collected from time to time and greater awareness developed within local cities detailing how that bottle tossed into a storm drain ends up in the river or creek.

Take the time to explore these local waterways - you will be amazed!

Traffic Lights Beltline @ Dividend

Is it just me, or have you been getting stopped by the traffic light at Dividend and Beltline, just north of LBJ? These lights, installed over a year ago, seem to periodically detect a phantom vehicle atop their sensors as they then signal a red light for those traveling north and south, while the unseen "phantom" gets a green as it faces eastward. You'd think in today's era of amazing computer controls and technology such stops would be unnecessary, but experience says otherwise.

More on city parks - come to City Hall April 1 at 7pm

The Citizen Advocate notes in its most recent edition (Friday March 20, 2009) that our fair city is seeking input from its citizens at an April 1, 2009 forum at 7pm in the Council Chambers. Hopefully the date is not an indication that the input will be heard with a level of interest best suited for April Fools Day.

My suggestions, echoing my earlier post, includes lights (and hours of operation) that make sense for our summer days in North Texas. I would also applaud the continued extension of a contiguous trails plan that would allow walkers, runners, cyclists and others to put in miles towards fitness goals, and also afford a reasonable alternative to getting in the car to get to local shops or to visit friends, attend church, and the like. I would also like to see how the master plan will someday (hopefully sooner rather than later) connect our trails to those of the Campion Trails in Irving and Las Colinas.

Finally, while not mentioned in the article, the City has an amazing and almost unused opportunity already at our doorstep in Denton Creek which runs through much of the Andy Brown Parks system. While I haven't yet found a reasonable point of safe entry for my kayak, one could be easily developed, and for a nominal cost. Previous conversations with City staff led me to believe that the City has no interest in such a development, but if the Frisbee-golf, shuffleboard (I've yet see anyone using this amenity), and sand volleyball crowd can muster support, surely those of us with canoes and kayaks can make a sustainable case.

If you've not spent an afternoon away from the fast pace of the Metroplex floating amidst the serenity of the creek, you are in for a great treat. Admittedly, some work will have to be done to move downed trees from totally blocking passage, and trash can be thick after major runoffs, but the effort will open a great new amenity for our citizens.

City Parks...

Is it just me, or does it seem odd that the City has cars and trucks traveling along the concrete trail system in the Andy Brown Parks complex? More than once I've been shocked to see a parks department vehicle "cruising" the trails. While I am certain that the trails were built substantially enough to handle vehicular traffic (an ambulance, for example), it would seem to me that such usage should be reserved solely for emergencies, and not for routine passage from one area to another.

Similarly related - have you ever seen a Coppell police officer on the trails system? I haven't. I have seen officers walking, on horseback (no, we don't need to buy horses for our officers, this is just an observation), and on bicycle at other parks in the region, but not in Coppell. I'd feel better seeing them around.

While the days are certainly growing longer (in terms of daylight) as we approach spring, I, for one, would like to see the City put together a plan to light the trails system for use after dark. As I understand things, the parks are, by definition (maybe even by LAW), basically off-limits after dark, as the City feels safety would be compromised. It has been months since we last saw triple digits, but it would be nice to use the parks (with lighted trails) in June, July, August and September when daytime temperatures are not conducive to being outside...

Same old excuses...

Well it seems that the latest from the City is that the voter mandate of 1999 (yes, nearly ten years ago) continues to be deferred. The bond election which put in place the process to upgrade and improve Sandy Lake Road as it goes westward from Denton Tap remains largely ignored. By the way, the roadway is cracked and soon, I suspect, will be falling apart.

Meanwhile, we've got kids headed to and from the High School every school day that put their safety at risk because not only can't we act on a ten-year-old voter mandate, we can't even come up with a safe way to cross the street for those students.

Just a few hundred feet north, along the very well designed Parkway Boulevard, the City recently agreed to put in place a school zone to slow traffic for the kids on that side of town. Hopefully the kids who live south of Sandy Lake are faster, more agile, and more observant so that their safety isn't compromised because of the City's lack of focus on this too-long-ignored situation.

The reconstruction timeline of I-635 was announced today. I wonder which project - Sandy Lake Road or LBJ is done first? My bet is on the Dallas project.

Speculative Commercial Lease Space vs The City's Mandate To Prepay All Retail Fuel Purchases

The pictures sum it up, in my view:

• I was amazed when I first saw them, and I remain so today:I am speaking, of course, about the legal notices on gas pumps all around town noting that our City Council has seen fit to mandate that a crime shall have been committed if a retail clerk should dispense gas without first requiring the consumer to have prepaid for the fuel. In other words, if someone drives off without first paying for the gas, the clerk certainly shouldn't call the police, because they'll bust the clerk instead of (perhaps in addition to) trying to find the bad guys! An amazing approach to solving a problem that is, hopefully, tapering off as a result of the decline in fuel prices.
  
  As a banker perhaps I should hope that the Council will one day make it criminal offense to fail to pay your bank loans. But, perhaps more likely, they'll put in place an ordinance making bank tellers liable for "allowing" bank robbers to take the Bank's money.
  

• As long as the Council is taking care of the problem of scumbags not paying for gas by holding store clerks responsible, perhaps they should invoke some rulemaking around the issue of speculative commercial development in the City. There are many examples that could be cited, but the ones that stand out to me follow:
  
  
  
  • The first is the strip center that sits on the south side of Sandy Lake just west of the Exxon station across from the old Albertson's. The sole occupant at this point (and for more than a year, if I recall correctly) is a nail salon (there seems to be some finish out work in some of the space, so maybe new tenants are on the way).
    
  • The next is the beautiful space on MacArthur Boulevard south of the SH 121 intersection, on the east side. That space has been completed for some time now, but appears to have no tenants.
    
    
  • Another that comes to mind (but that seems to be gaining some momentum at present) is the retail center on the southeast corner of Denton Tap and SH 121 where Run-On was, for the longest time, the sole tenant. They've recently been joined by a paint store and at least one other entity, but progress has been exceedingly low.
    
    
  • A project that has been under construction for some time that may, or may not, experience some level of difficulty in attaining acceptable occupancy is also sited on Sandy Lake Road, also on the south side, this time just east of the large retail center where Minyard's was once located. The site has had a "development is coming" sign for a very long period, and is now framed up and likely to be completed in a few weeks. I certainly hope that tenants are already signed-up and ready to move in, as we don't need yet another empty project on one of our main thoroughfares, but because the sign in front says "available", I don't take that as a the most likely outcome.
    
    
  • Finally, while the arrival a few years ago of the Universal Academy was a great enhancement, the development of what was to have been a grocery store (Safeway?) more than ten years ago at the southeast corner of MacArthur and Sandy Lake remains, in my mind, the crowning example of the type of challenges about which I am writing today. I certainly don't know the circumstances around the center, its ownership or management, but I am acutely aware of the missed opportunities for the City (retail taxes), the owner and for each of us as residents in the under utilization of that site for so long. I can only hope that circumstances will change for the better very soon.
    
    
    
  I am, of course, taking a somewhat tongue-in-cheek approach in bringing this topic up, but it would be beneficial to our great City as well as the real estate investors that are developing these various tracts to do more upfront homework to better assure that the projects attain an acceptable level of occupancy much more rapidly than the examples above. Empty space does little to enhance our tax base, and it creates a very negative community image as others experience Coppell. "For Lease" signs in windows do not inspire confidence in the City or in its leaders.