FARMINGTON -- Most property owners attending a public meeting last week on a project to improve Highway 170 were mainly interested in how much of their land would be needed to widen two miles of the highway, from Main Street to Clyde Carnes Road.
The city of Farmington hosted a public involvement meeting to give property owners and the general public an opportunity to ask questions and submit written comments about the project design.
More than 65 people attended the drop-in meeting, held July 11 at Farmington High School's Performing Arts Center.
The project is being designed by Garver LLC engineering firm of Fayetteville. Garver representatives attended the meeting to answer questions and explain the design.
The two-mile project starts at the intersection of Highway 170 and Main Street in Farmington and ends at the intersection of Highway 170 and Clyde Carnes Road. Currently, the highway is 21 feet wide. Improvements call for three 12-foot-wide lanes, with a continuous left hand turning lane throughout the two miles.
Both sides of the road will have five-foot-wide sidewalks, along with curb and gutter and shoulders. A green space of three feet will be located between the highway and sidewalk.
The recommended speed limit for the two miles will be 30 m.p.h., according to Jeff Webb, project manager with Garver.
Darrin Taylor said he likes the plan to widen the road and improve drainage along the highway.
His main question, Taylor said, was why Garver did not decide to take more land from the other side of the highway, which is not developed. The design shows he would lose about seven feet of his front yard, close to a wrought iron fence that surrounds his property.
Overall, Taylor said he supports the plan and thinks it will be good for Farmington.
Builder Kent Cox owns about 10 acres of undeveloped land along the highway and he said he thinks Farmington needs to improve the highway. He said he attended the meeting to find out about the time frame of construction. He plans to divide the 10 acres for development and was deciding whether to wait until after the project is finished.
"Whether we like it or not like it, we have to do it to create growth for Farmington," Cox said.
Randan Hassell of 12452 N. Highway 170 said she was worried about her 100-year-old trees and if they would be saved.
"That's why we bought the property," Hassell said.
Hassell's property is located across from Farmington United Methodist Church on Southwinds Drive and she said she would prefer the project had a T-intersection with all-way stops at the intersection of Highway 170 and Southwinds Drive.
"I see the traffic everyday," Hassell said. "I see the speeders and the traffic and a T-intersection would make them have to slow down."
Garver proposes to flatten the 90-degree curve at Southwinds to improve visibility from all directions but Hassell said she believes when the curve is softened, "it almost gives them (drivers) a license to go faster."
Yvonne Samples lives at the corner of North Haven and Highway 170. She said she attended the meeting to see how much of her property would be involved.
"I think it's wonderful," Samples said. "It will help our drainage."
Samples said she believes the highway needs to be widened because of the new high school on Highway 170.
Mike Mashburn, a former Washington County Circuit judge, said it appeared to him Garver had put a lot of thought into its design.
One of his main concerns was drainage and that the project would not add more storm water flow to people living downstream.
Garver's next steps will be to take the written comments, respond to each one and possibly modify the design based on the comments. A sign posted at the meeting indicated that not all comments would impact or be incorporated into the design.
Ron Petrie, senior project management with Garver, said the city would have input on whether it wanted Garver to make changes to the design.
The Highway 170 improvement project has four stages: design, acquire rights of way, relocate utilities and construction. If the project remains on schedule, construction would begin in 2019 or 2020.
General News on 07/19/2017