Madison Park

Many of our residents have noted in recent months that there has been an increase in traffic through Madison Park and Montclaire's neighborhoods.  The only source that this can be attributed to is the development of the old Celanese location on Archdale Drive - over 800 units have been built on that property and they are still building.  Each unit has a minimum of two parking spaces and many with more - this development could well add 2,500 - 3,000 cars when the all of the units are occupied

We have many more young children in the neighborhood than we did even five years ago. Most of our streets do not have sidewalks, and there are a considerable numbers of people walking, running and biking who live in the area.

In an effort to reduce much of the cut-through traffic resulting from this development, the president of the Montclaire Association and I would like to propose that we make more of our intersections all-stops. We have each received a number of requests to see if we can slow traffic down.  All-stops would be of particular benefit on Wedgewood, Murrayhill, Farmbrook, Rose Valley, Wensley and several other streets, as they are used daily as cut-throughs, and many of them have no stop signs on them. Even with speed tables installed, we still have problems with significant numbers of cars speeding on these longer street.

Following is a list of locations as currently requested by residents for all-stops: 

Madison Park Intersections	Montclaire Intersections
Farmbrook & Chedworth	Farmbrook & Wensley
Farmbrook & Valley Forge	Farmbrook & Tamworth (School)
Farmbrook & Fairbanks	Emerywood & Farmbrook
Wedgewood & Valley Forge	Wensley & Boxwood
Wedgewood & Murrayhill	Wensley & Rose Valley
Stanfield & Seacroft	Brookhaven at Stonewood
	Rose Valley at Collingsdale
	Chedworth at Wedgewood
	Montpelier at Archdale

We would like to have feedback from residents - this needs to be a majority decision.  I would be very interested in hearing from residents who feel strongly one way or the other - this is your neighborhood - make your voice heard!  Please send any comments, pro or con, to madisonparkhoa@hotmail.com.

We will keep track of the results; the City will likely require a mailing to be done to ratify our results.  Updates will be included in the meeting minutes, and posted to the website.

Perhaps the traffic has become considerably worse down towards the Montclaire neighborhood, but I find it laughable that the last post suggested a stop light at Wedgewood and Murrayhill and this post is asking for an all-way stop.  If they have already approved and are preparing to install a sidewalk for the area, should we not wait and see how this first measure affects the streets in question before implementing more regulation?

On a separate note, there is nothing posted in the Montclaire forum regarding these requests.  Why is the Madison Park HOA doing all of the heavy lifting for another neighborhood's issues?

I have never heard anyone suggest a traffic light for Wedgewood and Murrayhill?  If you read that somewhere or heard that please do share the source with us so we can check that out

Matt Magnasco, with CDOT, and a resident/board member of Madison Park, mentioned the intersection of Wedgewood and Murrayhill last month in the meeting seeking feedback on a possible round a bout that he stated CDOT would pay to install at that location at the intersection nearest the school    This was not at the direction of the neighborhood or HOA refer to March 09 minutes on-line.  This was an option he threw out after learning residents had requested an All Stop at that location.  

The all stop request have been coming both into the neighborhood, and directly to CDOT for several years at that intersection, by various residents living in the immediate location due to speeding along Wedgewood Drive.  CDOT has studied the entire route of Wedgewood from Seneca Place to Seneca Place at request of individual residents, not the HOA in recent months.  We simply pass along request for stop signs to CDOT as they have come in over the years.

Montclaire residents are aware on the stop sign issues as Nancy Mosier Dehart, the current President, has spoken to both our current President Ken Davis and called me with their concerns.

Both associations/groups are involved in the Farmrook requests because with a street that is shared between both communities, on the South side of Tyvola, it will take both areas supporting the request in order to seek any relief from the speeding on Farmbrook.   Farmbrook has long been a problem street for speeding.  CMPD worked the street over the years times at our request....but the results were minimallypositive.   Londonderry connects Tyvola to Emerywood same type street as Farmbrook,  but has three all stops that works fairly well in slowing the traffic. 

The list of both groups requested all stop locations just provides residents with what has been proposed so that those that would like to comment can send their comments directly to Madisonparkhoa@hotmail.com 

There are pretty strict requirements on Vehicles per 24 hr period that must be met such as 600 on a street before any stop signs can even be considered going up anywhere.    When the petition process is used for All Stops CDOT is most interested in the residents, in all directions, living 1000 feet from the intersection. 

The only joint street between the groups that we will work on together would be Farmbrook Road.   As for the list of Montclaire streets they will do the work on the rest of their locations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As many of our residents cannot or do not attend the HOA meetings, and not everyone receives the minutes via email, the original post was placed on the Neighborhood Link site to be informative; to start the process of gathering general consensus/feedback on whether to move forward with a proposal or not. Several residents have, in the past, complained about the Murrayhill/Wedgewood intersection, which is why it was included on the list. It would (in my opinion) set a very cumbersome and expensive precedent if CDOT were to install a stoplight in a residential neighborhood. Sidewalks are not traffic-calming measures - they increase the safety for pedestrian traffic. As to your question about Madison Park doing all of the heavy lifting, I can assure you that we are not. Montclaire's Board and HOA reviewed the streets list in a meeting several weeks ago; it was also discussed at this month's Madison Park HOA meeting and included in the minutes that were distributed on Wednesday. This is not an HOA decision or request, however - the HOAs are working to gather information, compile the results, and present it back to the residents who choose to be involved, whether pro or con. We are working in conjunction with Montclaire on these requests, as it will be a requirement from the City of Charlotte that both the residents who live at or near these intersections and the neighbor associatons for Montclaire & Madison Park are in majoity agreement on what is done, when it is done, and where. If feedback is that the residents surrounding any of these intersections are opposed to any traffic calming measures, then those intersections can certainly be removed from the list; no harm, no foul. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly via the madisonparkhoa@hotmail.com email address. Best regards, Ken Ken Davis, President, Madison Park HOA