PATA History Pages

City Pursues Federal Dollars to widen Diley Road from 256 to 33

Will this be a major road project into a sea of subdivisions?

Originally posted in April 2001, looks like the project was just three lanes back then.

PATA asks these questions....
Will our federal dollars be used to encourage commercial development in this area through this road improvement or will we allow thousands of single family homes to be built before the start of this project, ensuring the NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) forces to prevent any meaningful tax base diversification in this area?

Will we get turn lanes for thousands of single family homes being zoned for in this area? When? Is it OK to wait until the subdivisons are complete before providing the infrastructure for them?

Text is from Service Committee meeting minutes from 4/12/2001:


2. Review of fair share. Mr. Mann stated Diley Road is on the Transportation Improvement Plan and is scheduled to receive federal funding for the construction of a third lane at a total construction cost of $9,000,000. Mr. Mann stated the federal funding will cover 80 percent of that and the City would be responsible for the remaining 20 percent. Mr. Mann stated that funding is scheduled for the 2006 federal year, which would be four and one-half calendar years away. Mr. Mann stated the funds that it was being proposed be put in escrow from the developers would be the 20 percent the city needed to put into this project. Mr. Mann stated they are also exploring the possibility of using monies now to construct portions of the road and having the federal dollars in 2006 refunded to the city. Mr. Mann stated he had attended a meeting on the federal funding issue at the request of Mrs. Bushman and five organizations were represented at that meeting. He stated there were 15 organizations on the list and only the five who attended ended up having projects on the list. Mr. Dailey stated there were two issues to be decided. The first would be if this Committee feels we can make better use of the money it would take to build individual turn lanes by determining if it should be used to fund larger projects. Mr. Mann stated at the meeting he attended it was stressed that if you have plans ready to go and the funds become available, you can be moved up on the list above organizations that do not have their plans done. Mr. Dailey stated he did believe that the City should be considering having developers fund turn lanes for subdivisions going in on Diley Road, S.R. 256, etc. Mr. Maxey stated he felt it would be better to do the third lane on Diley Road rather than have individual turn lanes for each project. He stated he felt these would bottleneck the whole area. Mr. Washington stated he preferred to look at it as a whole project and not doing something piecemeal. Mr. Maxey stated by doing the fair share legislation the developers would know up front what was required of them. Mr. Maxey stated to formalize this, legislation would need to be prepared for Council. Mr. Dailey stated the downside to this legislation would be that you would end up with monies in coffers and if you choose not to wait on the federal funding you can still put turn lanes in if you wish. Mrs. Bushman stated she felt it would be most appropriate to pass this as we do have three subdivisions going in on Diley Road. Mr. Maxey moved to approve the fair share ordinance and forward to Council; Mr. Washington seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Maxey, Mr. Washington, and Mr. Parker voting "Yea." Motion passed, 3-0.

Mr. Dailey stated the issue about the Diley Road intersection realignment is that the angle it presently makes with S.R. 256 does not meet safety criteria. Mr. Washington stated traffic at this intersection is doing nothing but increasing. Mr. Washington clarified the individuals who spoke earlier regarding the Drug Mart project have agreed they will accept whatever realignment of Diley Road the city decides upon. Mr. Maxey stated he concurred with Mr. Washington and Mr. Dailey that the Diley Road and S.R. 256 intersection is getting more and more dangerous every day. Mr. Maxey clarified that we do not have plans prepared for the alignment that was presented this evening. Mrs. Bushman stated if this Committee is comfortable with this alignment the next step would be to pass a motion to recommend Council officially adopt the alignment. Mr. Dailey stated the important part would be that decisions are starting to be made about this intersection so developers can be advised. Mrs. Bushman stated she felt it might be appropriate to notify people in the area about the proposed alignment so they will have an opportunity to view this proposal. Mr. Maxey stated he agreed that the property owners in the area should have an opportunity to review this proposal.