To the editor:

The City of Grand Junction is in the process of planning for future transportation flow along Patterson Road.  Ninety percent of this plan is good and well thought out. However, there appears to be a lack of public knowledge of this plan. 

A good majority of the plan will create medians, preventing either all left-hand turns off Patterson or left
hand-turns onto Patterson. Many access points will become right in and right out only. 

Additionally, the few remaining larger parcels that could be developed will be expected to provide connections to other roads to reduce congestion at access points to Patterson. These other connections could become onerous and financially cumbersome to potential development. 

In order to provide new residential developments, costs to build a minor collector type of street will ultimately be passed onto the purchasers of the new homes. As they should be. My concern is more of how to keep the costs low enough that the average wage earner in Grand Junction can still afford to purchase a home.

According to this plan, there will not be any changes made unless one of three things happen:

Number of accidents increase at or because of an access point.

Development of a property adjacent to Patterson Road.

Change of use of the property. 

Let’s look at where the accidents happen to see where there might honestly be changes made.

At the time the report was written, the largest majority of accidents occurred between intersections in the area of 24 1/2 Road to 25 Road  However, the significant accidents with severe loss are already at signalized lights. (See pages 16-18 of the study at https://gjspeaks.org/issues/101) 

Which causes me to ask: Is this plan the correct response to avoid the most future accidents? Increasing traffic at signalized intersections might not have the desired effect.

Due to the fact that property owners within the 1,000-foot buffer were notified, I personally am concerned that many commercial tenants along Patterson Road might not have been notified. Residents that live along Patterson Road, yet fall outside the notification area, need to know how this plan will affect them. 

I highly encourage you to read the access control study at https://gjspeaks.org/issues/101. Then, make a comment on it to the city planning commission and city council.

Virginia Brown

Grand Junction