Traffic Calming
Overview
After over 10 months of outreach to the residents of Huntley Hills, the neighborhood Traffic Calming Committee (under the HHNA) developed a traffic-calming plan. The plan is a reflection of 8 neighborhood meetings (including 2 meetings publicized by neighborhood-wide mailings), dozens of Committee meetings and numerous e-mail updates to the HH news group. The resulting discussions and debates led to many different versions of the plan.
In October 2008 we got 20% of households on 100% of our streets to sign the “initial interest petition” – this was needed to start the process with DeKalb County.
In December, DeKalb County did their studies and determined our entire neighborhood qualifies for traffic calming.
In February 2009 we had a meeting with DeKalb County, to help us understand the process and discuss all of our options.
February – March we conducted 4 informal presentations and Q & A sessions at neighborhood meetings and night outs. Throughout this time, our steering committee met regularly to discuss the progress, consolidate feedback, adjust the draft map, and plan future activities.
April 28th we had a large neighborhood meeting at Chamblee United Methodist Church at 7pm. This was the official last chance to give feedback before we drafted our “wish list” plan to DeKalb County.
May 6th – the Committee met with the County and shared our ideas about what we want where. The County then took out “wish list” and developed a draft plan.
May – August – we continued to revise the plan, almost weekly. During this time period, we drove through endless neighborhoods to evaluate their traffic calming measures. We had numerous committee meetings, conducted countless informal surveys in the neighborhood and communicated with as many people as possible, regarding the draft plan(s). We also had many discussions/debates with the County regarding some of the plan details (ex. the width of bike lanes, size and location of traffic circles, placement of speed tables, etc). All the input received culminated in the proposed plan (click here).
September 15th at 7pm at Chamblee United Methodist Church we held one last public meeting regarding the proposed plan. This was a chance for everyone to ask questions and comment on the plan. Since there were no suggestions for major revisions, we presented our plan to the County Commissioners on September 22nd. They voted unanimously to approve the plan.
We than had 90 days to get 203 (out of 310) “yes” signatures by December 22, 2009. And we did it! We even got more than the required number.
The next and last step was for the Board of Commissioners to give their final approval of the plan. In January, 2010, they voted unanimously to adopt the plan. We are DONE!!! Now we wait for the measures to be installed…
The Committee presented the final traffic-calming plan to the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners for vote on September 22nd. The Commissioners approved the plan and we had 90 days to get the required number of household signatures (65%, which is 203 “yes” signatures out of 310 homes). We accomplished this and even went above the required number! The next step was final adoption by the Commissioners, which happened in January. So we are DONE!!! Now we sit back and wait for the measures to be installed…hopefully sometime before June of 2010.
Traffic Calming Related Documents:
Frequently Asked Questions (Related to the Proposed Plan)
Brief Overview of the Process
For more information or to help with this effort, contact us at huntleyhills@gmail.com.