11/6/2006 4:00:00 AM Williamson Valley Corridor Plan ready Public presentation Thursday at ERAU
By PAULA RHODEN The Daily Courier
PRESCOTT‹The Williamson Valley Corridor Plan Board of Directors is ready to submit its final plan proposal to the Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.
However, the board will conduct one more public hearing before sending the plan to county officials.
A public hearing is set from 6 to 10 p.m. on Thursday at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
Board member John Freeman said a number of changes were made to the transportation element of the plan.
"As a board, we faced many challenges," Freeman said. "The message we received from county officials was that the plan did not follow the General Plan. The area with the most challenges was transportation."
He said the objective of the General Plan is to "give priority to preserve scenic routes over major highway proliferation while maintaining adequate transportation planning."
He said safety is the most important transportation issue.
The corridor plan is recommending improved ingress and egress along Williamson Valley Road, instead of the five-lane roadway the county has planned.
Freeman said right turn lanes and left turn lanes should be a priority on the road. He said what is needed are areas where an additional lane brings traffic onto Williamson Valley Road.
"There are probably three or four spots where you could put a lane that runs a half-mile," Freeman said,
He said there are 106 access points in the 10 miles from Inscription Canyon to Pioneer Parkway.
"That means every tenth of a mile there is an access point. Ingress and egress should be a priority," Freeman said.
One of the challenges in the area, Freeman said, is "neighborhood connectivity. None of the neighborhoods have connecting roads. To get from one neighborhood to another you have to access Williamson Valley Road."
Freeman said, "Williamson Valley lends itself to a scenic environment."
For this reason, he said attention must be paid to the equestrian interests and "equestrian pass ways are important to the valley and the area."
Freeman said Abia Judd Elementary School creates a major bottleneck on Williamson Valley Road.
"What we really need is campus access at Abia Judd to get the school traffic off the road," he said.
Freeman said a campus project would probably cost about $5 million.
The original estimated cost of expanding Williamson Valley Road to five lanes was about $24 million.
"Now it is what, about $70 million? I think if we sit down with that $24 million we could come up with a road plan that is suitable to the environment," Freeman said.
He said the board of directors planned to send the final plan to the planning commission members and the supervisors this past week.
Freeman said the supervisors and commissioners are invited to participate in Thursday's public meeting.
"The message from the WVCP board is 'this is it. This is as far as we are willing to go,'" Freeman said.
