Carefree Truth

Issue #402, June 23, 2015

 

 

Mr. Jim Van Allen recently published a statement in the June 17th edition of the Sonoran News and possibly other publications regarding the “Bike Lanes” which will be constructed in Carefree along Tom Darlington and Pima Roads, and in both Carefree and Cave Creek along Cave Creek Road, starting this Fall.

 

The Town Council welcomes constructive comments and input based upon facts, but when the facts are not understood or are misrepresented by someone professing to have more knowledge of the “facts” than others, it can lead readers to develop the wrong conceptions and understanding of the subject and detract from the work of the Town Council on behalf of Carefree. Such an occurrence is neither appropriate nor helpful to the residents of Carefree.

 

The underlying facts relative to the “Bike Lanes” directly contradict Mr. Van Allen’s published statement. I would point out that the these facts were shared with Mr. Van Allen in a special meeting with the Town requested by Mr. Van Allen following the discussion and approval of the project at the May 5th Council meeting.

 

More specifically, below is a quotation from a portion of Mr. Van Allen’s published statement regarding the “Bike Lanes”:

 

“The awful highlights are: we will lose a lot of our medians; we will lose most of our plants/trees; there will be long stretches of one lane only traffic; the bike lanes will be 5’ wide on both sides; the present lanes are 13 to 14 ft. wide … they will be narrowed to 11 ft. each; Many of the turn lanes and acceleration lanes will go away. The two roundabouts, and the great signs on them will go away ...  along with the landscape.” 

 

Let’s examine the accuracy of Mr. Van Allen’s statements:

 

1. According to Mr. Van Allen “we will lose a lot of our medians” The reality: Carefree’s Planning Department used the approved engineering and construction drawings and measured the amount of medians that will be “lost” (or “reduced”) on the plans for Carefree from this project.  Of the approximately 22,000 linear feet of medians in the project area, 7% will be reduced (or shortened).  Of the remaining 93% of the medians, 19% will be narrowed and 81% will be untouched. We don’t believe that it is accurate to characterize this as we will “lose a lot” of medians.

 

2. According to Mr. Van Allen “we will lose most of our plants/trees” The reality:  Based on the plant salvage assessment, we will maintain approximately 90% of the plant material currently in place, remove 7% of the material, and salvage the remaining 3% (or 9 plants). In many of these areas where the medians will be reduced/shortened, there were no plants, only decomposed granite and/or boulders.  In the areas where medians are narrowed, most plants there are centered in the medians, and therefore unaffected. Given these facts, we don’t believe that it is accurate to state, as Mr. Van Allen has done, that “we will lose most of our plants/trees”.

 

3. According to Mr. Van Allen “there will be long stretches of one lane only traffic” The reality: There will be no reduction in the number of traffic lanes under this project.  There will be no traffic circulation changes anywhere in the project area.  While some travel lanes will be reduced in width, there will be no reduction in the number of lanes. We think that Mr. Van Allen confuses this “Bike Lane” Project with the MAG Framework Study conducted by the Maricopa Association of Governments - which suggested  that some lanes could be eliminated based upon current and projected traffic flows over the next 20 – 30 years. Again, Mr. Van Allen’s statement is not true.

 

4. According to Mr. Van Allen “many of the turn lanes and acceleration lanes will go away.” The reality: Simply not true. There will be no changes to the turn or acceleration lanes. See response to number 3 above.

 

5. According to Mr. Van Allen “The two roundabouts, and the greats signs on them will go away …  along with landscape." The reality: Again, simply not true. The two roundabouts and the signage on them will stay. See response to number 3 above.

 

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What is also very important to understand is that this “Bike Lane” project will not cost Carefree and Cave Creek $4 million dollars as stated by Mr. Van Allen. In fact, Carefree will actually receive approximately $305,000 in value upon completion of this project.

 

Please consider the following calculations to arrive at this $305,000 gain figure. The total project cost is approximately $3.7 million,. Of this total cost of $3.7 million dollars, the Federal Government is paying for 94.7% of that total cost; the Towns of Carefree and Cave Creek pay the remaining 5.7%,  or $215,629.  Carefree’s share of this figure is $140,158 because Carefree has more road surface involved than Cave Creek. The project also includes applying a slurry seal the full width and length of the total Carefree and Cave Creek project area, which will amount to a road maintenance savings of approximately $445,000 to Carefree – money which Carefree would have had to expend on these roads in the next few years. Taking this $445,000 savings into account and subtracting the approximately $140,000 which Carefree will pay yields a net gain of $305,000.  

 

I believe that residents need to understand the facts when making judgments on such matter. Hopefully, this will help correct the record on this matter.

 

Les Peterson

Carefree Mayor