Summary: For the fourth Council Meeting in a row, Citizens addressed the Council with their requests for the City to keep its promises made during the 2022 Street Improvement Project: to put the function of their driveways, bar ditches, and city easements back the way they were before the City's "Street Improvements." As reply, the City has developed new driveway standards, but current Willow Park private driveways are anything but standard.
• Latest Update: posted 26 June 2024
Are driveways back the way they were? Willow Park 2022 Street Improvement Project.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist
For the fourth City Council Meeting in a row [*1], Citizens of Crown Road, Ranch House Road, Sam Bass Road, Trinity Drive, Trinity Court and adjacent roads, addressed the City Council with their requests for the City to keep its promises made during the 2022 Street Improvement Project: to put their driveways, bar ditches, and city easements back the way they were functioning before the City's "Street Improvements."
The City Council, during the 11 June 2024 Council Meeting [*1], addressed the bar ditch maintenance by assigning the task to the City and addressed the speed calming by installing speed humps on Crown Road and creating a new Speed Hump Policy.
During the 25 June 2024 Council Meeting [*2], the Council elected to address the driveway issues with the proposal of new measurements for "standard driveways."
The current standard is a 12' driveway width at the property line and a 5' radius at the driveway opening.
"The minimum [new] standard dimensions for drive approaches on streets with overall width of 30 feet overall or more is recommended to be 14 feet in width at the property line and have an approach radius of 8 feet and 30 feet at the street. Current minimum driveway dimensions for streets of lesser width are not recommended to be changed." [*2] The cost of implementing this new standard, ONLY for about 25 driveways on Crown Road, was estimated at $1,700 to $2,100 per drive for a total of $50K.
However, as one Ranch House Road Citizen put it, "In reality, there is no current standard on the size and shape of our driveways." She punctuated her point by reading a list of over 25 driveway measurements, prepared with other neighbors who spent over two hours measuring the driveways along Crown Road and Ranch House Road.
Here are the results:
• Photos in .pdf. and in gallery.
During the 25 June 2024 Council Meeting, the City and the Council emphasized the purpose of the current agenda item was to start the process of changing the "language" of the City development ordinance, and to start the process of considering implementation plans, costs and financing of those costs.
Council Crummel noted, " If [some of the houses on Crown Road] were my house, I wouldn't want to turn into some of those driveways. We are going to make this right."
However, some of these solutions are being implemented on Crown Road only; if other Willow Park Citizens whose property has been negatively impacted by the 2022 Street Improvement Project want these solutions implemented, they need to contact the City to have Citizen issues addressed. Regrettably, the best way to have a significant impact is to band together as a neighborhood to address the City; there really is power in numbers.
The one Citizen complaint, avoided by the City, was the lack of communication by the City and its contractors. Council Runnebaum suggested a public database to collect and monitor Citizen concerns during Willow Park improvement projects, but the idea was never included in any Council Meeting agenda item.
And to make City communication more obtuse, Council agendas are not posted on the City Facebook page, nor the City website homepage news feed, nor City News and Notices emails, but as usual, posted at 6 p.m. the Friday evening before the Tuesday Council Meeting, on a City webpage four pages into the City website. Citizens must know where to look for the agenda and must know to choose the "agenda packet" if they want more than a simple sentence of each agenda item.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist
Sources and Resources
[#1] Four City Council Meetings and Willow Park Blogs
• 25 June 2024 Council Meeting, Agenda Item 3. [*2]
• 2. Discussion/Action: to consider installation of speed humps on Crown Road.
• 3. Discussion/Action: to consider maintenance on city right-of-ways on Crown and Ranch House Road.
• 4. Discussion/Action: to consider the expansion of driveway approaches for the 2022 Street Projects.
• 5. Discussion/Action: to approve a Speed Hump Installation Policy
• Willow Park citizens demand attention and correction in “nightmare” Streets Improvement Project. And they are getting results. Willow Park Civics Blog, posted 16 May 2024
• Agenda Item 2. Discussion/Action: to accept the presentations from Staff regarding the 2022 Street Projects
• Willow Park Citizens keep demanding the City "put it back the way it was." 2022 Street Improvement Project., Willow Park Civics Blog, posted 11 June 2024
• 14 May 2024 Council Meeting, Public Comments
• Willow Park citizens demand attention and correction in “nightmare” Streets Improvement Project. And they are getting results. Willow Park Civics Blog, posted 16 May 2024
[*2] 25 June 2024 Council Meeting, Agenda Item 3. Discussion/Action: to consider the expansion of driveway approaches for the 2022 Street Projects.
• Background: Staff has evaluated the current standards for driveway approaches and make the following recommendations. In order to insure safety and access, the minimum standard dimensions for drive approaches on streets with overall width of 30 feet overall or more is recommended to be 14 feet in width at the property line and have an approach radius of 8 feet. Current minimum driveway dimensions for streets of lesser width are not recommended to be changed. #Streets
• Exhibits: None
• The Community News,11 June 2024 Council Meeting Review, Council approves adjustments in Crown Road area, The Community News, 14 June 2024, Excerpt
Driveway expansion put on hold. Likewise, several residents have stated that the new drive approaches are too narrow. However, the city did not approve any more work in this area for the time being.
The city's subdivision ordinance states that residential driveways shall be not less than 11 feet wide, measured at the property line. The radius of all driveway returns shall be a minimum of 5 feet.
The city recently did work on some driveways to make sure they are now at least 12 feet in width - with the exception of one, which is about six inches short.
City officials determined the driveways reconstructed on Crown Road and Ranch House Road met or exceeded the city’s design criteria. After an engineering analysis, city staff recommended not widening the drive approaches, but instead implementing traffic calming measures and re-evaluating the drive approaches at a later time.
Grimes agreed with staff recommendation, noting that it will take about 90 days for the speed humps to get installed and then another 30 to 60 days to allow for traffic speed adjustments in the area. In short, when folks aren’t going as fast when they approach their driveway it will be easier and more accessible for entry.
Grimes said he believes the issue is more with “aprons” than the actual driveways. These are approach areas extending out that have now been taking away because of the roadside drainage ditches.
“You’ve been cutting corners to get in there. When we made that deeper that took that away,” Grimes said, adding, “We can certainly come back and look at approaches. Let’s get the speed under control first.”
When someone from the audience called this into question, Grimes responded, “I did, in fact, turn into your driveway in a half-ton pickup.”
At the request of Mayor Pro Tem Lea Young, council voted to ask city staff to prepare a set of standards for driveway approaches.
“We cannot go out and look at every driveway and add something,” she said. “Otherwise, we’re arbitrarily saying this doesn’t look right and this doesn’t look right.”