By Pauline Masson –
When the new board of aldermen – three first termers with one year under their belts and three newly elected – sits for their first full meeting May 2 they will be asked to act on a knotty issue.
The Planning & Zoning Commission voted Tuesday evening to recommend that a high tech version of the former gate between Candlewck Lane and the Dailey Industrial Park be installed.
This is a recommendation to close Candlewick Lane to all but local residents, emergency and farm vehicles. But it is only a recommendation, which is the duty of P&Z. The board of aldermen will have to vote yes or no before the issue is resolved.
Newly elected alderman Anna Meadows has posted a message on Pacific Community Forum Facebook page asking anyone with a stake in the Candlewick Lane traffic issue to speak to their alderman and come to the May 2 board meeting, sign a speaker card and speak up.
The P&Z decision came after an hour long discussion on the application for approval of a preliminary plan for Pacific Logistics Park, LLC, a 10-lot industrial park located on Industrial Drive.
The commissioners separated the knotty issues of the possibility of a new entrance/exit road to the industrial park and traffic on Candlewick Lane from the preliminary plan application.
Commissioners voted unanimously to recommend approval of the preliminary plan with the caveat that traffic and storm water studies be conducted before the final plan is approved.
The possibility of a new road was set aside as impractical. The city cannot require the developer to construct a road and the city does not have the funding to acquire property or right of way and build a road.
Two speakers made impassioned appeals to put the gate back up and direct industrial park workers to Denton Road and/or South First Street, which will send them through downtown past an array of local businesses that might benefit from the constant traffic.
Commissioner Gary Koelling said the city could benefit from sending the additional traffic through downtown.
“I don’t think Brown Jerry’s, the Brew House or Little Ireland would be unhappy to see all those vehicles going past their business every day,” Koelling said.
Former alderman Carol Johnson echoed Koelling’s comments.
“We need to send people to the east end of town to see what we have there,” she said. “The Chamber of Commerce should be up here shouting to send traffic there.”
In a 6-1 vote, commissioners voted to recommend that aldermen replace the former gate between Candlewick Lane and the industrial park using, ”the latest methodology” to install a new high tech, electronic gate that can be opened from inside the cab of emergency and farm vehicles. Commissioner Flannery cast the “No” vote.
If big rig trucks turn onto Candlewick lane and make it all the way to the gate, the police could be called to come and open the gate and issue a citation to the driver.
“If they get enough tickets, word will get around and they will eventually stop entering Candlewick,” Koelling said.
Robert Van Allen with Continental Products commented that the large number of individuals who work in the idustrial park will be affected by the gate and have to look for a longer route in and out of the park. There are 34 businesses in the industrial park, according to City Clerk Kim Barfield. The total number of employees is not known.
The issue is expected to be on the May 2 board of aldermen meeting agenda.
Good afternoon Pauline,
I am confused, your previous article stated that there was a gate installed at the end of Candlewick separating the subdivision from the industrial park that would be opened only for emergency conditions. According to my boss, Grenville Sutcliffe president of Husky Corporation, he does not recall an emergency gate separating the subdivision from the industrial park since the subdivision was built. Husky Corporation has been in the industrial 15 years before the subdivision was built. Please clarify. Thank you.
The gate was definitely there, Roger. It was installed when homes were built on the first lots in the subdivision. I could not find the exact date. The city built the road as an emergency exit for industrial park workers- flood, fire, etc. It was locked and opened for at least two floods and locked again when the water receded. Then it was left up but open for a while. Many people told me they remembered the gate. No one I found recalled when it was taken down. City clerk could not find record of an aldermanic vote to remove it. People are still looking for records, so we may come up with something more specific.
Another reason the emergency road was constructed was around 1982, a Husky employee was killed by an on-coming train when she hastily crossed the railroad tracks. The emergency gate will cause daily traffic congestion at the intersection of Industrial drive-railroad tracks-Denton road. Especially, if the train blocks off the intersection. It could also create a safety issue like the 1982 accident. Is removing the inconvenience of 18 homeowners in the Candlewick subdivision worth the creating potential safety hazard?
I would like to make an observation. As someone who is not a resident of Pacific but an employee of Husky, if these buisnesses really want to see us driving past their place of buisness then i invite them to be outside at 4 am when we are going to work for the 5am start of our shift. At 3:30 when our shift ends, many of us are not local and some of us live further away then most. I have NO desire to stop at a local business. I have family and commitments that will always take priority. Im not really understanding how if the businesses were there before the homes in the subdivision, why they, the homeowners, have the right to close off that access to our jobs. Thank you for your time.