College Township Council looks at options for Mountainview Avenue

Council saw several proposals Thursday for potential routes that would connect the troubled Mountainview Avenue to nearby roads, but no firm preference for any option could be found.

Residents along Mountainview began making their case to the township council about a year ago. Residents cited poor snow removal along Manor Drive, which connects Mountainview to East College Avenue and is the only path of entry or exit for the avenue.

Residents’ claim of bad plowing combined with the 18 percent grade of the hill makes Manor almost undrivable during winter conditions. The steep grade also makes it practically impossible for emergency vehicles like fire trucks to access Mountainview.

At the time, residents requested that the township look into creating a connecting road from Mountainview to nearby Ivy Hill Drive, which runs through the Stearns Crossing housing development. Township engineer Kent Baker proposed in September that Keller Engineers examine the possibilities and cost estimates for connecting the two roads.

On Thursday, Michael Pratt, of Keller, presented four options to council for consideration. The first option resembled the previous suggestions of extending the east end of Mountainview to intersect with Ivy Hill.

This option wouldn’t meet township grading or sight distances, but would alleviate the Manor issue, Pratt said. The option would cost $500,000 due to a large amount of excavation.

The second option sought to extend the east end of Mountainview until it intersected with Ivy Hill at Holly Ridge Drive. While reducing the grade issue, this option would run $1.1 million, he said.

The third option would extend the west end of Mountainview to connect to Commercial Boulevard. This “fairly straight and level” connection provided the flattest alignment, but would also take up a large portion of the upper parking area at Tubbies Bedrooms and Mattress store.

He estimated costs for this connection at about $733,000, largely due to the cost of right-of-way acquisitions.

Finally, Pratt proposed a Manor Drive realignment, which would extend the east end of Mountainview south, cutting through the hill until it merged with Manor again. Due to the impracticality of the proposal, he said, this would cost the township about $1.5 million.

He also proposed several improvements to Manor itself, such as the addition of high friction material to help in wintertime. These would do little to address the issue of the 18 percent grade, however.

Councilman Steven Lyncha pointed out a highlighted area on the third option, which proposed a small connecting path to the parking lot of Celebration Hall, and would allow cars to pass through the south end of the parking lot. He suggested that path could be used in bad weather, but residents could continue to use Manor during summer months.

Tubbies President Bill Klaban spoke first, saying the option connecting Mountainview to Commercial would take up 29 of his 39 required spaces, leaving him with 10 parking spaces in total. It would also leave no access for tractor-trailers to turn around after deliveries, making it impossible to do business there.

If the township was looking to spend more than $700,000 for the project, he said, getting the right of way from him would be much costlier.

Sharon Ambrose, president of the Stearns Crossing Homeowners Association, presented council with a petition signed by a number of residents requesting that the council adopt the connection to Commercial. Stearns residents in previous meetings had voiced their displeasure with the idea of connecting Mountainview with Ivy Hill.

Ambrose said the connection to Commercial was the best solution, saying the connecting road meets township criteria and the impact to Tubbies would be minimal. Additionally, the businesses on Commercial would likely benefit from the increased traffic.

Skip Moerschbacher, owner of Celebration Hall, said while the connection to Commercial seems the best in theory, removing the cul-de-sac would affect the ability of tractor-trailers to make deliveries. Using the parking lot as a thoroughfare could also cause a significant issue with customers parked along the south end of the lot.

Council staff was tasked with creating a comparison of options, as Councilman Eric Bernier pointed out that each council member may be viewing each option with different priorities, such as safety, cost or consistency with township regulations.

College Township will continue to plow and treat the bottom of Manor Drive whenever called out for snow removal, township Manager Adam Brumbaugh said.

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 10:46 PM with the headline "College Township Council looks at options for Mountainview Avenue."