One small victory

Yesterday, September 20, 2007 the Montgomery Area Metropolitan Origanization held a special-called meeting to approve the 2008-2011 Transportation Improvement Plan, which included widening Perry Hill Road (the road Carla and I live on) from three lanes to five lanes.

We let this blog lapse while we worked to find out just what the MPO is and how it works. It is has been a journey through a lot of red tape and a lot of hard work, but I think we've figured it out.

We gathered our allies, mostly the residents of this road who do not want it widened, launched a letter-writing campaign to the mayor of Montgomery, and also coordinated an effort where the public submitted responses to the draft TIP plan. Carla attended the MPO meeting, and this is her report:

On September 20, 2007, the Metropolian Planning Organization met to consider final adoption of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). One of the items in the TIP is the widening of Perry Hill Road from Harrison Road to Atlanta Highway (Phase II). Robert Smith, MPO Administrator, stated that 39 comments in opposition to Phase II had been received. Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright, Chairman of the MPO, asked how many guests at the meeting were there in opposition to Phase II. About ten people raised their hands. The Mayor stated that he had never been inclined to favor "putting down more asphalt" on this part of Perry Hill Road, and that if this many people were against it, he could spend the $8 million somewhere else. He spoke for a while about how this plan had come into being and his recognition of how this project would negatively impact the residents. Charles Strange, Montgomery County Commissioner, stated that he had a phone call from a "very prominent local political figure" who said his constituents had been calling him in opposition to Phase II. He suggested, and later made a motion to amend the plan to affirmatively state that Phase II would not occur unless, after the I-85 loop and Phase I (I-85 to Harrison Road) were completed, further traffic studies showed a need for Phase II. Then there would be more public hearings and more opportunity for public comment and opposition.