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Published Sunday, August 17, 2008 in Education
Photo by Brenda Pedraza-Vidamour
Summergrove’s Westhill parents and students sometimes walk this grassy stretch of land along busy Lower Fayetteville Road to get children to school at Newnan Crossing Elementary.
SummerGrove parent asks for sidewalk near school
The Times-Herald
A SummerGrove resident has requested the Coweta County Board of Education help in getting a sidewalk built so residents in the Westhill neighborhood of Newnan's largest subdivision can avoid the traffic snarls at drop-off and pick-up times at Newnan Crossing Elementary School.
Darlene Lewis, who has a first-grader attending Newnan Crossing, asked the board last week to consider whether it can do anything about building the sidewalk since traffic on Lower Fayetteville has increased significantly due to the area's residential and commercial growth.
Lewis said school traffic the first week of school had backed up as far as the Kroger-anchored and Publix-anchored Stillwood Pavilion shopping centers at the corner of Lower Fayetteville Road and Newnan Crossing Boulevard East.
"I and a number of parents, we park in SummerGrove and walk to school, but there's no sidewalks. We walked with our children in the grass and on the shoulder to the school. It was dangerous, but traffic was moving slowly, and I noticed that's been happening for the last couple of days since school started," Lewis told board members.
Lewis, who's lived in SummerGrove for four years, said she didn't notice it as being that much of a problem last year. But this year, it's more pronounced, she said. She decided to address her concerns with the school board when she saw parents -- frustrated about the traffic -- park in the Westhill shopping strip, get out of their cars and walk the grassy stretch from the plaza to the school.
Her biggest concern has been the children's safety, especially after she noticed a "a mom pushing a stroller with a little child," and the child was walking the shoulder on the side of traffic.
Lower Fayetteville Road is a heavily-trafficked two-lane road with turning lanes as well as acceleration and deceleration lanes. Local drivers often use Lower Fayetteville Road to avoid congestion and road construction on Georgia Highway 34/Bullsboro Drive.
Parent driving lanes for the school are on the east side, at the entrance to Summerlin, at Summerlin and Lower Fayetteville Road. The lanes for school buses and daycare buses are at the front of the school.
One of SummerGrove's Westhill entrances is at Belltree Circle, near the Westhill shopping plaza, where there is not a sidewalk leading to the elementary school. Sidewalks across from the school and farther away go to the commercial developments.
Sidewalks to Newnan Crossing Elementary come from the new Summerlin subdivision that is under development.
The city of Newnan has sidewalk requirements for residential and commercial development. The wooded area in question is owned by a Peachtree City-based developer. Besides the sidewalk requirements for the developers, Newnan also has several sidewalk programs in place as part of it capital improvements plan and an in-house program.
City Engineer Michael Klahr said other groups besides homeowners are also requesting more sidewalks, but Lower Fayettevile Road is one "that's possibly a little more trouble for us because of the volume of the traffic and speed."
Lewis said her request for assistance would not only address some of her safety concerns, but it would also be helpful to the community at large by encouraging more residents to walk, thereby reducing some of the traffic congestion and saving gas.
Coweta Schools Superintendent Blake Bass has researched the issue following her request, including contacting other parties for assistance. The school system has a similar situation with the residents at SummerGrove's Eastlake neighborhood who attend Welch Elementary, Lewis said.
"The superintendent has been really helpful -- and he wants to help, but he may be limited in what he can do. But I appreciate him helping," she said.
SummerGrove is a master planned community of residential and commercial development that occupies about 1,500 acres around the Lower Fayetteville and Mary Freeman Road area. It will have about 2,800 units by build-out.
Klahr said other options might be to consider sidewalks through the back of the private properties to the school. But that, again, is problematic because it's on private land, he said.