City Council votes to route truck traffic through a school zone
With 5 votes to 3, the Middleton City Council approved a rezoning ordinance for the Redtail Ridge project in its second reading on Tuesday, March 7. Kendra Wochos (District 2), Katy Nelson (District 3), Emily Kuhn (District 4), Lisa Janairo (District 6) and Randall Crow (District 8) voted in favor, while Kathy Olson (District 1), Luke Fuszard (District 5) and Dan Ramsey (District 7) voted against. The split vote was unusual, and had been preceded by a (comparatively - by generally very civil Middleton standards) heated exchange between Lisa Janairo and Dan Ramsey about construction-truck traffic once the build-out of the 128-acre development starts.
The site itself stretches from High Road in the west to Pheasant Branch Road in the east (pictured), and especially Old Creek Road residents have been expressing their concerns about an expected increase in traffic in their small street and on Pheasant Branch Road, including the bottleneck near the intersection with Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Middleton Hills. And not just traffic during construction, but also after the development is finished, and almost 900 living units will be occupied. Old Creek Road, Middleton Hills and the future Redtail Ridge are all in District 6.