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The Issues
Dicken Woods is located adjacent to Dicken Elementary School, on the
southwest fringe of Ann Arbor. Across I-94, just west of Dicken
Elementary, the open space of Scio Township has been under intense
development pressure for a number of years, with significant area
population growth. More development in the area seems virtually
assured, and with it ever increasing stresses on the local
infrastructure, including roads and schools. Saving Dicken Woods
provides many benefits, and avoids the worsening of other serious problems.
Traffic
Traffic is getting worse all over Ann Arbor, but the southwest side of
town is under particular stress. The new residential and commercial
developments west of I-94, in addition to other in-fill developments on
Ann Arbor's west side, have added much more traffic to our streets. The
evening rush hour at the intersection of Scio Church and South Maple
now hosts long lines of cars. And trying to turn south onto Maple Road,
from the stop at west-bound Pauline, can be a harrowing experience now.
Residents of the Dicken area are concerned about increased traffic on
neighborhood streets, efforts by drivers to by-pass the busy
intersection at Scio Church and South Maple, taking short cuts through
the neighborhood.
All this is bad enough already, but the addition of 58 new townhouse
units, as proposed by Crosswinds Communities, squeezed in between or
built on top of the existing natural features of Dicken Woods, would
surely worsen the neighborhood traffic problems. Throw in the fact that
many young children walk to and from Dicken Elementary School and play
in our front yards and neighborhood parks, and the increased traffic
burden adds even bigger safety concerns. And what's even worse yet, the
curving roads of the Dicken neighborhood seem to encourage adventurous
driving by many younger, less experienced, drivers. Look at the map. Any parent of young children would be concerned about adding even more traffic to this mix.
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