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.