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As to your suggestion that developers should contribute to road improvements, I couldn't agree more. I doubt that a developer would turn down the opportunity to build 1,000 homes, if the County stipulated that they need to participate in the addition of turning lanes, etc.
Once the buildings/housing is built, significant road improvements become a very expensive endeavor. At the very minimum, the builder/developer should donate a tract of land that parallels the existing road, so that future road widening can occur.
The alternative is for the area to grow into a congested mess.
Who wants that?
We know that the a developer would just spread the cost of the turning lane over the cost of the project. Each new buyer would just pay a bit more for their house. They probably wouldn't even notice the difference and would be much happier having turn lanes going into their community. Probably increase home values in the long run.
The fairly large community I live in off W. Georgia Rd, has over 450 homes. There is no turn lane off W. Georgia into our community. It's a hazard that sees a rear-end collision there about once a month. It's just a matter of time before someone gets hurt or loses their life just so the developer wasn't forced to put the lane in.
W. Georgia itself should be expanded, but the local government had no fore-site or didn't care that developers put their entrances just feet from the road. Like you said, now if they ever want to expand the road (which they have talked about and know that it needs to be) it will cost taxpayers a lot more money. Plus the are STILL allowing new sub-divisions on that road and are repeating the same process over and over.
It's really funny- these discussions sound exactly like ones I heard in FL for years. As soon as someone arrives, they want the borders closed and the construction stopped so it won't get too crowded. Like FL, most areas are actively encouraging rampant growth without any regard to where people are going to live, and how they're going to get from one place to another. Where I lived, my commute was 5 miles, featured 11 traffic lights, and could take up to 40 minutes during evening rush. It did NOT go through a retail area! That's why we live out in the country (for now).
This sounds so much like the area of Tampa that I used to live in. It used to take us 45 mins just to get a few miles to the local mall. I cant imagine what its like now since I have been away from there for over 10 years.
We know that the a developer would just spread the cost of the turning lane over the cost of the project. Each new buyer would just pay a bit more for their house. They probably wouldn't even notice the difference and would be much happier having turn lanes going into their community. Probably increase home values in the long run.
The fairly large community I live in off W. Georgia Rd, has over 450 homes. There is no turn lane off W. Georgia into our community. It's a hazard that sees a rear-end collision there about once a month. It's just a matter of time before someone gets hurt or loses their life just so the developer wasn't forced to put the lane in.
W. Georgia itself should be expanded, but the local government had no fore-site or didn't care that developers put their entrances just feet from the road. Like you said, now if they ever want to expand the road (which they have talked about and know that it needs to be) it will cost taxpayers a lot more money. Plus the are STILL allowing new sub-divisions on that road and are repeating the same process over and over.
I wish I had an answer, (though as I write this, I wonder how much of the burden belongs at the State level, rather than that of the County).
This is like deja vu for me who grew up in the northern New Jersey area.
Rampant overdevelopment for the sake of tax revenue leads to overcrowding, traffic, crime, and a greatly reduced quality of life.
As one who is planning to relocate to Greenville to get away from NY Metro area politics and planning, I hope that Greenville comes to their senses soon. As northern NJ has recognized, you can't undo these bad decisions.
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Don't do what New Jersey has done!
