A Note from Pastor Roger

“We understand your desire for more green space. We understand that you are striving to improve the development of the center of the city for your citizens. We believe that some of the options are quite beneficial to the citizens of West University Place. But we strongly oppose any closing or truncation of Milton or Amherst to achieve your goals. Here are some reasons why:

1. With a preschool of 175 children that meets Monday through Friday, and whose predominant entrance is on Amherst, if the city limits access to Milton from College, it will force more traffic to Amherst as they circle the block to Milton. This increased traffic will endanger the children at drop off and pick up.

2. This action will also back up traffic onto Amherst and ultimately put more traffic on Auden, which is already densely populated with many citizens of various ages.

3. We also have our student ministry building on the south side of Amherst, putting even more young people at risk as our teens navigate increased traffic in order to access this facility.

4. Limiting traffic from the west will cause more traffic to pass through the very area that you want children to navigate on foot coming from the east from the school facilities. The vast majority of your foot traffic will come from city center to these buildings, thus endangering the children on their way to your buildings.

5. Truncating Milton and limiting access to our parking lots to Milton via Auden will cause us to have to create an entrance to our Milton parking lots via our property on Rice, which puts a tremendous amount of traffic on Rice.

6. We also believe that other options that PGAL has proposed provide a greater image and visibility for the Library/Community Center than the option that truncates Milton.

7. We believe that other options proposed by PGAL have better access and a “front door” because of the prominent drop-off from Milton. This creates an inviting feel to the Library/Community Center and allows easy drop-off for the less mobile members of the community.

8. We believe any plan the city presents or adopts which closes traffic flow on Milton or Amherst will not present the least restrictive means for the city to further its interest.

 

While we appreciate (the council member’s) articulated goals of limiting the number of cars that can access the affected areas, increasing the greenspace, and making the areas more pedestrian friendly, if those things presented a compelling interest of the city, it seems like the city would also be planning to close other areas in the city, such as the areas along Edloe Street between Rice Blvd. and University Blvd., where there is very little greenspace and vehicle traffic is extremely high, especially during school and normal business hours. The area along Edloe Street between Rice Blvd. and University Blvd. is concentrated with vehicle traffic related to many businesses and West U elementary. Closing that area of Edloe Street would create limited and inconvenient access for teachers and administrators, parents and students, as well as decrease parking for and restrict access to the businesses, and would most likely harm the economic interests of those businesses. It would also make pick up and drop off of students difficult and create traffic congestion and parking issues along adjacent streets in the surrounding area. Therefore, it does not make good fiscal or political sense for the city to impact the school and those businesses in an adverse manner with the three goals of the city’s plan. Likewise, any plan the city presents or adopts which closes traffic flow on Milton or Amherst will not treat the church on equal terms as nonreligious organizations (such as the businesses between Rice Blvd. and University Blvd. along Edloe Street), nor will the city’s three goals serve, satisfy or support a compelling interest of the city of the highest order.

 

It is not our desire to hinder your progress for the improvements you are striving to make. We believe you can still accomplish your goals without impeding our ability to carry out our mission of serving the religious needs of our members, limiting our ability to access our property and our worship services, and without creating a substantial burden on the religious exercise of our church and its members and the many ministries that we offer the community. Our desire is to continue to work with you for the sake of our community, and our hope is that we can come to an understanding for a win/win scenario for all involved. We also believe your goals are achievable without the closing of Milton Street at College and we are happy to work with you to help accomplish your goals.”