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Jacksonville street plan may imperil trees Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell These trees at the corner of Jacksonville's Hueners Lane and Middle Street might be cut down when the city makes the dead-end Middle Street a full city through street. By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE - Laurie Elliott's back yard is like a park, with bamboo and lilac growing beneath a canopy of gnarly walnuts and towering Ponderosas. The grove is so shaded and private that deer find refuge. "There was a doe and fawn in here - she was mistaking it for a forest," Elliott said. But the dozen trees situated behind her home may be threatened by a city project to extend Middle Street, a 200-foot-long, gravel road. The City Council voted last month to open the dead-end street to improve traffic flow in this growing part of town. "We're hoping not to have to take any trees out," said Jeff Alvis, Jacksonville's public works director. Bushes, blackberry vines and tree limbs must be trimmed out of the city right of way, Alvis said. But he won't know whether trees will be chopped down until an engineer's study is completed. The city hopes to turn the 20-foot-wide gravel road into a 45-foot-wide city street. The $16,000-$30,000 project would be funded through a local improvement district, costing the 59 nearby property owners $224 to $508 each. "Middle Street is an old, dedicated street that's been on the plat maps from way back when, but it's never been improved," said Arch Weatherford, a 35-year resident of the street. Residents have spent their own money putting down gravel and diverting runoff water away from their yards. "A city can't stay status quo forever," Weatherford said. "We've always known that somebody with money would develop that area. But you don't have to like it when it comes." Middle Street is sandwiched between Hueners Lane and Beverly Way, east of downtown and near Jacksonville Elementary School. The growth is evident - a 40-home subdivision, where listing prices range from $318,000 to $575,000, an apartment complex, a private high school. All opened recently within a few blocks of each other. Plus, a historic Jacksonville church wants to build a 400-seat sanctuary nearby. City Council members voted Aug. 21 to open Middle Street, partly motivated by 30 signatures from Beverly Way residents complaining about traffic coming out of the Pheasant Meadows subdivision, which has only two access points and very narrow streets. Some were motivated to help improve traffic flow if and when First Presbyterian builds a new church next to the subdivision. Middle Street is a public safety hazard, said Councilwoman Donna Schatz. A dead end street has no room for a fire truck to turn around. "It was on the comprehensive plan as one of the streets to be brought up to city standards," she said. If Middle Street's barricade is removed, residents will have to move their boats, wood piles, shrubs and rock gardens planted in the right of way. But they might be dragging their feet all the way. "Why do people who belong to a church want to engender this much ill feeling?" Elliott said. "I don't quite understand why the church would want an approach filled with cement instead of one having gorgeous, mature trees." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.