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Dead end to fast lane? Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Rebecca Strong and her children, from left, Sam, 3, Caleb, 5, and Levi, 1, may see a lot of traffic outside their front window if their quiet, dead-end Elm Way is opened to provide access to a complex with fast-food restaurants. Residents of low-access Eagle Point site are concerned over strip mall traffic By MEG LANDERS Eagle Point residents on Elm Way near De Anjou Avenue may lose their dead-end road to strip mall access. "The increase in traffic is going to be tremendous," said Rebecca Strong, who lives at the end of Elm Way. With five children ages 1 to 9, Strong said she's worried about the high school lunch traffic making a beeline in front of her house on its way to three new restaurants planned for the complex. Located on Highway 62 just north of Linn Road, the complex will include a Figaro's Pizza, a Subway sandwich shop, a third restaurant (yet to be determined) and two or three retail spaces. Developer Thor Thompson said he's been working with the city and the Oregon Department of Transportation to come up with a traffic plan that works for the community. Part of his proposal includes right-turn-only lanes to enter and exit the complex off Highway 62. The other part of his plan extends Elm Way into the parking area around his complex as well as the adjacent Eagle Point Plaza. He'll present his plan to the Planning Commission at a public hearing 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18 at City Hall. It will be the fourth public hearing on this topic. "I don't want to be in any conflict with the neighbors," said Thompson, who developed a complex with a Subway restaurant on Highway 99 in Phoenix a couple of years ago. If the traffic plan is approved, construction on the mall will begin in mid-January. City Administrator David Hussell said the access is necessary for traffic heading south from the mall and from future commercial development along the highway. "It will impact that neighborhood," he said. "As activity is picking up, it is changing the street patterns of the neighborhoods." The new businesses will bring employment opportunities as well as contributions to the tax base, benefiting the city, he added. "There are some hard decisions that have to be made for the overall good of the city." For families in the neighborhood, it means a change in atmosphere. "We understand that development has to happen," said Strong. "We'll just have to put up a fence." Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.