Residents urge Scott County commissioners to reject proposed connection road between Y Not Acres and Timber Trails

At the Oct. 7 Scott County Board of Commissioners meeting, three residents urged the board to oppose a proposed connection road linking Y Not Acres and Timber Trails, saying the route would be driven by developers rather than by demonstrated public need.

The residents described concerns raised at a public open house for the County Road 17/Marshall Road project and urged the county to remove the connection from long-range plans unless and until the land is developed.

"This road ... is driven by the developers," resident Aaron Sanders said at the microphone. "I want to be crystal clear. We oppose this road." Sanders told commissioners engineers at an open house had given inconsistent answers about traffic forecasts and that the project would alter neighborhood movement by restricting crossing points on Marshall Road.

Jeff Bolt, a longtime property owner whose family has owned part of the land for generations, said prior county condemnations and the prospect of another taking weighed heavily. He described multiple past property takings and told the board, "Our property's not for sale." He said his family had kept acreage as rural residential and urged the county to delay any road funded by taxpayers until and unless development drives the need.

Julie Welch, whose property also would be affected by the connection, said neighbors on both sides of the proposed link "do not want their neighborhoods connected" and prefer to preserve the "serene, rural feel" of their parcels. She asked that the road be postponed and only installed when developer-driven subdivision occurs.

At least one commissioner acknowledged hearing public concern. Commissioner Wolf, during board reports, referenced the County Road 17 open house and noted it "did not go quite as well" as a previous open house, signaling that commissioners heard complaints from residents at the meeting.

Speakers at the public comments cited the county's 2009 comprehensive plan as the basis for the road's inclusion in current designs and asked why the route was not built earlier if it were truly essential. Sanders and others criticized the planning process as reactive, saying the road appeared to be added after developer land purchases rather than as part of a transparent long-term plan.

The speakers provided traffic estimates and interpretations of engineer comments from the open house—Sanders quoted an engineer as saying the design assumed "10 trips per household per day" and questioned how that was applied. No county action was taken at the Oct. 7 meeting to approve or deny the specific connection. The comments were heard during the public comment portion of the agenda; commissioners did not vote on the road during the meeting.

Residents asked the board to revise the comprehensive plan language to delay construction of the connection until adjacent parcels are proposed for development and any road-building would be developer-driven rather than taxpayer-funded. Board members did not announce a formal decision at the meeting.

The public-comment exchanges and subsequent board reports make the County Road 17/Marshall Road open house and the proposed connection road likely items for further discussion at future meetings or workshops.