Residents urge city to halt vehicle connection from Ponderosa Pines until traffic study, safety fixes

Dozens of Bamberwood neighbors told the Rochester City Council on Sept. 8 they oppose a vehicle connection from the Ponderosa Pines development to Fourteenth Avenue Southwest and asked the council to delay allowing vehicles onto the neighborhood streets until safety upgrades and a traffic study are completed. “Do not open this connection to vehicles until a proper safety traffic study is completed and mitigations are in place,” said resident Andrew Wong during the meeting’s public-comment period.

Why it matters: speakers said the roads in Bamberwood are decades old, were previously identified as substandard in city memos and earlier council discussions, and lack the improvements needed to safely carry new development traffic. “The city is applying modern traffic standards to 50 year old roads it knows are already deficient,” Wong said, urging the council to require mitigation before permitting vehicle traffic.

Residents gave specific requests. They asked the council to: pause vehicle access and allow only pedestrian and bicycle access until a traffic-safety study is completed; install traffic calming, signage, lighting and pedestrian protections before opening the road; and publicly acknowledge that concerns raised at a 2023 neighborhood information meeting were omitted from the official record.

Speakers said prior city engineering memos (2002, 2007) and a 2016 roadway improvement on a nearby connecting street had previously identified the neighborhood roads as too narrow, steep or otherwise substandard. “Facts and data and findings have been ignored, and this roadway connection decision is placing Rochester residents at absolutely unnecessary risk,” Kathy Coleman told the council.

Council and staff response: the comments occurred during the open-comment portion of the meeting; council members did not take a final vote on the connection at the Sept. 8 session. Multiple residents asked the council to “stop this connection until further studies can be made, conduct a traffic and safety study, engage with stakeholders, and explore alternative solutions.” City staff did not present a staff recommendation for this item during the public-comment period; the transcript shows residents expect additional follow-up from city staff and the council.

Context and next steps: multiple speakers said they were not notified or were omitted from the record during prior neighborhood information meetings and that the city has acknowledged a lack of current funding for roadway improvements in Bamberwood. Residents said they were asking for interim pedestrian/bicycle-only access and for traffic mitigations to precede vehicle access. The council did not adopt an ordinance or motion on this issue during the Sept. 8 meeting; residents were told staff or council would respond following the meeting.