Wheaton residents raise safety, tree and drainage concerns about Gulf Circle sidewalk plan

At the Feb. 18 Wheaton City Council meeting, a group of Gulf Circle residents urged the city to reconsider the proposed sidewalk alignment for their neighborhood, saying the plan creates multiple risky street crossings, threatens mature trees and could reduce yard drainage.

Bob Fouts, a Gulf Circle resident, said the current plan would force people walking the circle to "cross the street 4 times," with two crossings on the east side that he called dangerous because they are 90-degree turns where "many people come flying around those 2 right turns and would hit a person in a crosswalk there." He asked the city to consider placing the sidewalk around the outside of the circle so pedestrians would not need to cross multiple times.

Fouts also said the planned route would remove three mature trees — including a hybrid elm he said the city planted and that is now…