Sandy Springs council signals review of neighborhood traffic‑calming policy after extended debate

Sandy Springs councilmembers and staff spent more than an hour Wednesday scrutinizing the city’s neighborhood traffic‑calming policy and asking staff to return with recommended revisions and public input steps.

The discussion, led by transportation staffer Kristen Westcott, reviewed the policy’s history, the city’s eligibility thresholds and cost‑share rules, and a five‑year tally of applications. Westcott said the city completed 22 formal traffic‑calming studies in the last five years, of which eight qualified under existing thresholds and five proceeded to install treatments. She also said 80 separate neighborhood requests had been pared down through an initial intake process to a much smaller set of studies.

Council members pressed staff on when traffic calming should be mandatory versus discretionary and on whether the current petition threshold and neighborhood cost share impose barriers. “If staff thinks something needs to be done, we just need to go do it,” Councilmember John Paulson said, arguing projects that are “warranted by data and…