Council member Jeff (Speaker 4) introduced a request that staff explore adjusting the speed limit on State Highway 66 from its current higher posted speed to 45 miles per hour between roughly 5400 and 9900 Lakeview Parkway, citing substantial development along the corridor and an increase in crash exposure.

Jeff told the council he was ‘‘not making a recommendation that we make a change, I’m simply putting it out there that this is a potential option that we have as a council.’’ He presented maps showing development growth over 20 years and cited examples of similar 45-mph corridors in nearby communities. Jeff also noted possible costs beyond signage, including retiming traffic signals if the change proceeds.

Council members debated likely effects on safety and travel time. One member calculated the travel-time effect over a roughly three-mile stretch as about 24 seconds when dropping from 50 mph to 45 mph, arguing the loss of travel time would be small compared with safety gains. Others cautioned that artificially low posted speeds can sometimes increase crashes if traffic speeds diverge widely from the posted limit.

City staff (Speaker 2) told the council an engineering/crash study would be required before any change and that staff would likely outsource the work because of concurrent projects; the staffer said the study would include crash-data analysis and estimates of signage and signal-work costs. Council members expressed a preference to sequence the speed-study work with upcoming traffic-signal retiming projects.

By the end of the discussion, council members voiced general support for staff investigating the proposal and returning with cost and feasibility information; no ordinance or speed change was adopted at the meeting.