Crestline Residents Score Speed Hump Victory
For those of you thinking about speeding down Crestline Avenue, at least the stretch between Walnut Hill Lane and Ridge Road the street’s residents ask you to reconsider. Since 2004, they’ve been battling to keep drivers (either students from the Episcopal School of Dallas or “high-powered lawyers dropping off their kids,” depending on whom you ask) from avoiding the enless school zone a block west (aka Midway Road) by flying down Crestline. They’ve finally won.
Cheryl Gambow, who lives on the corner of Northcrest and Crestline, petitioned the city five years ago to implement speed humps on Crestline, which lacks sidewalks and is home to several young children. A city-sponsored traffic study determined that, while plenty of cars traveled down the street, they fell short 35 mile-per-hour average required for automatic approval. Neighbors could have appealed to the City Plan Commission but didn’t.
In 2006, the city proposed adding a four-way stop at the corner of Northcrest and Crestline but received no response from the city. Then, in 2009, residents submitted a new petition, this time for the closure of the street at Walnut Hill. The petition requires the support of both property owners at the corner of Crestline and Walnut Hill, but one of the homes was (still is) on the market, so that request is still in limbo.
So residents again applied for speed humps in September 2009. The city determined the street still didn’t meet the speed requirements, but this time, neighbors appealed to the CPC. Several neighbors, including Gambow, spoke in support of the speed humps. Only Southcrest resident D.K. Austin spoke in opposition out of concern the humps would divert more traffic–and more speeders–to his street.
In the end, led by District 13 Plan Commissioner Michale Schwartz, who bemoaned the lack of sidewalks throughout the city, approved the construction of three road humps–one per block–on Crestline between Walnut Hill and Ridge.
Residents now have three years to pay for the humps ($1,100 each) and coordinate construction with the city, said city staffer Kerry Elder.
