The Observer Newspapers | Narrow Streets Put Town at Risk

July 25, 2008

Narrow Streets Put Town at Risk

To the editor:

Regarding the hotel proposal on Monroe Street, and any other development around downtown Herndon: The streets there are narrow already, and I am not convinced that they can or should be forced to handle the kind of traffic that this sort of development will bring.

The picture here includes not only the hotel, but it also includes all of downtown development, as well as the redevelopment of The Pines shopping center that is already being brought up in discussions of these projects, and other future work as well. This is a problem, because our roads are not being widened, they are being made even narrower while this kind of development progresses.

Our traffic will be choked, and at some point we will have to deny similar applications because no more traffic can be tolerated. That makes this a "first-strike" issue.

It is not right to set up this town with inadequate roads and oversized developments so that logical development becomes impractical later. This has been going on for many years. The future of Herndon must be properly planned, and this does not appear to be happening.

And what will happen on streets like Van Buren and Grant when people try to ride bicycles around greater downtown? The northbound lane of Van Buren has been choked down to 9 feet wide in one area a bit north of Elden Street, and similar pinches appear to have been applied to Grant Street in that area as well.

What are we doing? Why is this happening, and what assurance is there that this will not happen on the other streets in the area?

Bob Bruhns

Herndon