Milton streets committee gets new tasks

Milton’s Streets, Sidewalks and Parks Committee has been tasked with delivering advisory reports to town council on whether to reduce the speed limit on Harbeson Road adjacent to Heritage Creek and whether to institute a fee for residents seeking waivers from installing sidewalks.

At council’s March 7 meeting, Town Manager Kristy Rogers said the committee’s report will also examine whether to reduce the speed limit within Heritage Creek itself. 

On the fee-in-lieu-of-sidewalk part of the plan, town code mandates that any new construction or new subdivision must include sidewalk installation. However, a waiver can be granted if a property owner is able to show good cause. Rogers said council has heard several waiver requests, and the new process would mean a property owner could just pay a fee to be held in escrow instead of having to appear before council. 

Rogers and Mayor Ted Kanakos both said the town’s preference is that property owners install sidewalks. Rogers said the fee-in-lieu-of-sidewalk plan is similar to one Delaware Department of Transportation has.

Regarding speed limits, DelDOT would have the ultimate say on whether to reduce the speed limit on Harbeson Road, but Councilman Sam Garde said the department is amenable under certain circumstances to change the speed limit upon a municipality’s request. He said the way it would work is the committee would present a recommendation, which the town would then forward to DelDOT for review.

The town does control the streets in Heritage Creek, so it could change the speed limits there. The preliminary number discussed by council is to reduce the speed limit in the development to 15 mph.

Committee gets extension on priority list

Milton Town Council also unanimously granted the streets committee a 30-day extension to present a list of priorities based on the traffic calming ad hoc committee’s report. 

The streets committee was tasked with sussing out priorities from the ad hoc committee’s 140-page report in November, and the original deadline was 90 days.

Councilman John Collier said the streets committee had sent some of the items in the report to DelDOT for its review. He said the council opposed an extension for anything beyond 30 days, and this vote merely codifies the council's wishes. 

The ad hoc committee’s recommendations were made in two parts. The first part includes measures town council could take up right away: more radar signs, reduced speed limits with split speeds for cars and large trucks, additional speed limit signs, and directing large truck traffic to use Route 5.

For pedestrians, the ad hoc committee report recommended raised crosswalks at points along Mulberry and Federal streets, and increased crosswalk maintenance. 

The report also called for seeking funding for a feasibility study of current traffic patterns, utility access and beautification measures to find engineered solutions to some of the town’s transportation problems. This includes the possibility of converting streets to one-way traffic in certain places and putting utility lines underground. 

Part two of the committee’s recommendations included more long-term goals that the streets committee is tasked with prioritizing. Among those recommendations is a four-way stop at the intersection of Chestnut and Wharton streets with crosswalks, curb extensions and bump-outs, along with improving the intersection of Federal, Union and Front streets.