In her letter to The Explorer, Kathy Pastryk says what many of us believe: The Wall & Walmart are both ugly blights on our community.
***************************************************************************************
Council has no sway over walls, Wal
With all due respect to the citizens of Ram's Pass and the Arizona Department of Transportation, a "noise wall" on Oracle near Tangerine is an eyesore to many.
I am sorry that those living close to the Catalinas object to the hum of traffic, but need we try to remedy everything? Traffic and helicopters are as inevitable as birds that awaken us at dawn or thunder that disturbs our nightly slumber.
ADOT says in their handout that project-area residents were invited to public meetings since 2005, and Oracle is a state road. Therefore, this is not our concern. ADOT further says that ads appearing in The Star, The Citizen and The Explorer invited project-area residents to meetings. I am one of many avid newspaper readers who missed those meetings, and I question whether only the project-area residents should have been invited.
All of us in Oro Valley are subjected to the unseemly sight of this monstrous wall. I cannot conceive that the ADOT's addition of "authentic brands from nearby ranches" — (ranch initials or logos) — will mitigate the blocking of our mountain view.
Speaking of brands, the Marketplace, that ersatz Tombstone in our once uncluttered scenic corridor, will now feature the big box resplendent in new color. The highly touted "palette" has been changed, but who cares if it's crusty brown or murky brown? This change is a joke, but it brought the "suits" to town to lobby the Development Review Board and town council. Despite the DRB Commissioners' resistance to letting Wal-Mart have their way with us again, town council approved it 6-1 with Latas the sole "no" vote.
Renowned sculptor-designer Matt Moutafis wrote an Explorer article deploring the wall. He also testified in front of council, to no avail.
Town council evidently has no sway over Walls or Wal-Marts; nor will it likely have a say about other walls to come.
Kathy Pastryk, Oro Valley
2 comments:
Once again, I suggest that all interested parties type in "Keeping the Noise Down" or "Highway Traffic Noise Barriers" in your search engines and get into the FHWA site showing Federal criteria, ways and means, picture examples, etc.
As I understand it, the State, ADOT, has utilized/is utilizing federal funds to assist in the financing of this STATE road widening project. Now, as I've stated in this blog site several times and before Council in another matter, federal assistance ALWAYS comes with strings and in the case of this project, it is no different - under certain conditions, noise barriers are MANDATED!
Now, where Oro Valley along with ADOT went astray is that they did not seem to pay attention to the 'scenic view' clauses nor did they seem to explore other, more palatable designs and/or material solutions. The one they chose has butchered the ingress, egress, as well as the overall ambiance of Oro Valley.
In addition, I would like to ask why a subdivision was allowed in this particular area where future inevitable road noise must have been assumed? In addition, it is my understanding that Rams Pass might also be in a known flood plain; should this be allowed (cram 'em in at any cost')?
And now, the whole Town is paying in one way or another for this eyesore as well as those seemingly useless WALLS that are being erected in the corridor near the Hilton, El Conquistador. Why there? Look around Scottsdale and one can see other alternatives where road shoulders are ENHANCED be certain treatments.
I, in the past, have advocated and am now advocating that this Town needs a well informed, education specific, and independent Architectural Committee
to demand and oversee more acceptable architectural standards; as it is now, this Town has too many eyesores!
If individual homeowners want to keep noise levels down, they can plant trees on their property (as I did) and they can run a fan in their bedrooms at night for white noise (as I do.)
I paid for the trees, I paid to have them installed, I pay for the water every month, I paid for the fan and I pay the electric bill every month. And last time I checked, it was NOT costing me millions of dollars to institute this plan.
Everyone expects the government (read: taxpayers) to solve and pay for all their problems.
People need to grow up and be responsible for their own decisions and stop expecting all these "entitlements" as Zev so aptly put it in another post.
Post a Comment