Members of City Council on Aug. 26 unanimously approved spending $11,000 more to design sidewalks and turn lanes at the intersection of Mount Vernon and Vermack roads. But while discussing the project, council members raised questions about city officials’ commitment to the city’s transportation plan, which calls for widening Mount Vernon to three lanes throughout Dunwoody.
Several council members indicated they objected to one possible design for the intersection that called for a long central lane on Mount Vernon that would allow left turns. Other plans call for shorter turn lanes at the intersection.
“Council seems to be leaning toward not putting in a center lane, but putting in sidewalks and bike lanes…” Mayor Mike Davis said. “Are we going against our transportation plan?”
But Councilwoman Adrian Bonser said the city had ignored the transportation plans when doing projects in the past. “Tonight’s not the night we’re destroying our transportation plan,” she said. “It was actually done with the first project last year.”
Some residents also objected to the longer turn lanes. “Spending taxpayer’s dollars to build a left-turn lane for St. Luke’s [Presbyterian] Church is not warranted,” one Mount Vernon resident told the council.