Road now closed to through traffic until date determined by supervisor

By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — At its meeting on June 24, the Independence Township Board of Trustees voted to authorize a resolution to allow for the permanent closure of Bluegrass Drive to through traffic, allowing access for residents only, effective immediately with the re-opening date to be determined by the township supervisor.
Originally, the board was asked to authorize a resolution that would allow for the closing of Bluegrass at Holcomb Road, with start and end dates to be later determined by the supervisor. However, after a number of residents on both roads spoke during public comment to express their issues and concerns, the board agreed the closure should happen immediately.
Traffic in the City of the Village of Clarkston has been an ongoing issue for several months now with the Michigan Department of Transportation’s I-75 construction project. One major issue that has arisen is motorists using “back roads” such as Bluegrass and Miller Roads to turn left onto M-15 (Main Street) to reach I-75 on ramps.
The topic has been discussed at length during several recent meetings of the Clarkston City Council, with City Manager Jonathan Smith reaching out to the township as well as MDOT and the Road Commission of Oakland County to try and find avenues to mitigate the problem but has had little success thus far. However, recently, barricades were installed on Miller Road and the road was closed for through traffic.
With the closure of Miller Road, traffic has migrated to Bluegrass.
While safety has been a major point of concern, residents on Bluegrass have also raised issues with the increased traffic.
According to Independence Township Supervisor Chuck Phyle, recently he and Smith met with MDOT and the RCOC to discuss issues and present potential options.
“We discussed the fact that there’s 11 bridges, starting with us at the further south, going north, that they are doing construction on. At the beginning of the conversation, which was about an hour and a half phone call, they said that the project is about a month behind due to supplies. The scheduled end date was going to be November 15,” Phyle said. “Through there we talked about a whole plethora of different options, like, why did they not start down at our end? Right? Because M-15 and Dixie (Highway), those are the two heavily traveled exits in the 11 bridges that they’re fixing. They said, ‘well, according to the project man plan laid out by MDOT, they decided to start at the other end,’ they couldn’t move it, couldn’t change it. It is what it is.”
Phyle went on to say that the traffic has created a lot of problems specifically for residents on Bluegrass who have been contacting the township with complaints of not being able to get in or out of their driveway, emergency vehicle access, large trucks exceeding the road weight limit and just general safety for both pedestrians and motorists.
Ultimately, the discussion led to the decision that the best way forward would be to do what the city did with Miller Road and put in a permanent barrier at Bluegrass and Holcomb and not allow through traffic on Bluegrass but still allow access to Bluegrass from M-15 (Main Street).
Residents spoke to urge the board to close the road to through traffic as soon as possible, expressing their frustration and expanding on the issues that have already been presented including homeowners who claim to have been almost hit by cars cutting through, drivers being threatening toward them, how noisy the road has become since construction began and a number of other problems.
“In the end, we’re asking that this get closed right away. It’s a horrible way to be living. If any of us had to sell our homes, there’s no way – no one’s going to buy our homes with the way it is,” said Grace Zasacky, a resident of Bluegrass. “It’s a beautiful street. It was a lovely place to live up until a couple of years ago. So, I think that we need to do something right away, not to be holding off and thinking, ‘well, maybe if needed.’ It is needed, and we need to do it right away. As with most of my residents, I am very willing to take the inconvenience that I’m going to have to take an extra five (or) 10 minutes to get home to get this off the street and make it safe for us to be able to be out there. I don’t think any one of you would want to be living in this situation right now. So please, I’m asking to please help us and close this off as soon as possible.”
With all of the resident input, the board was compelled to close Bluegrass to through traffic, effective immediately, to avoid potential safety issues.
“I think the risk is that we say, ‘well, won’t do it now, but we’ll watch,’ and something bad happens. If we’re going to regret it, we’re going to just be sick if something happens to a resident there or somebody on M-15. And while we’re going to make some people mad who have to go around, we’re not going to feel as bad about that as we will if something happens to a resident, if somebody gets killed. I don’t know what the chances that are, but I don’t want to be in that position,” said Treasurer Paul Brown.
According to Phyle, he anticipates the barriers will be concrete barriers that will exist at the entrance of Bluegrass from Holcomb. The road will be closed to through traffic for the foreseeable future and will be reopened at the supervisor’s discretion at a later date.