West Main Street Residents Speak or Mr. Hanson's Geography Class

One of the real tests of being a true Evansvillian, is whether you have had Mr. Hanson for geography. It is a real rite of passage in the J.C. McKenna Middle School. You may have seen his students on East and West Main as well as Madison Street a year ago with clipboards. Doing a geography study.

I wandered up to one student at East Main and Union and asked, " What are you up to." He replied, "Mr. Hanson's geography class." I asked, " Well, what have you learned so far? I noticed him marking marks on a sheet of paper. One for each car and and then a special mark for trucks. I could tell he did not want to talk much and miss a mark. "Well, I haven't done the numbers yet, but I think this is a pretty important stretch of land."

Lost in the heat of the Comprehensive Planning meeting on June 15, 2005 was the light that West Main residents provided to the Omnni Associates Planners as a result of a neighborhood meeting of West Main residents on June 6, 2005. It is about geography. It is about making the maps match the rhetoric of the plan. Currently they just do not match.

To quote the citizens, their recommedation is to " Strengthen the smart growth expression of the plan's written text within the plan maps. ...The excellent smart growth written ideas of Chapter 4: Chapter 5, Chapter 8 and Chapter 10 are weakly reflected in the less ambitious Future Land Use maps. The written portion reflects the process of the plan and the input of the citizens much more accurately than do the Future Land Use Maps.---

On these maps, the massive residential growth shown on the western edge of the city fortells a more-of-the-same reality, sapping the written part of the plan of much of its potential and potency.

Of particular concern is the large isolated, westernmost irregularly-shaped residential development shown for the wetland west of the creek. This proposed area of residential development, be it in Union or annexed to the city, should be removed from the map and not be planned as residential."

The critical point these citizens make is that without a "bypass" street, increased traffic flow through West Main will destroy the entire character of the community and the cost of the development will far outweigh the benefit.

A further point is made by Lyman Fuson, 334 W. Main St. that " We would encourage the city to first pursue proposed development on the east side of town, near the Piggly Wiggly where it won't disturb existing neighborhoods. Then, only if necessary and with proper "Smart Growth" evaluation, move on to consider additional development on the west side where it would further negatively impact the historic district. "

It is Mr. Hanson's geography class. About the importance of getting the map right. About Making the map match the rhetoric.

Comments are open. I would like to reserve this for West side residents. The East Main residents have had plenty of imput recently. Thanks.