Mayfair sidewalks continue to be divisive issue for residents

Sidewalks are in the near future for Mayfair Drive and Roxbury Road, but some residents on those streets believe the project is the wrong choice for the neighborhood.

Discussion of adding sidewalks on Mayfair began in spring 2016, after resident Ashley Kappel brought a request to the council to consider them. Adding sidewalks had previously been discussed about 20 years ago, but was dropped at the time. Kappel surveyed 50 residents of the street and found 35 of them in favor of adding sidewalks for safety when walking or running in the area.

"This is going to be such a wonderful thing for our street and the Mayfair community," said resident Alexa McElroy in a June 2017 email. "Myself, along with a majority of the residents on Mayfair and Roxbury are in huge support of this project and are so excited for it to get started."

In 2016, about 24 residents of Mayfair and connecting streets attended community meetings or signed a petition to oppose the sidewalks. Their reasons included destruction of existing trees and landscaping, as well as part of their yards being lost by the sidewalk construction in city right-of-way. The hilly geography of the street also posed an issue. 

After several months of meetings, the city came up with a plan that would install sidewalks on the north side of Mayfair from Montgomery Highway to Roxbury Road, followed by a second phase on the east side of Roxbury up to Huntington Road. A third phase to continue down Mayfair Drive could be pursued later.

The first two phases, approved in September 2016, are very similar to the plans proposed in 1997, with the major difference of removing the triangle intersection at Mayfair and Roxbury and putting the Roxbury sidewalk on the west side of the road. On May 22, the city council accepted a bid from Global Management Group of $69,489 to construct phases I and II, coming in just under the $70,000 estimated budget.

Resident Chris Lane has opposed the sidewalk project since the beginning of the community meetings last year, and said he feels that sidewalks will damage the character of the street without the benefits of walkability and safety that some of his neighbors advocate.

However, since the plan was amended to include changes to the triangle intersection, Lane now says that he believes the city did not go through the proper process to approve those changes and therefore it was not a legal change. Drawings from September 2016, when the project was sent to council for approval, have the triangle intersection intact.

Lane said he felt the removal of the triangle shape at the intersection would make it less safe.

City attorney Mike Kendrick said the change to the intersection was done before the bid process in May, after receiving a recommendation from Skipper Consulting to realign the intersection. Kendrick added that as far as he's aware, everything in the Mayfair sidewalk approval process was done correctly.

“We certainly will comply with the law, and as far as I know we have,” Kendrick said.

Building, engineering and zoning employee Greg Cobb provided a copy of the letter from Darryl Skipper of Skipper Consulting after the firm's engineers walked the site. The letter supported replacing the triangle with a three-way intersection with 90-degree angles, stating that it would create simpler traffic patterns and increase sight distance at the intersection.

"The results should present a safer condition for vehicular traffic as well as pedestrian traffic," the letter said.

Lane also said that the city has done work already in removing trees to make a path for the sidewalks, a move he feels is an attempt to get around the $70,000 budget limit. Cobb said two of those trees were removed due the health of the trees, at the property owners' request, and a few pine trees were removed in the city right-of-way.

Kendrick also said the bid that was accepted is based on a "unit price" per foot of work, and the $69,489 total that Global Management Group provided is based on estimates of the total amount of work from the city. The final cost could be different, and the city council could choose to allocate more money from the 2017 sidewalk construction fund, totaling about $437,000 for six projects, to make up the difference.

Lane said he is considering suing the city for what he believes to be improper council proceedings, though he has not filed the suit yet and continues to talk with Kendrick and other city officials about the project. Earlier this week, Lane said he also wants to organize residents for a "sit-in" at the triangle to oppose its removal.