The City recently purchased a residential property on Ridge Road as a part of an answer to a problematic intersection.
Council unanimously adopted an ordinance at its September 1 meeting that authorizes the cash purchase of the property, located at 12704 Ridge Road,, for the amount of$175,000. The property, which sits on .45 of an acre, included a house and detached garage. According to realtor.com, the property was listed at $194,900, with a 60 foot x 325 foot lot size. With the house on the market, which is a pivotal point in fixing the intersection, the city seized the opportunity and purchased the property.
Problematic intersections have been a topic of conversations for many years and have been discussed in the North Royalton Council Safety Committee. The intersections of Ridge Road at Royalwood and Julia and the intersection of York and Albion Roads were both specifically discussed. Council President Paul Marnecheck, lives the problems with the Ridge/Royalwood/Julia intersection daily, as he lives on Julia Drive. “I know it’s a pinch point. I drive it every day!” He has been very vocal over the past years on the subject, trying to find a solution. Last year, he stated that “we’ve looked at the timing of the light. Putting up more street signs. The best answer, I feel, would be to straighten out that intersection. The solution isn’t a tough one, it’s an expensive one. How do we pay for it?”
In his newsletter, Ward 6 Councilman Mike Wos stated, “ that area is a notorious problem area for traffic and car accidents as a high volume of traffic has to pass through two offset intersections with double traffic lights at Ridge and Royalwood and then Ridge and Julia. Further, St. Albert’s has a back exit onto Royalwood right in that vicinity that will add to traffic when it is used. Converting this area all to a single 4-way intersection correctly should help address the traffic and accident issues and remove some of the congestion in the area caused by cars being backed up by the current double intersection.”
“If you frequently turn right onto Ridge from Royalwood, this is the house straight ahead,” stated Marnecheck in a recent newsletter. “I am thrilled that the City now owns this home. For years, the Julia/Ridge/Royalwood Intersection has been dangerous and one of the worst intersections in the Ward I previously represented. Now comes the more laborious phase, as we begin to develop a tangible concept of how to reconfigure the intersection, as well as seek sources of funding.”
Now that the city owns the property, what comes next? Mary Larry Antoskiewicz stated that “I believe the next step will to be get an engineering firm to lay out the plan as to how, exactly that would work. Once we get that, we will see if we can get some kind of a grant and see how quickly Council will want to proceed with that. We will probably look at knocking the house down, then start getting the design engineer to give me an estimated cost.” Marnecheck stated that “the cost will dictate the time line of the project.”
By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer