Residents who live in Braxton Parke in Batavia Township are growing more concerned about the safety of their community as nearby residents continue to use Braxton Parke Drive as a cut-through road for easier access to Ohio Pike.
Members of the home owners association, as well as residents in the neighborhood, are hoping a put a stop to the cut-through traffic by pursuing a petition with the county to install a gate on Laurel Oak Drive.
“My concern is that many cars go through in one day,” Don McCauslin, president of the Braxton Park Homeowners Association, said. “It is dangerous, it is not like the community I grew up in as a kid.”
Braxton Parke’s main entrance is off of Bach Buxton Road and provides close access to Ohio Pike, while Sycamore Creek’s main entrance is off of Amelia-Olive Branch Road. Laurel Oak Drive connects the two neighborhoods.
McCauslin said it’s not just residents who live in the two neighborhoods that cut through, but also residents who live in developments near by.
He said the issue of residents cutting through and speeding has been ongoing for several years. He said he began to look into the issue when he got involved with the homeowners association and was able to meet with Clermont County engineers last year.
After hearing about the concerns of some of the home owners, the engineer’s office conducted a traffic study June 21-28 last year.
Traffic engineer Jeremy Evans presented some of the results of the study to Batavia Township trustees and residents at the trustees’ March 20 meeting.
“After our meeting we put traffic cameras out,” Evans said. “Counts were taken in the summer on an average weekday.”
Evans said the traffic cameras were placed so they could calculate the number of cars that traveled into Braxton Parke via Laurel Oak Road and also calculate the number of cars that exited Braxton Parke via Bach Buxton Road.
Evans said the counters indicated that about 2,900 vehicles entered and exited Braxton Parke at Bach Buxton Road and about 1,600 vehicles entered and exited Braxton Parke via Laurel Oak Drive.
And while the numbers do suggest a high volume of traffic in both of the neighborhoods, Evans said the counters did not determine which neighborhood people live in or how many vehicles are leaving multiple times per day.
“It is hard to decipher,” Evans said about drawing a conclusion from the numbers.
Some residents in Sycamore Creek expressed opposition to closing Laurel Oak Drive and others suggested alternative methods to solve speeding problems and deter drivers from cutting through.
One Sycamore Creek resident said he uses Laurel Oak Drive to cut through to Braxton Parke because he has a family member who lives there.
Amy Clark, vice president of the Sycamore Creek Homeowners Association, said their subdivision has had the same issues that Braxton Parke has had with speeding, litter and break ins.
“We’re sadly ‘in the same boat,’ so to speak,” Clark said.
Clark also mentioned the position of Fire and EMS officials who attended the township meeting and said they would not support closing a road that would save time in an emergency.
McCauslin said they are looking into different types of gates that would enable emergency personnel to pass through but would not allow other vehicles to pass through.
“We just want a safe community,” McCauslin said. “What matters most to me is the kids, and I don’t even have any yet.”
Batavia Township Trustees said their authority does not allow them to make a decision about the road, however, they suggested residents investigate alternative options, such as speed bumps or speed humps, or present the issue to commissioners.
McCauslin said he presented the information from the trustee meeting to Braxton Parke residents at their annual meeting.
“They are interested in speed bumps but they want to move forward and go to commissioners,” McCauslin said about the petition. “I’m not hugely optimistic about it, but I’m going to give it my best shot.”