Spring Mill Road residents win fight against West 91st Street roundabout

Most hours of the day and night, the corner of Spring Mill Road and West 91st Street in Indianapolis is a tranquil four-way crossing, with a thick canopy of trees in every direction.

“It’s a very quiet area, with beautiful old homes,” said Sally Page, who lives in the nearby Belle Meade subdivision.

But at rush hour, things change dramatically. Thousands of commuters descend on the area, some of them trying to avoid Meridian Street, a major artery one block east.

Even so, it’s not smooth sailing. Once motorists hit the intersection, with stop signs on all four corners, they have to slow down. During rush hour, traffic backs up for blocks, as hundreds of drivers take turns going through crossing.

Two years ago, city officials said they had found a way to ease the congestion — pull out the stop signs and build a one-lane roundabout. Traffic could flow continuously around a central island, eliminating stop-and-go traffic and long backups.

The goal of the roundabout, city officials said, was to clear the intersection more quickly while discouraging drivers from cutting through nearby streets to avoid the congested intersection.

The Department of Public Works received more than $9 million in federal transportation grants to build six roundabouts in Marion County, the first to be built on major roads in the city. The city chipped in matching money from the RebuildIndy program. The ball started rolling.

But as city officials were to find out, not everyone was on board.

Some residents along Spring Mill Road said the project would ruin their neighborhood. Four property owners on the corners would lose parts of their lawns. Dozens of trees would have to be pulled down.

“Why does the city want to destroy property and decrease the value of property?” said James Madura, a retired surgeon who lives on Copley Drive, about five blocks north of the intersection. “I got very angry.”

Residents also worried that a faster intersection would bring more traffic from nearby Meridian, as commuters looked for a quicker drive that would help them avoid stop lights and stop signs.

“We didn’t want to turn Spring Mill Road into a mini-Meridian,” Page said.

And some neighbors said the continuous flow of cars would make it difficult to get in and out of their driveways and access roads.

Not here

Around the country, roundabouts are gaining in popularity as a way to reduce congestion and cut down on emissions. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that conversions “reduced injury crashes by 80 percent and all crashes by 40 percent.”

But some residents, including Page and Madura, weren’t buying it. They say Spring Mill is already too busy at rush hour, and doesn’t need to move faster or attract more traffic.

They also point to Carmel, just to the north, where a three-mile stretch of Spring Mill includes seven roundabouts. They say that’s already funneled more traffic into their neighborhood.

Page and Madura drew up a petition against the roundabout project and gathered more than 80 signatures.

DPW, in response, said it sent surveys to hundreds of residents in the area and held three community meetings.

Some neighbors, however, said they never got a survey. They said they didn’t hear of some of the meetings until afterward.

In December, the Department of Public Works held a final meeting. Madura showed up with his petitions, and handed them to officials. He sent another set to Mayor Greg Ballard’s office.

Page showed up with a list of questions. But the people running the meeting, she said, wanted to meet homeowners individually to discuss engineering details, not talk to the room as a whole about whether they wanted a roundabout.

Frustrated, Page sent an email on Jan. 16 to Ryan Vaughn, chief of staff to Ballard, who was her former councilman.

“We do not believe that this is the way the mayor wants neighborhoods treated,” she wrote. “We would appreciate his help.”

Less than an hour later, she received an email response from Vaughn.

“Thanks for reaching out,” he wrote. “The short version, we’ve decided to cancel the federally funded project.”

He said the city had held several meetings and all property owners who would be impacted “were willing sellers who expressed support for the project.” But in the face of widespread of opposition, the city would back down.

The other five roundabouts in Marion County still will go ahead, Vaughn confirmed last week. And if the Spring Mill Road residents want to reconsider, it’s still not too late. The design and land acquisition was nearly completed, he said.

Page and Madura said they aren’t likely to change their minds. But they’re grateful that city officials heeded their wishes.

“I’ve always heard you can’t fight city hall,” Madura said. “Maybe this mayor is listening.”

Call Star reporter John Russell at (317) 444-6283 and follow him on Twitter @johnrussell99.