LISD explores options for new road to Vandegrift
LISD looks into potential new road to help alleviate before and after school traffic.
September 6, 2016
Stop, go. Stop, go. Stop, go. The bore and frustration of morning traffic is nothing new to VHS students and staff . However, there may be a chance to cut down the traffic significantly in the future.
Recently, 3M, a company that owns a large facility near the high school on McNeil Drive, has decided to sell their property. For Pamela Waggoner, Vice President of the LISD Board of Trustees and founder of the Four Points Traffic Committee, this sell could bring about new opportunities for a project long in the works.
“The initial project was trying to build the road that backs up behind Vandegrift and Four Points Middle School, which is already there, it just needs a lot of major work,” Waggoner said.
About two and a half years ago, the discussion with 3M led to a dead end.
“Our needs as a school and the safety of our kids and our teachers was our priority,” Waggoner said. “But they felt that for the safety of their employees, that their campus needed to remain shut, meaning not available for students and teachers to travel through.”
So, LISD turned to Option B. In this plan, the Traffic Committee would attempt to gain permission to fix the road already present.
“[The road] sits in the BCCP (Balcones Canyon Conservation Plan), so that pushes us out to have to go to Fish and Wildlife and try to get permission to build the road.”
Unfortunately, in the two and a half years since the project was started, LISD could never get permission from the BCCP to improve the road.
Now, however, things may be changing. With 3M selling their property, new doors have opened up.
“Possibly a new tenant [could come in] that would be willing to let us buy, if that’s what our community wants. Whatever road we needed to get out of the BCCP, and be just on that property and buy just that back half would be great,” Waggoner said.
But it’s still much too early to start making any plans. Though the possibilities of the sell are positive, nothing is for sure yet.
“We have no more information than the general public does, other than what we were able to gather in the last 24 hours, trying to figure out if there’s any opportunities for us,” Waggoner said.
