Planned roundabout provokes sharp words in Roswell

By Ralph Ellis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mattie Smith gets as mad as a 103-year-old woman can get when the subject of Roswell’s planned traffic roundabout comes up.

City officials hope the roundabout -- a circular intersection where traffic flows counterclockwise around a center island -- will make things safer at Grimes Bridge Road and Norcross Street. The city said the five-legged intersection, which gets clogged with morning and afternoon rush-hour traffic, had the 12th-highest accident rate in the city in 2007.

But for Mrs. Smith, the plans threaten to turn her life upside down. She says the construction noise and disruption will force her to move out of the three-bedroom house where she’s lived since 1983.

“It’s injuring what time I’ve got left,” Mrs. Smith said while sitting at “my watchtower,” a sunny window from which she can view birds and squirrels -- and the intersection where the roundabout would be built. “They’re not considering my feelings, and they’re not considering my health.”

The city plans to slice about three-tenths of an acre off the lot, pave ground close to the carport and park heavy equipment in the front yard for eight to 12 months, said her son, Gary Smith. He owns the land.

She’s not the only person who’s upset. Ninety-four people have signed an online petition opposing the roundabout. It would be the first in Fulton County’s second-largest city, and at least two more are in the pipeline.

It's probably too late for residents to stop the project. The city approved $1 million in funding in October 2008. Construction could start as early as February if rights of way are obtained, said city transportation director Steve Acenbrak.

He said Roswell is just doing its duty.

“It’s unacceptable for the city to sit by and do nothing while we have an area with a high accident rate,” he said. “We’ve studied this for years and concluded we need a roundabout.”

This roundabout would replace a traffic light in a residential neighborhood about a mile from City Hall, with a Mormon church on one corner and houses on the others.

“It’s a cut-through for people who live in east Cobb going to Ga. 400,” said Gary Smith, 67, of Cumming.

A roundabout, sometimes called a rotary, is a common sight in Europe. About 70 roundabouts exist in Georgia, including Cobb, Douglas and DeKalb counties in the Atlanta metro area.

Residents agree the intersection needs improving, but many think adding turn lanes would solve the problem more cheaply and cause less damage to private property. But Acenbrak said studies show turn lanes would cost about the same, take as long to build and disrupt just as much land.

That’s how the conversation between residents and City Hall is going.

Residents say the roundabout will endanger pedestrians and bicyclists, lower property values, kill historic trees, fail to handle the volume of traffic on Norcross Street and increase accidents because motorists are unfamiliar with how to drive in a roundabout.

The city counters every claim, often using statistics gathered from around the world. For instance, an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study showed intersections converted to roundabouts had a 39 percent drop in total crashes, a 76 percent drop in injury crashes and an 89 percent drop in fatal wrecks. Plus, a roundabout will cut electricity and gasoline consumption, Acenbrak said.

Barney Burroughs doesn't buy the city's promises. He said an arborist told him several historic willow oaks on his corner lot will be stressed and eventually die because of the  project.

“They’re not coming in with a chain saw, but that’s all they’re not doing,” he said.

The city would knock down a noise-reducing berm at Mrs. Smith's house and destroy most of the garden she has painstakingly kept for more than two decades. Gary Smith scoffs at the idea that property values won’t drop. He said an appraiser determined his mother’s house was worth about $185,000 now and would be worth about $175,000 after the roundabout. A real estate broker told him nobody would seriously look at the property as a residence after the roundabout.

Keeping up the house and garden has kept Mrs. Smith alive and sharp for years. Her son said she's “a country girl” who taught for years in a one-room schoolhouse near Buchanan, in west Georgia.

“We wouldn’t feel safe with her being here … with all the construction work and the people around,” he said. “The doctor has said any move could decrease the number of years she has left.”

People in the neighborhood also complain the city did a bad job of telling them about the project. Some residents didn't know until November. But officials said they went the extra mile with hearings, open houses and Web site postings.

“We do our best to reach everybody … but some folks didn’t get the message until the decision was made,” Mayor Jere Wood said. “It’s not typical, but it happens.”

The City Council approved a roundabout study in February 2008. Roundabouts were discussed at four meetings in 2008 and three last year, Acenbrak said. Yard signs announcing some meetings were posted in the neighborhood but didn't specifically mention roundabouts because they were just being discussed at that point, he said.

“We should have acted a year ago,” Burroughs said. “We were all asleep at the switch.”

Meanwhile, Mattie Smith awaits her future and recites an old poem, not statistics, to explain her feelings.

“I have lived in the house by the side of the road and been a friend to man,” she said. “I don’t want to move.”