Brush Creek-area residents to Parks Committee: ‘We felt blindsided’

Marianne Noll (right) and Leo Wetherill spoke on behalf of 10 Brush Creek-area residents upset about the new fence along Tomahawk Road.

Ten Prairie Village homeowners with property near the new Brush Creek fence presented a unified front at the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting Wednesday night, with representatives telling the committee they were upset and disappointed with the way the project had been carried out.

“We felt blindsided,” said Marianne Noll, who lives with her husband Steve, a City Councilman, on 71st Terrace a block to the west of the fence.

Leo Wetherill, whose house sits on Tomahawk Road across from the project, said he couldn’t comprehend why the city hadn’t held a neighborhood meeting on the fence and trail.

“I wish there were some process where somebody from the city would have just knocked on my door and told me what was in the works,” he said.

Statute requires that there must be a neighborhood meeting on projects where streets are significantly rebuilt or rerouted. So when the city was preparing to put in an eight-foot trail from Franklin Park to Corinth Square while it was resurfacing Somerset Drive, it was required to hold a neighborhood meeting.

Because the Porter Park to the Village Shops trail didn’t involved any streetwork, the city had no legal obligation to hold a neighborhood meeting. That, Parks Chair Diana Ewy Sharp no acknowledges, was a mistake.

“We should have had a neighborhood meeting,” she said. “I realize that now, and I’ll be recommending that we make that part of our policy in the future.”

As things stand now, however, the city looks to be in a position where there will be significant pressure to remove the fence that was just installed at a cost of approximately $20,000 and come up with an alternative plan that satisfies neighborhood residents.