Henderson to vote on changes to College, Paradise Hills drives

By Jeremy Twitchell

Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008 | 11:45 a.m.

Henderson is considering minor changes to College and Paradise Hills drives to keep the streets more in line with the rural nature of the area.

The changes to be considered are adding a bike/horse path and landscape buffer on College from Mission Hills Drive to Paradise Hills and improving drainage on Paradise Hills from College to Greenway Road.

Though Paradise Hills Drive remains a two-lane road in the current plan, with one lane of travel in each direction, city staff wrote in a memo to the Planning Commission that the road will eventually become four lanes, with two lanes of travel in each direction.

The Planning Commission voted 5-0 in favor of the changes on Thursday. The City Council is scheduled to vote on them Sept. 16.

If approved, the changes would be made to the Master Streets and Highways Plan, the city's document that shows the location and size of existing roads as well as all roads that are planned for the future.

The areas in question are within the Mission Hills Rural Preservation Area, a neighborhood that is intended to provide a rural feel with larger lot sizes and limiting certain aspects of city life, such as street lights and sidewalks.

Neighborhood representative Dan Abendroth said the changes represented a compromise between what residents want in the area and what the city needs.

"We came up with a very 50-50 way of designing this area," he said.

Abendroth said residents are particularly concerned with improving the drainage in the area near the intersection of College and Paradise Hills, a challenge given the area's restrictions on curbs and gutters. Commissioners accepted the request, which had also been noted by city planners in their memo to the commission, and directed planners to develop a drainage plan without curbs and gutters.

Abendroth said heavy rains a few days prior to the Planning Commission meeting had caused a flood at the intersection and had caused serious damage to the landscaping of one resident who lives on the corner.

"We still have problems with drainage and landscaping being washed away," Abendroth said.

Jeremy Twitchell is a reporter for the Home News. He can be reached at 990-8928 or [email protected].