Mount Pleasant Committee Sides with Cottage Drive Residents

Cottage Drive in Mount Pleasant is a short, quiet street that will hopefully, with the village's support, stay that way.

The Mount Pleasant Public Works Committee on Jan. 12 voted to recommend that trustees support adding a left turn lane for eastbound traffic headed for Korndoerfer Development to keep that same traffic off of Cottage Drive.

During the , state Department of Transportation representatives presented preliminary plans for 2016 that include widening two miles of Durand Avenue to improve how it both looks and functions. But part of that plan would have kept heavy semi-trucks from being able to turn into Korndoerfer as vehicles head east, directing that traffic north instead onto Cottage Drive and to an access drive into the business.

In order to do that, Cottage Drive would need a complete reconstruction, requiring right-of-way land purchases from homeowners, intallation of storm sewer, sewer, curb and gutter and getting resurfaced. Planning Department cost estimates hover around $700,000, all of which would be funded by the village.

Dean Winiarski has lived on Cottage Drive for 18 months and he presented the committee with a petition in opposition to truck traffic signed by all the adults who live there.

"This is a quiet, residential street and we want to keep it that way," he said.

Bill Sasse, director of engineering for Mount Pleasant, said his staff sides with the DOT because of potential safety issues and more stringent design standards.

"We concur with the state," he said. "But if the Village Board requires a turn lane there into Korndoerfer, the state will probably go along."

Carl Korndoerfer objected at the public information meeting and explained his point further during the Public Works meeting.

"We have 60 to 70 trucks a day going into and out of our location so really it's more of a safety issue to have that traffic using Cottage Drive," he said. "We also have to consider future commercial development on the south side of Highway 11 and how traffic will increase, making a left turn lane even more important."

In the end, a three-way intersection was recommended for Korndoerfer and the companies in the out building: in and out traveling west and entrance traveling east.

The Mount Pleasant Village Board will take up the Cottage Drive issue at the 7 pm Jan. 23 Board meeting at Village Hall, 8811 Campus Drive. Call (262) 664-7800.