KILLEEN, Texas (KXXV) — After hearing that a new residential development could be coming near his home on Featherline Road, James Sills and his neighbors are fighting for improvements to Featherline Road and its intersection with Chaparral Road.
“They proposed the development in March,” said Sills, founder of Fixfeatherilne.com.
“That’s when we really started researching and understanding what was really going on here. We talked to a lot of residents in Yowell and many other areas and got a lot of feedback that things weren’t going so well with this street.”
Since Chaparral High opened its doors, traffic on Featherline and Chaparral has increased dramatically.
He was able to confirm the numbers on the TxDOT website.
“In fact, since last year, the average traffic volume has been over 11,000 per day,” Sills said.
“For comparison, Stagecoach only has 13,000. There are certain parts of I14 that only have 14,000.”
The county had planned to put a stop sign at the intersection last month, but the plan was delayed by a request for a public hearing.
The hearing took place Monday in Bell County Commissioners Court.
“Several residents have shown up,” said Bell County Judge David Blackburn.
“Most of the residents were from this area. In fact, I think everyone who spoke at the public hearing was from this area, and I think all but one of them were in favor of having an all-way stop station.”
Immediately afterwards, a vote against the stop sign followed.
“I think the majority of the court felt that we needed to do what’s called a warrant study and get more traffic information to find out whether a three-way stop sign at this intersection would actually increase public safety or even harm it,” Blackburn said.
The investigation could take 60 days to complete and Blackburn said action would be taken once the results were available.
