Residents of Woodland Park filled the Georgetown City Council chambers Sept. 23 to request the city close the West Majestic Oak Lane connection from their neighborhood into Sun City and onlyallow emergency vehicles to access the road segment.

The connection, required by a 2006 agreement between the city of Georgetown and Sun City developer Pulte Homes, opened to thru traffic in April. Since that time, Woodland Park residents have seen a large increase in the number of cars traveling through their neighborhood.

This is destroying the safety and tranquility of our once peaceful neighborhood, Woodland Park resident Ken Hester said at the meeting. This problem is only going to get worse and worse. I urge you to correct this before its too late.

Georgetown city staff began collecting traffic count data 30 days after the roadway opened and were expected to conduct counts in 90-day intervals; however, because of the increasing number of vehicles, city staff has adjusted those intervals to 30 days, City Manager Paul Brandenburg told the council.

According to the citys traffic count, 715 vehicles used the roadway on May 22 and 1,455 were counted on Aug. 28.

While this [information] demonstrates a significant increase in traffic, these data are insufficient to begin to develop any trends for the demand upon the roadway, Georgetown Transportation Engineer Bill Dryden said in a memo to city staff.

Residents, who also sited speeding traffic and an increase in construction trucks, requested the council close the road immediately by installing a gate that could be accessed only by emergency vehicles.

We dont need another study, Woodland Park resident Kathy Sweeney said. We have a problem. Its sitting right thereactually, its speeding right there.

Valerie Covey, Williamson County Precinct 3 commissioner, asked residents to be patient while the city and county work together to identify a legal solution to the situation. Woodland Park is located in the county, while Sun City is in the city limits.

Its easy to say put up a gate, Covey said. But I do want to make sure its legal. Im asking for your patiencenot weeks or months but Im asking that you allow us to determine the legal [situation].

City Council asked staff members to study any legal issues with installing a gate as well as look into the types of emergency gates available and determine costs.

Brandenburg said the city will also have to coordinate with the county to determine if there should be cost sharing for the gate as well as to work out logistics with any potential system requirements for city and county emergency vehicles.

City Council is expected to discuss the issue again at its Oct. 14 meeting.