There has been a proposal by the Town of Winona Lake to widen Cherry Avenue that runs behind 1 and 3 Stone Camp Trail and in front of 201 and 203 Cherry Avenue. While we understand and value the betterment of the streets in our town, we do not feel this development is necessary and are opposed to the proposal.

The yards of the homes in our area border Cherry Avenue and Oakwood Avenue, which is being proposed to widen into two lanes. Current property lines can come within approximately 8 feet of the pavement. Our children, as well as other children in the neighborhood and community play in these yards nearly every day so we are sensitive to the traffic on that road. Widening this road would push pavement closer to property lines and it could potentially encourage more traffic to use the road. Currently the traffic in this area is infrequent and two cars attempting to pass at the same time on this stretch of road is rare. The change would allow cars to travel faster than they already do increasing risk to bikers, joggers, and children playing in and around the area.

Due to these added risks and unneeded change we are respectfully opposed to modifying the width of the existing road and allocating town funds toward this project.