Neighborhood safety spurs young O’Fallon family into action

Safety concerns over the traffic impact the proposed Brandywine Garden Villas development may have on their neighborhood has spurred Julia and Michael Skrabacz to get involved in their community.

A military veteran, Mike, and his wife, Julia, who is in the U.S. Coast Guard, moved to the Southview Gardens neighborhood in O’Fallon five years ago, and now have a 4-year-old and 2-year-old who play in their front yard, which is located near a four-way stop on Whitehall Drive.

Their neighbor told them about the 53-acre development project that would affect their neighborhood and have quickly become residential activists.

Steve Valentine of Lombardo Homes is seeking approval for the mixed-use development project at the northeast corner of South Lincoln Avenue and Interstate 64.

They are worried about opening Whitehall Drive to be accessible to 174 attached single-story villas, a 50-unit memory care facility, a 12,600-square feet retail building and 11,400-square-foot office building on an undeveloped agricultural site known as Rasp Farm. It’s near Memorial Hospital Shiloh.

“As young parents, our kids are our main priority. Our main concern is the parking on the streets and the fast cars that come through,” Mike said.

Some people cut through the subdivision to avoid U.S. 50 to get to South Lincoln Avenue, they said.

Meet-and-greet

Julia has posted on several social media sites an invitation for a meet-and-greet from 4-6 p.m. in their front yard at 215 Whitehall Drive on Monday, June 6, before the O’Fallon City Council meeting at 7 p.m. that evening, which is at city hall, and accessible via Zoom and recorded video on the ofallon.org website.

It states: “Save Whitehall Drive from being a thoroughfare for a large apartment complex!”

“We’re hoping to let as many neighbors know that this is a project impacting us all. We’re hoping to get a good community response to avoid them jamming more traffic into our residential streets like that,” Julia said. “We want to discuss ideas. All are welcome. We want to be a united community at the meeting that evening.”

Julia said she has received a good response from neighbors.

Mike, who grew up in Maryland, said he has family who grew up in East St. Louis after emigrating from Poland to work in the National City stockyards. Julia is from Houston. They selected Southview Gardens because it was close to the public library, post office and the community park.

“We moved to midtown to be accessible to all of that,” he said.

‘This would create a public hazard situation’

The older subdivision has more parking on the streets — out of residents’ needs — but that has created blind spots, they said.

“This would create a public hazard situation,” Mike said.

The O’Fallon Consolidated School District 90 elementary school, Laverna Evans, is in their neighborhood, located at 802 Dartmouth Drive. Mike said traffic is “bumper-to-bumper” during drop-offs and pick-ups twice daily.

“It will definitely add to that. With the school buses, it’s a total traffic jam,” he said.

Julia said they fear for speeding cars. Since they have lived there, it’s only increased, she noted.

“People drive way too fast and don’t stop at the intersection. They do rolling stops or not at all,” she said. “The kids play in the front yard, and we have a dog.”

Vague letter

They have a copy of a March 29 letter some residents received from engineer Nick Smock for the developer — Lombardo Homes — regarding the proposal because those within 250 feet are required to be notified.

But Julia thought it was vague regarding the plans.

The Skrabaczs also suggested new crosswalks to provide another safety measure.

They plan to attend the council meeting, and any other meetings held on the matter.

For further information, all city meeting agendas and minutes are posted at www.ofallon.org.