February 1, 2023 – Update:
Original Post: January 26, 2023
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” ~ Robert Burns
An apt quote, as we celebrated Robert Burns Day yesterday, and today we check in with you about the City’s Royle Road project. The longstanding plans to complete comprehensive improvements on Royle Road for safe vehicle, pedestrian, and bike travel, have not gone smoothly or quickly. Many of you have been personally impacted by it. It’s not okay. As the City Manager, and somebody who’s lived in and around this community much of my life, it’s not okay. I/we are sorry. A social media post can’t be long enough to detail all the reasons for delay and mistakes which have been made. As a team – including both the City and private contractors – they’re being corrected and learned from, and we will do better.
We are also committed to better communicating project details and progress, for this and other key projects. Here is a link to a Royle Road project page with information about the segment currently under construction, Q&A, and information about the other two segments of Royle Road which will be improved: https://ridgefieldroundtable.org/royle-road-corridor. By the end of next week we’ll add a full project schedule detailing estimated completion date for the work underway, as well as milestones along the path that will affect you.
Other project pages for key additions like the YMCA, Costco, and Pioneer Street widening will come online next month. Our project pages will offer an opportunity for you to add comments and questions that we can help address. Your direct feedback is imperative for us to keep improving, and we appreciate it.
Finally, a “development activity map” showing a map with clickable detail of every private development project that’s being applied for and constructed will be going live next week.
We are incredibly fortunate to serve this amazing community, and will continue finding ways to do it better. Robert Burns likely wasn’t talking about Ridgefield when he wrote “to see her was to love her; love but her, and love forever,” but it’s apt.
Thanks,
Steve Stuart, Ridgefield City Manager
