Traffic flow changes on tap for Creekside

At last week's Sisters City Council workshop, the Council members agreed to accept the recommendation of the Parks Advisory Board (PAB) to utilize Buckaroo Trail and Desperado as the one-way ingress to the Creekside Campground (CCG) and to have campground traffic exit onto South Locust with a right-turn only.

Several grateful residents of the Buck Run and Tyee neighborhoods thanked the City Council for accepting the recommendation.

Lyn Baker, whose home is located directly across from the current CCG entrance on South Locust, was pleased with the PAB recommendation and told the Council, "Thank you for being attentive to our needs."

Steve Bryan, who lives on Tyee to the south of the CCG, was glad to see the traffic shared by multiple neighborhoods.

"I am happy to see it coming to a decent and fair conclusion," he said.

It has taken almost a year of PAB meetings, neighborhood meetings and a petition, public testimony, and a traffic study of the two Highway 20 intersections closest to the campground to reach this point.

Residents of Buck Run and Coyote Springs have been diligent in their efforts to make the City aware of the growing impact of the CCG on their neighborhoods. They submitted to the Council and the PAB a petition with 104 signatures asking for the City to remedy the noise, traffic, and loss of privacy posed by the CCG during the tourist season. The City has responded by agreeing to install berms and landscaping along Locust and Tyee to help reduce the sight and sound of the CCG.

The traffic revision is being undertaken as an interim solution to the problem of RVs parking along the streets, and CCG traffic wandering through neighborhoods, creating congestion, noise, and exhaust fumes.

There is a dream for the future, if the State of Oregon decides to move the truck scales from their current location on Highway 20, to make that the location of a new entrance and exit to the park, thus removing all CCG traffic from neighborhood surface streets.

According to a traffic study undertaken by Kittelson and Associates of Bend, making the ingress/egress changes on Buckaroo and Locust will not negatively or positively impact either intersection. The US 20/Buckaroo Trail intersection is currently operating far below traffic capacity and will be able to handle the traffic accessing the CCG via Buckaroo Trail and Desperado.

As everyone is aware, the US 20/Locust Street intersection already exceeds capacity and will continue to fail with only egress from the CCG onto Locust and out to the highway.

By adopting the access changes, the problem of traffic wandering through neighborhoods south of the CCG will be reduced. Less traffic will be shifted to the FivePine area, by siting only the ingress off Buckaroo and Desperado, and not having all the traffic entering and exiting there like it does now on Locust. The burden of CCG traffic will be more equitably shared by more neighborhoods.

Once the final draft of the CCG park master plan is accepted by both the PAB and the Council, it will be sent to the Oregon Park and Recreation Department for their approval. The ingress/egress changes will come on line next spring when the CCG opens for the 2016 season.

For now, the City can proceed with planting trees and shrubs for screening. When the campground closes on October 31, the City will be able to begin work on proposed changes within the campground, removing several campsites near Locust Street and shortening some campsites along Tyee.