The intersection of Spurwink Avenue and Stephenson Street is not safe, a neighborhood resident has charged.

Susan Gilbert-Hirshon, who has lived in Cape Elizabeth for more than 17 years, recently moved to Hamlin Drive, which uses the Spurwink-Stephenson intersection for an exit and entrance. She made her arguments, bolstered by diagrams and maps, during the Aug. 14 Cape Elizabeth Town Council meeting.

The most dangerous part of the intersection, she said, was turning left from Spurwink onto Stephenson, where a vehicle must turn on a blind curve. She asked councilors to drive through the intersection for themselves.

While councilors gave no response, Town Manager Michael McGovern said this week that the council will vote on installing a three-way stop at the intersection during its Sept. 11 meeting.

“It doesn’t take a traffic expert to see something is needed,” Town Council Chairman David Backer, who recently visited the intersection, said this week. “It is a very dangerous, relatively blind curve.”

The Stephenson Street neighborhood contains about 20 houses. However, more than 40 new homes are about to be added as part of the Cottage Brook development. The original plans included two access roads to the neighborhood, but a referendum passed in June banned the connection of single-access neighborhoods via short-cut streets, which were defined in the referendum and included this area.

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Jim McFarland, one of the Cottage Brook developers, said the intersection is not a problem, even with the addition of 19 condo units and 23 houses.

McFarland said while he is not a traffic development expert, a traffic study concluded the intersection would not be overstressed by the proposed increase in housing.

Gilbert-Hirshon disagreed.

“I can’t imagine being a mother with a minivan full of kids and having to use that intersection,” she said Friday. “The situation is just absurd to me.

“There is an undo burden coming in and out of here,” said Gilbert-Hirshon. “Apparently, all they can do is put in stop signs.”

Cape resident charges intersection is unsafe


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