The Ames City Council passed a resolution Tuesday to move forward with a plan to change the intersection of 13th Street and Grand Avenue.

The intersection is an item of concern because of its congestion, which is a safety concern, and can often cause drivers to sit through more than one red light in order to turn during peak traffic hours.

According to WHKS and Company, the city planning company in charge of the proposed improvement, the 13th Street and Grand Avenue intersection has ranked in the top 5 percent of Ames intersections with the greatest amount of accidents for the past 10 years, excluding 2001.

In a public forum, a group of residents from the neighborhood around the intersection presented the council with a list of questions and reasons not to implement a dramatic change at the intersection.

The residents’ concerns largely had to do with the fact that the intersection improvement concept included the acquisition of private property in order to widen traffic lanes.

Suzanne Schoenrock, of Ames, said her property would decrease significantly in size according to the current projections for the lane widening. She said she could see that there is a need for something to be done at the intersection, but she did not believe acquiring property was the correct solution.

Schoenrock said the increase in traffic lanes would cut out her front yard almost entirely, remove a tree and place a streetlight directly in front of her house.

“This is our lives that you guys are dealing with,” she said.

Similar sentiments were presented to the council throughout the evening, as the residents from the affected neighborhood came forward with prepared speeches as well as spontaneous objections to the plan.

“Property owners along 13th and Grand are being asked to sacrifice their lifelong investment in their homes just so other citizens of Ames can travel through at a higher speed,” said Ames resident Kim Burnett in a prepared speech.

The residents suggested that the council look for alternatives, including merely upgrading the traffic signal at the intersection, or somehow redesigning the traffic lanes while using the existing space.

However, the members of WHKS and Co. who presented the council with the concepts for the improvement plan informed the council that all alternatives that merely redesigned the existing traffic space would not improve congestion.

“It’s a question of capacity,” said 4th Ward councilman Riad Mahayni, stressing that he foresaw the problem only continuing to be an issue in the future if it was not addressed soon.

The resolution was passed with a 4-2 majority.