AVON LAKE, Ohio — Avon Lake is raising the speed limit on a stretch of busy road amid a lawsuit claiming it was improperly lowered.
On Wednesday, the speed limit on the western section of Lake Road will go from 25 mph to 35 mph. It will remain 25 mph for the 1,500-foot stretch between the western drive to the Beach Park Station shopping center and the water filtration plant east of Moore Rd.
“It’s such a small stretch there that’s now going to be 35. It used to be 25. I don’t think it makes that much of a difference,” said Clem Napoli, who lives in Avon Lake and often rides his bicycle down Lake Road.
He told News 5 the road, also known as U.S. Route 6, hasn’t felt particularly dangerous.
“Bicycling’s dangerous. You have to be aware all the time on a bicycle, no matter what,” he said. “We did have a couple of bicycles that were hit here a few years ago. One was killed and the other was hurt pretty bad. Those were both [involving] drunk drivers. And I don’t think it had anything to do with the speed limit.”
A lawsuit filed in Lorain County Common Pleas Court in late April claims Lake Road should have been a 35 mph speed zone all along.
“The laws should be the laws as they are,” said attorney Gerald Phillips. “This is not proper. [My client] brought it to their attention and they didn’t correct it.”
Phillips filed the lawsuit on behalf of several Avon Lake residents, including William Zimmerman. He said Zimmerman had been questioning the city council about the speed limit accuracy for the past year.
“He kept asking for any notice, any documentation that council authorized lowering that speed limit. We found nothing,” he said.
ODOT told News 5 it authorized the 35 mph zone in 1958. The lawsuit includes a 1989 letter from the department denying Avon Lake’s request to lower the speed limit to 25 mph.
Phillips claims the city had no authority to lower the speed limit and has, therefore, been issuing speeding tickets to drivers who weren’t technically speeding.
“They’ve been illegally collecting tickets by charging people who go less than 35,” he said.
A recent city ordinance passed by council members designated a portion of Lake Road as a business district and kept the speed limit at 25 mph. Phillips believes the area near Beach Park Station doesn’t meet the criteria for a business district and should not qualify for the reduced speed limit.
“They knew we were going to file a lawsuit, so they hurried up and proposed some legislation,” he said.
Phillips plans to file a separate class-action lawsuit on behalf of drivers who were issued speeding tickets for going faster than 25 mph but less than 35 mph on Lake Road. He said he’s in the process of figuring out how many such tickets were issued in the past 6 years.
“[We] believe having that section at 25 isn’t for safety,” he said. “They collect revenues.”
In an email, Avon Lake Mayor Mark Spaetzel said the speed limit change was the result of Zimmerman’s inquiries about its accuracy. He said the change was initiated before the lawsuit was filed, and he could not comment on anything related to the litigation.
