Windsor Heights business leaders and at least one city councilman say it’s time for the city to consider removing two traffic cameras on University Avenue that have issued more than 73,000 speeding tickets in the past two years.

“We understand from a branding perspective it doesn’t look very good,” Councilman Zac Bales-Henry said.

City officials discussed the possibility of ending the speed camera program last month.

Local businesses are on board, according to Michael Libbie, executive director of the Windsor Heights Chamber of Commerce. He said consumers are avoiding the city because of cameras.

Councilwoman Threase Harms, however, said the cameras are doing their job and slowing drivers.

“If we are to (remove the cameras), we need to make sure we have the right policies and the right structures in place in order to address or implement other traffic-calming practices,” she said.

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Harms said business owners have not provided any concrete data to show they're losing customers from the traffic cameras.

The topic arose during a discussion about the city's plans to redesign University Avenue between 63rd and 73rd streets. An advisory group has recommended shrinking University Avenue to three lanes and raising the speed limit from 25 mph to 30 mph.

Windsor Heights launched its speed camera program in 2012. The initial cameras were installed in mobile units. The city added two permanent traffic cameras — one in the 6400 block and the other in the 7100 block of University Avenue — in February 2017.

By the end of 2018, the University Avenue cameras had issued 73,219 violations to drivers going at least 11 mph over the 25 mph speed limit.

In the two years since the cameras were installed, the number of citations being issued has dropped. There were 4,000 violations in the first month the cameras were active, compared to about 1,900 citations in December 2018.

“It definitely has worked,” said Chad McCluskey, Windsor Heights’ public safety director.

Fines range from $65 for drivers traveling between 11-15 mph over the speed limit up to $130 for violations that occur in a construction zone. American Traffic Solutions, the vendor that owns and maintains Windsor Heights' cameras, takes a $26 fee from each fine.

The city collected about $1.5 million in revenue from the tickets in 2018, McCluskey said.

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“To know that that much revenue is coming in is a little sickening,” Bales-Henry said. He was the only City Council member to vote against installing the cameras in 2017.

Windsor Heights’ contract with American Traffic Solutions is scheduled to expire in spring 2020.

Libbie said business owners along University Avenue would cheer removal of the cameras, but that redesigning the roadway is the more important issue. He said it's built like a highway, fluctuating between four to five lanes wide, and invites drivers to travel 40 to 45 mph.

“Physiologically, that’s what the road tells them they can do,” Libbie said.

Engineers from the consulting firm Bolton and Menk are developing a conceptual design for the road. Plans call for one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction, with a center turn lane. A 12-foot wide trail could run along the south side of the road.

Jessica Vogel, a communication specialist for Windsor Heights, said the city council will still have to formally approve the three-lane design. Nothing is final yet.

Construction is tentatively slated to start in June 2020. The project could cost the city around $5.5 million.

Meanwhile, Des Moines plans to narrow a stretch of University Avenue on its western edge where the roadway enters Windsor Heights.

State considers speed cameras

A decision whether to keep or scrap traffic cameras could be out of Windsor Heights' hands as state lawmakers move forward with a proposed ban on the automotive enforcement devices.

The Iowa Senate passed a bill banning automated traffic enforcement cameras last week. The Senate passed a similar bill last year that went nowhere in the Iowa House.

Meanwhile, the Iowa House is working on a bill that would allow the state to collect some revenue from the cameras.

An Iowa Poll conducted in 2018 found 54 percent of adults surveyed want to get rid of automated traffic enforcement cameras, while 40 percent supported them. A poll this year found 62 percent of respondents said speed cameras don’t deserve lawmakers' attention.