Lancaster OKs Road Through Wooded Area

The Lancaster City Council has approved plans to build a controversial road that will improve access to an elementary school but will cut through a swath of desert woodland.

Monday’s 3-2 vote was a victory for parents who have pressed the city for a road leading directly to the Nancy Cory School, which opened two years ago. The parents complained that it was unsafe for their children to reach the school from the south or the east, where no streets exist. But preservationists charged that the road--an extension of Avenue K-4--would lead to the destruction of juniper and Joshua trees that dot a 40-acre woodland area. The proposed route would cut through the northern edge of the woodland.

The road is scheduled to be built next summer at an estimated cost of $100,000, city spokeswoman Nancy Walker said.