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Juneau planning commissioners bucked when city engineers asked to forgo building a traffic light because they didn't have time to build it before the new Mendenhall Valley high school opens this fall.

Commissioners decided unanimously that the city can put in a quick fix for this year. Engineers can put in a four-way stop sign at Stephen Richards Memorial Drive and Riverside Drive. Or they can install a sign forbidding left turns from Stephen Richards onto Riverside from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on school days and have a crossing guard direct traffic.

Either option will get the city a temporary certificate of occupancy, which is required before students or teachers can go to the new Thunder Mountain High School. But city engineers must put in the traffic light at that intersection within two years to get the final certificate of occupancy.

The meeting began with the issue on the consent agenda, where items are often approved without comment. But Commissioner Dan Miller pulled the issue off so commissioners would discuss it. He said the intersection was difficult enough to get through now without any school traffic.

"We don't need it today with a school that's half empty, but the school wasn't built to be half empty," he said. "I think we ought to plan for the future, and build it today for when we'll need it."

Though the project permit has required a traffic light or a roundabout since 2004, city engineers asked to be let off the hook for the light just two months before the school is scheduled to open.

"It's a timing issue. It's not really a funding issue," said John Bohan of the city engineering department. "We are behind the eight ball with the certificate of occupancy and opening the school this fall."

Bohan added that traffic consultants said the light wasn't necessary, and suggested a four-way stop sign would do the trick.

Commissioners, particularly those who drive through the area frequently, were loath to slow traffic there with a stop sign.

"I just frankly will not support a four-way stop," Vic Scarano said.

"Common sense tells us that the light is the way to go," Michael Satre said.

Commissioner Maria Gladziszewski at first said she didn't want to second-guess the project's traffic consultants, who said a traffic light wasn't necessary.

But the project, noted her fellow commissioners, has morphed since the first traffic consulting. It has fewer students than originally planned and no library or large pool. But it also now has a large athletic center that will bring more traffic.

And the commissioners didn't want traffic accidents to be the trigger that would force the city to make the intersection safer.

"I'm in favor of second-guessing the traffic engineers and pushing for a light," Frank Rue said.

• Contact reporter Kate Goldenat 523-2276 or e-mail kate.golden@juneauempire.com.