8B, Planning Case 12-009 - 1201 County Road E Reuse Proposal

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Study had p.m. peak hour traffic for the specialty retail of 80 trips based on a day care facility and a fitness club. The Addendum changes those uses to a bike shop and an insurance office and reduces the p.m. peak hour trips from 80 to 35, a 56% reduction. Similarly, the Traffic Study predicted p.m. peak hour trip generation from Lot 2 at 166 based on a pharmacy w/drive-thru and the Addendum reduces that number of p.m. peak hour trips to 36 based on a 24,000 square foot office. This is a 78% reduction from the Traffic Study. The Addendum goes on to compare the reduced p.m. peak hour trips from the proposed redevelopment of the site to the 2008 Spack Consulting Traffic Impact Study that was prepared as part of the Guiding Plan for the B2 District. The Spack Traffic Impact Study estimated a total of 1,960 daily trips and 239 p.m. peak hour trips based on redevelopment of the Holiday Inn/McGuire's site into 95 apartment units and 120,000 square feet of office. The Addendum suggests that based on their development scenario for the site it will only generate 1,818 total daily trips with 145 p.m. peak hour trips. The Addendum states, "the current development plan results in less daily and p.m. peak hour trip generation than anticipated in the Guiding Plan for the B2 District." This is true if the site develops exactly as is indicated in the Addendum. I believe that there is an equally good chance that at full build-out it will generate as much or more p.m. peak hour trips as the Spack Traffic Impact Study estimated from the site. Because the Addendum is totally silent on other findings of the Spack Traffic Impact Study it tends to imply that as long as the development generates less traffic than anticipated in the Spack Study everything will be fine. This really is not the whole story. The Spack Study looked at the redevelopment of the Holiday Inn/McGuire's site assuming the existing building would be razed and the redevelopment would start with an empty lot. This would allow driveways to be positioned in the places where they would function best given the anticipated traffic. Even with this assumption the Executive SLul�mary of the Spack Study says the following: The driveways on County Road E for the Holiday Inn site and the Arden Plaza site will experience significant delay and queuing in the p.m. peak hour. This is acceptable as an interim situation because it is not expected to pose a safety problem, little queuing is anticipated on County Road E. Long term, the queuing will impact the vitality of the redevelopments and could lead to safety problems. These driveways should be realigned midway between Pine Tree Drive and Lexington Avenue to provide a four legged intersection that could be controlled with a traffic signal. Left turn lanes and shared through/right lanes should be provided on the north and south legs to provide adequate egress. 2 of 3