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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSPRING CREEK VILLAGE - MODIFICATION OF STANDARD - 26-99 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - MODIFICATION REQUESTThis paper defines the Alternative Plan that we are proposing as our Modification to the Standard. This paper discusses our reasoning for making this design alternative. And it demonstrates how we meet the criteria set forth in the Land Use Code. Specifically I have addressed the requirements of Division Two and Three as is pertains to Modification of the Standards. We believe that this paper and accompanying documentation demonstrates that the Public Good and benefit to the surrounding Neighborhood is met with our alternative design. Public safety will be at risk if the streets are connected. That Public Policy found in the West Central Neighborhood Plan is met with our alternative Design, and traffic congestion on a City wide scale is not affected with or without this street connection. We believe that we have demonstrated that our alternative Design promotes Public Safety, encourages alternative means of circulation, and is a minor impact to a natural area. These aspects of our plan meet current written City Planning Policies. For these reasons we believe that our Modification should be granted. We appreciate you consideration in this matter. The public interest will be protected because the streets in the existing neighborhoods are not constructed to current City Standards. These streets were constructed to rural standards in the 1960's. If the connection of Hobbit and Wallenberg is made the streets in the Sheeley Addition will be impacted with ten times the traffic that they currently have. This will cause a deterioration of the streets and a substantial financial liability to the City to reconstruction these streets. The second point of the first criteria calls for an equal or better performance for the properties involved when the Modification is applied. We believe a superior transportation link of the two areas is made with our Alternative Plan. This plan provides the means for the residents to travel safely to and from their destination through this site in a more efficient time frame. For alternative transportation to work this time element needs to be addressed. With our alternative link the residents will be encouraged to leave the car at home because the pathways are more efficient. These neighbors will be safer because the travelers on the multi -modal paths will not need to contend with cut through traffic traveling at high rates of speed. The second criterion is met because this Alternative Plan meets the intentions of the West Central Neighborhood Plan. This adopted policy of the City was drafted as a joint project of the City and the Neighborhoods found in this area. Some of the findings of this study that specifically apply to this proposal are found in the character goals for the Neighborhood. Of particular interest are items LU 1, LU 2, and LU 7 that focus on the maintaining the character of the existing neighborhoods. The connection of this street greatly impacts these neighborhoods by directing a high volume of "cut through" traffic. With this additional traffic comes additional noise, pollution, and a reduction in the general safety of the existing street. This will change the character of the neighborhood and as noted in this study cause a deterioration of the existing neighborhood. Items LU 7 and LU 16 calls for a minimizing of impact to natural areas. Extension of this street across the importation canal will impact the area with a substantial urban structure. The City is requiring that this structure be a bridge. The proposed plan will have a greatly reduced impact to the natural area.. Reviewing the maps developed with this study you will find the defining of the natural area that this link would disturb. You will see links defined for alternative transportation routes passing through this property of both pedestrian and bicycles. You do not find a motorized vehicle link called for by the Plan. In discussing this aspect with Neighborhood members of the Plan they were emphatic in pointing out that this connection was considered undesirable. The link with vehicles is not shown and the Plan indicates.that this link has no benefit. We believe that the information presented shows that by relieving the requirement to connect Hobbit Street to Walenberg Drive the public good is being served. If this connection is made, no significant benefit will be gained by the community at large. Current transportation and service level of the surrounding Arterial Streets is affected minimally with the connection to the point that the relief will not be perceivable. The purpose of the Land Use Code is not impaired with this modification because alternative modes of circulation meet the needs of the surrounding community and this property to a better and safer level than a standard local designed street. The Transportation Study indicates that the street connection will be used primarily by current traffic avoiding the intersection. This type of traffic when taken from an arterial street to a local street will tend to maintain the speed of the arterial street. This creates an unsafe condition for the pedestrians and bicycle users who on local streets are closer to the travel lanes for motorized vehicles. This places those wanting to use alternative means of transportation at risk. To avoid this risk, these alternative means of circulation will tend to resort to using motorized vehicles to regain the sense of security. Without the vehicular component of the link, which is the only aspect not being constructed with this proposal, the alternative means of circulation intended to be generated from a general area can be achieved. This meets the intention of the Code and City Policies to reduce auto traffic and increase alternative means of circulation. The Project provides an alternative plan that concentrates on the.pedestrian and bicycle circulation as the predominant means of transportation between the existing neighborhoods to the east and this property. Our project is intending to provide construct of a seven foot wide concrete multi -modal path from the existing Spring Creek Trail Extension that serves the Wallenberg and Sheeley Neighborhoods, continuously through our property with multiple points of destination in mind. This pathway will connect the traveler to the commercial, medical, and personal service shops that will be developed on this property as well as the existing commercial area directly to the west of the property at Shields and Stuart. This circulation system will link the traveler to the medical offices to the southwest, directly south of Spring Creek, to the existing neighborhood elementary school that serves this neighborhood, to the University to the north, and to the Community at -large by means of Transfort. It is noted that we are providing with this project a location for a transit stop and for a bus turn-off sized to handle two buses off the traffic lanes of Shields Street. We believe that these possibilities for multi -modal transportation are enhanced without the construction of the street connection. There are three additional criteria of which a project must achieve only one to have the Planning Commission rule in favor of the Modification. We believe that this project meets the requirements outlined for Criteria One and Two. The first criteria calls for the project to protect the public interest and provide equal or better service with the modified standard. v In addition, the increased traffic will cause structural problems to the existing streets. The existing streets within the Sheeley Addition were constructed over thirty years ago. These streets were constructed to a standard that is more rural in character. The streets are constructed substandard to what has been built within the City over the last twenty years and certainly to the standards of today's local streets. These streets will deteriorate very rapidly if the connecting street is constructed allowing the diversion traffic to flow through the neighborhood. This is a safety factor and an aesthetic factor that will be detrimental to the neighborhood if the connection from Hobbit is made. ✓ Subjectively the connection of Hobbit Street to Wallenberg Drive will be a large structure as required by the Storm Drainage Department to cross the Importation Canal. The Storm Drainage Department is requiring a bridge to clear span the canal to allow potential flooding conditions to pass under and through to Spring Creek. Currently this area is developing into a native grassland -open space. If the crossing is made this structure will interrupt the feeling of openness that one currently experiences. The appeal of the open space will be diminished with the connection of this street across the open space. ✓ The reasons noted above provide our argument to approve our alternative plan. We believe that we are providing equal levels of vehicular transportation to the site and the surrounding neighborhood without construction the Hobbit — Wallenberg connection. The Transportation Impact Study shown that the connection will only minimally impact the existing street volumes and patters thus no added value to the community is provided by connecting the streets. No significant advantage to either neighborhood is provided with the connection because most of the traffic that will use the street is diversion traffic ant not generated from either neighborhood. ✓ Constructing the connection is detrimental to the existing Sheeley Neighborhood because diversion traffic will cause a potential safety hazard to the residence, will bring unnecessary through traffic that should remain on the Arterial Streets into the neighborhood, and will degrade the conditions of the existing infra -structure due to this additional traffic. ✓ Our Alternative plan emphasizes bicycle transportation and pedestrian circulation over motorized vehicle traffic. The plan provides enhanced circulation routes that connect the two neighborhoods. The routes provide more direct, convenient, and safer passage for residents to Transfort stops, existing and new commercial areas, medical service areas, and for children who attend Bennett Elementary School. These links of the two neighborhood areas are superior for the residents because they allow the people to move internally for almost a half mile without interfacing with significant traffic. The development will provide neighborhood access to community wide bike paths along Spring Creek and to a neighborhood civic space associated with the Spring Creek Trail to be developed with this development of this project. v"' We believe our alternative plan provides the Community benefits that it would not achieve if the connection of Hobbit and Wallenberg is made. We believe that the street construction will impact the natural features of the existing Importation Canal and devalue the natural character with the intrusion of.a major urban structure, a bridge. We believe that the non -motorized transportation system provided with the plan will promote alternative modes of circulation to and from essential medical and personal service areas because they are more direct. Traffic service levels are not degraded with the development of this site without the Hobbit — Wallenberg connection. Our Transportation Impact Study demonstrates that our development will impact current levels of service less than half of one percent. This increase is almost equal to the anticipated growth of traffic in the area. Our alternative circulation system enhances the neighborhood continuity and connectivity by providing direct access to community and regional trail systems, neighborhood and community wide medical and service providers, neighborhood schools, and neighborhood civic and open space. V, We believe we meet all of the criteria to achieve a Modification to the Standards as outlined within The Land Use Code. We believe that our Alternative Plan provides the Community at large and the adjacent neighborhood a transportation system that meets the intentions of The Land Use Code and enhances the local environment by not connecting Wallenberg Drive with Hobbit Street. In summary we provide the following: We provide a superior design for our site. We provide a softer impact of current native areas. Our development impacts adjacent properties and neighborhoods substantially less. We provide better access to neighborhood service. We provide safer and more direct access to Public Transportation and neighborhood schools. We connect the neighborhoods with alternative means of circulation that are safer and more direct. These reasons meet the criteria provided in Division Three of the Code for granting a Modification. There are addition criteria outlined in Division Two of the Land Use Code that will be addressed as follows. A request that the Planning and Zoning Board grant a project a Modification to Standards has an outline of steps that need to be followed when submitting the documentation. This modification is being submitted separate from the development application. The Applicant request a reading on this critical item before proceeding with the design of the project before proceeding with the Project Development Plan. This sequence of submittals is allowed by the Code. This project was reviewed as a Concept Review in January of this year and was followed by a neighborhood meeting in March. This application is accompanied with the Application Form, Mailing List of Adjacent Property Owners, and the associated fees. The subsection H of Division 2.8 Modification of Standards states that the Planning and Zoning Board shall grant the Modification to this property if the proposal meets specific criteria. t/ The Impact Study indicates that currently Shields Street carries 38,000 vehicles per day. With the completion of this project, other projects in the area and anticipated growth of traffic in the area, the anticipated grow of traffic in the area by the year, 2005 will be between 40,000 to 42,000 trips per day. This is an annual average growth in traffic of less than 2% per year over the proposed build -out time frame of the project, which is anticipated to be five years. The study indicates that the development of this property will provide only a minor increase to the current traffic found in the area currently. This property is one of the last large tracts to be constructed and it will have minimal impact to the existing conditions at Prospect and Shields. The City Transportation Department recognizes this situation and anticipates no major change to the arterial streets in this area. ✓ The first observation that you can draw from the traffic analysis is that less than 1% of the traffic on Shields today would be attracted to use the connection of Wallenberg and Hobbit. The study projects that the neighborhood and this Site would generate approximately 50% of the traffic using this connection. Looking from the big picture point of view this connection will only relieve traffic at the Prospect / Shields intersection by less than a half of a percent. This minor amount of relief to the Prospect / Shields intersection would not be measurable making its benefit questionable. It is our contention that this minimum relief to traffic in the area does not warrant disturbing the land with the type of major construction that the City is.requiring to cross the Importation Canal. Discussions with the Storm Drainage Department and the Engineering Department suggest that a clear span bridge is the only construction of the crossing that they will approve. This is a major intrusion into the current natural area that exists between the two neighborhoods. The benefit of this connection is questionable when looking at the traffic relief that it provides and is even less desirable when you consider the disruption of the natural setting when the connection is a clear span 100 foot long bridge. ✓ The Neighborhood Issues section of the Impact Study takes a microscopic examination of the vehicular traffic and its affects on the Sheeley Neighborhood to the east. The Study identifies that impulse diversion of traffic will create hardships on the existing streets in the area. The situation will occur at peak hours when people see the traffic backing up at the intersections. A percentage of the traffic will try to cut through to avoid the traffic delays. The impacted streets are Sheeley Drive and Prospect Lane. The Analysis indicates that with this connection the traffic on these two streets will increase 105% to 150% respectively due to this cut through traffic. According to the City standards this increase should not exceed 10%. This is a 10 to 15 fold increase in the traffic on these residential streets. This traffic is considered background traffic since it is anticipated that the traffic that will use this diversion is already there. This anticipated increase would lead to a potential safety problem for the existing neighborhood. r SPRING CREEK VILLAGE MODIFICATION TO THE STANDARDS This paper is provided to demonstrate the reasoning not to extend Hobbit Street to the east across the Importation .Canal to connect to Wallenberg Drive. The Applicant is asking for relief from the Standard found in The Land Use Code outlined in Division 3.6.3 Street Pattern and Connectivity Standards which is a part of Division 3.6 Transportation and Circulation. ✓/ Subparagraphs A and B of this section note that "Local Streets must provide for both intra- and inter -neighborhood connections." It is in the inter -neighborhood connection that our Alternative Plan does not meet the specifications of this subparagraph of The Land Use Code. V/ It is the Developers contention that the Design prepared for your review meets the requirements of Subparagraph Hof this same section by providing equivalent vehicular, modes of transportation, enhanced alternative means of circulation, and enhancement to the neighborhoods with the connections that we are making. We will be making pedestrian and bicycle transportation connections with the neighborhood to the east. At the same time we are not connecting the neighborhoods for motorized vehicles to maintain the quality of the neighborhoods and with the multi -modal connections provide the linkages between neighborhoods that the Land Use Plan is intending. For these reasons we believe the modification should be granted. The Development Team has analyzed the design with and without this vehicular connection to the neighborhood to the east and has from an objective and subjective point of view found that the design would be superior without the connection to Wallenberg Drive. From an objective point of view the first thing that we did was to provide a Transportation Impact Study to look at the existing conditions, the impacts with the connection to Wallenberg Drive, and the impacts without the Connection to Wallenberg Drive. A separate section of the Impact Study titled Neighborhood Issues addresses the details of motorized vehicle traffic in the neighborhood with and without the connection and will be reviewed later in this paper. But first this paper makes some general observations about the traffic in the area and the minimal benefit from this street connection as detailed throughout the balance of the Study.