Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutHARVEST PARK - MAJOR AMENDMENT & REPLAT - 25-98G - CORRESPONDENCE - TRANSPORTATION ISSUETroy Jones - Harvest Park Page 1 From: Eric Bracke To: Troy Jones Date: 517/02 10:49AM Subject: Harvest Park Harvest Park is amending their plan, Lot two, from 18 single-family homes to 29 Townehomes. I will not be requiring any amendments to the TIS. Eric CC: Mark Jackson; Sheri Wamhoff; Tom Reiff 1 Troy Jones - Re: Harvest Park - upcoming major amendment Page 1 From: To: Date: Subject: Eric Bracke Troy Jones 6/4/02 4:04PM Re: Harvest Park - upcoming major amendment The table below should help address the concern of the neighbors regarding traffic. As can be seen, there is NO impact with the change in land use. Summary of Multi -Use Trip Generation Average Weekday Driveway Volumes June 04, 2002 24 Hour AM Pk Hour PM Pk Hour Two -Way Land Use Size Volume Enter Exit Enter Exit Single Family Detached Housing 18 Dwelling Units 172 3 10 12 6 Residential Condominium / Townhouse 29 Dwelling Units 170 2 11 10 5 Total 342 5 21 22 11 Note: A zero indicates no data available. Source: Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation, 6th Edition, 1997. Kind Regards, Eric L. Bracke, P.E. Traffic Engineer (970)224-6062 ebracke@fcgov.com >>> Troy Jones 06/04/02 02:26PM >>> Eric, Here's the neighborhood meeting minutes for the Harvest Park amendment to change one block of 18 single family homes to 29 townhomes. The neighbor's had quite a few traffic related comments, so I thought I'd send these to you to keep you in the loop. Troy CC: Brittney Sorensen; Ward Stanford No Text No Text commercial center on Corbett Drive, the planned Poudre School District 2004 High School, and the Elementary School on Kechter Road due to open this fall. City Staff would not be in support of limiting this access point to emergency vehicles through the use of "knockdowns" for the connectivity reasons stated previously. Limiting access on Rock Creek Drive to emergency vehicles was not part of the design for Harvest Park or the design for the original Timber Creek and Stetson Creek neighborhoods, even before Harvest Park was conceptualized. Documents are readily available as public information from the City for these neighborhood plans illustrating the full intention of the extension of Rock Creek Drive to the east. I hope this alleviates the concerns expressed by Mr. Adams and others in the community that may share his view. Please let me know of any further questions or clarification needed regarding this matter. All development plans shall incorporate and continue all sub -arterial streets stubbed to the boundary of the development plan by previously approved development plans or existing development. All development plans shall provide for future public street connections to adjacent developable parcels by providing a local street connection spaced at intervals not to exceed six hundred sixty (660) feet along each development plan boundary that abuts potentially developable or redevelopable land. Because the code specifically states "potentially developable or redevelopable land", Harvest Park was not required to create an additional east -west stub south of and parallel to Rock Creek Drive along its western boundary; existing development within the Stetson Creek neighborhood prevented the creation of this additional road connection. The Sage Creek development, directly south of Harvest Park, does provide a stub to its western property boundary (to help with connectivity) to the county parcels directly west if they were to redevelop to help with connectivity. It is important to note that while the 660' spacing requirement is viewed as ideal from a street connectivity standpoint and is part of "City Plan," which is the newer code applied to development, the inability to meet this requirement is not viewed as a traffic safety issue. A development can have connections at intervals less than 660' because of existing conditions and still function properly with the sufficient number of collector level streets. "Infill" development projects often are unable to provide this requirement because of development surrounding the property, which did not have to meet this 660' requirement under old code. In these cases these proposed developments are not judged as being a traffic safety issue because of their inability to meet the 660' requirement. In that same regard, the existing surrounding neighborhoods are not considered to have traffic safety issues simply because they did not meet this criteria, which was not required under older code. In every instance where a development is proposed, City Staff (including the Traffic Engineer) evaluates the project from a traffic safety standpoint and will not allow a project to be approved if traffic safety is an issue. Within the square mile boundaries of Harmony, Kechter, Timberline and Ziegler Roads, City Staff is comfortable with the Rock Creek Drive -Timber Creek Drive - Stetson Creek Drive connection and the Timberwood Drive connection serving as the two east - west collectors (noting again that Sage Creek is providing a local street stub to the west which will function to help further disperse traffic in the future). There are other square mile areas in the City where only one east -west collector is required for traffic to function properly. City staff feels confident that the full build -out of this area will result in a harmonious, safe environment that will benefit existing and new neighbors alike. City Staff firmly contends from both a transportation operations and community -planning standpoint that connectivity between neighborhoods is important as an integral part of the City's development code criteria. While it is true that an increase in vehicular use of Timber Creek Drive and Stetson Creek Drive will occur with development to the east, the volume of traffic will still be consistent with the design and function of the existing streets. Future residents of Harvest Park will benefit from this connection by being able to more directly reach destinations such as the movie theatre commercial center on Timberline; the use is consistent with the function of collector level streets. At the same time, residents in the Timber Creek and Stetson Creek neighborhoods are more directly able to reach destinations to the east such as the City's Harmony Park, the restaurant and On January 5, 2000 the Harvest Park project went to an administrative public hearing for a determination of whether the project met applicable Code requirements. Residents of Timber Creek and Stetson Creek were present based upon the notification requirements of the City. As part of the public testimony and record, it was again noted how Rock Creek Drive was being extended from the Stetson Creek neighborhood through Harvest Park to Ziegler Road. The administrative hearing officer took testimony from the developer, the City and the citizens present and made the determination that Harvest Park was consistent with the City's Land Use Code and approved the project. This approval also included the determination that the vehicular impacts of Harvest Park to the surrounding communities were consistent with the classification of the existing roadways. Recently, Harvest Park informally submitted to the City a conceptual proposal to change approved single family lots into multi -family townhomes. This proposed change, if submitted formally to the City, is required to be evaluated against the City's Land Use Code and approved at a public hearing in the same manner as the original Harvest Park development. Residents will be able to voice their concerns regarding this proposed change, and this input by the public, combined with testimony from City Staff and the developer, will be used to render a decision at a public hearing. On April 30, 2002, the City conducted a neighborhood meeting regarding this proposed change to gather input in advance of the formal submittal. It was brought up by the public at the meeting that there is a concem about this change and that this may negatively impact the existing road network of Timber Creek Drive and Stetson Creek Drive. Although the project has not been formally submitted to the City for evaluation, the City's Traffic Engineer has already indicated that from a traffic (trip generation) standpoint, the traffic volume difference from single family to townhome would be basically the same and the change of use causes no impact. This conclusion is based upon the Trip Generation Manual ("Manual"), a national publication by the Institute of Transportation Engineers. The data in the Manual indicates that a single-family dwelling unit generates more traffic volume than a multi -family dwelling unit. This conclusion is based upon the understanding that a typical single-family home will generally have more people in the household, with a larger ratio of vehicles per person in the dwelling. Conversely, a typical condo or townhome style home will generally have fewer people residing in the dwelling with also a few number of cars per person. As a result the Manual projects that 18 single family dwelling units would generate a total of 172 trips a day while 29 multi -family dwelling units would generate 170 trips a day. Thus, based upon the Developer's conceptual plans, this proposed change is not viewed as a concern by the City from a traffic impact point of view. Mr. Adams also raised the question of whether the number of and distance between roads into and out of Harvest Park meet city guidelines. I believe this stems from the neighborhood meeting Mr. Adams attended where road connection issues were raised by the neighborhood. City Staff had stated that typically a new development is required to provide stubs for future street connections every 660 feet along the property lines abutting developable ground. This is a requirement under 3.6.3(F) of the Land Use Code, which is noted below: I am in receipt of the concerns raised by Mr. Harlie Adams regarding the connection of Rock Creek Drive. While sympathetic with Mr. Adams' concerns, City Staff believes that this connection is beneficial to both the existing neighborhoods and the developing neighborhoods to the east. In order to properly respond to the concerns raised by Mr. Adams, history regarding the development of the Stetson Creek and Timber Creek neighborhoods in conjunction with the current development of Harvest Park follows. In early 1994, the development of the Timber Creek and Stetson Creek neighborhoods began with the City approval of the developments for Timber Creek First Filing and Stetson Creek First Filing. Timber Creek First Filing created Timber Creek Drive, which connects to Timberline Road, while Stetson Creek First Filing created Stetson Creek Drive, which also connects to Timberline Road. With the City approval of the Stetson Creek Third Filing development in early 1996, the connection was made between Timber Creek Drive and Stetson Creek Drive at Rock Creek Drive. Throughout the City review process dating back to 1994, the development of both Timber Creek and Stetson Creek neighborhoods called for both Timber Creek Drive and Stetson Creek Drive to be designed and function as collector streets to carry traffic between neighborhoods. In addition, both streets were designed to "meet" in a "Y" at their connection point with Rock Creek Drive. Rock Creek Drive was designed back in 1996 to a collector street classification with the full intention of the roadway continuing east of the Stetson Creek neighborhood if the property to the east ever developed (which has developed into what is now known as "Harvest Park" or "Harvest".) Within Stetson Creek, Rock Creek Drive was built with a temporary turnaround at the end. This temporary turnaround was built in order to allow emergency services and other large vehicles the ability to turn around without having to use homeowners' driveways. The documents for Stetson Creek Third Filing (available at the City) indicated back in 1996, even before Harvest Park was ever conceptualized, that this turnaround was temporary and that Rock Creek Drive would be extended with future development. Harvest Park was submitted to the City for review in March of 1999. The City evaluated the entire development from all aspects of impact before a decision could be rendered on the project at a public hearing. On March 31, 1999, a neighborhood meeting was conducted for residents surrounding the Harvest Park project, which included residents of Timber Creek and Stetson Creek. It was presented at the meeting that Rock Creek Drive would be a full vehicular connection from Harvest Park to the existing Timber Creek and Stetson Creek neighborhoods. In addition, it was presented that Timber Creek Drive and Stetson Creek Drive were designed to carry collector level volumes. In evaluation of the Traffic Impact Study, which is required by every project proposed to the City, the City's Traffic Engineer determined that Harvest Park's impact to surrounding development would result in the continuation of Rock Creek Drive maintaining collector level volumes throughout the neighborhoods. The Traffic Engineer determined that this is consistent with the design and function of the Rock Creek Drive, Stetson Creek Drive, and Timber Creek Drive within the Timber Creek and Stetson Creek neighborhoods and posed no objection to the vehicular link between the neighborhoods. From: John Fischbach (C,14 M..'Tx) To: CCSL Date: Sun, Jun 9, 2002 11:39 AM Subject: Rock Creek Drive Traffic Concerns--CAUTION--Potentially a quai-judicial matter ((o�+�Ll� Mzrnbtt� Eric Hamrickphad a communication from a resident, Mr. Harlie Adams, regarding Rock Creek Drive Traffic Concerns. We have researced this and offer the following for your information. Attached is a fairly extensive discussion of this Rock Creek Drive issue from the Transportation Services Development Review Team. The primary person responsible for this excellent review is Marc Virata, one of our Civil Engineers in Development Review. There is also a map attached that may be helpful in understanding the street connections in that area. Note: This is a development review issue that is in process and could be appealed eventually to the City Council, thus it could be a quai-judicial matter. Let me know if there is anything else you need on this CC: Darin Atteberry; Diane Jones; Eric Bracke; Frank Bruno; Marc Virata; Mark Jackson; Randy Hensley; Ron Phillips; Wanda Krajicek