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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHARMONY VILLAGE PUD - PRELIMINARY - 65-93C - CORRESPONDENCE - Street Related Document (2)-4) - q$ Harmony Road Cross Section / Median Impacts Most of the Harmony Road corridor, is under some form of development, from Timberline east to Cambridge on the south side. The last remaining portion, land set aside for the Poudre Valley Hospital annex, is currently under conceptual review. This essentially eliminates any vacant land from west of the railroad tracks to Cambridge Drive along the south side. On the North side a small tract between the future connection to Corbett and the trailer court entrance is the only remaining parcel not yet scheduled for development. Taking into consideration the State's requirement of Celestica to design Harmony for the long range, we (the City ) need to determine what we want the Harmony Corridor to look like, what should the right - of - way width be, and who should be responsible for maintenance of the landscaping and roadway pavement section. In addition, there are many other issues that need to be addressed. Ron Mills is in the process of trying to acquire utility easements and has asked direction on where the future edge of pavement will be so he can determine if the easements will be in the 80 foot buffer area or on private property. The location of the 80 foot buffer makes a difference due to land costs inside or outside of the buffer zone. These are the simpler issues to address. However, as I stated previously there are many other items to be considered with this issue. Following are the items we have identified that need further discussion: 1. Do we widen the roadway cross section towards the existing median or go out to the edges, requiring the purchase of additional right - of - way? 2. If we go to the middle, the urban standard does not fit th Harmony Corridor PI and CDOT has stated they will not maintain the landscaping. -Nl�r P,nrj i.r AM81,6 o a v.r ON THAr. THfn-C ,S P4CV, 3. The State has expressed concerns with snow removal on this roadway with the urban style median. Maintenance issues are complex, much discussion needs to take place between the City and CDOT over who will be responsible for Harmony. 4. The medians eeed to be safe for pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles. Currently there are safety issues with widmedians and the shadowing effect vehicles have on one another at the intersections. 5. What are the current and future needs of Transfort along the roadway. 6. When or if the speed limits along the corridor change, what impact will this have on the design, who will make the call - the City or CDOT ? 7. How will the double left turns at the major intersections be accommodated, how will they affect bicycle traffic through these intersections ? =-a s 8. The new portion of Harmony from theinterchange to County Road 7 alignment is designed and sets the alignment to the bottom of the hill. How does this fit with the alignment from Technology Parkway to Cty. Rd. 7 ? 9. Major reconstruction of existing Harmony from Cambridge east to Cty. Rd. 7 is needed to address the horizontal and vertical deficiencies, what are the right-of-way needs for this section ? 10. The Harmony Road design has been submitted to the North Front Range Council (MPO) for funding, the need to address these issues may not wait for an answer from them. ed�hepard Re: G.M.L.T. From: Gary Diede To: Ted Shepard Date: 6/8/98 4:59PM Subject: Re: G.M.L.T. Ron — this is the issue I brought to TSA staff meeting a few weeks ago that needed about $200K for conseptual design froma aconsultant. We didn't know where to find the money. I believe designing to the median makes a lot of sense. We have a wider median here than we do on College Ave. and can provide a lot more landscapiing. The left turn sight distances are critical to avoid having time consuming protected lefts. Narrowing the median seems logical. Eric, Mike H., Kathleen and the planners met a month ago and discussed. Gary >>> Ted Shepard 06/08/98 02:12PM >>> Ron, on Tuesday, June 9, 1998 at 1:30 p.m., we will be discussing the Harmony Road design for the future major arterial cross-section. As you may be aware, beginning with Celestica, CDOT has asked us to ask consulting engineers to design for the long range cross-section for Harmony Road which is a major arterial with double left turn lanes at the major intersections. The issues is with the existing wide median, do we widen to the middle (with our urban median design) or do we retain the existing rural highway median and widen to the edges? At our level, we believe widening to the middle is best because of our accident history with the "shadowing effect" created by the wide rural median (which offsets opposing left turn vehicles so that oncoming traffic in the thru lanes are "shadowed.") Also, it will be more fiscally prudent to widen to the middle than to purchase additional right-of-way on the edges in the future. This is the approach we took with Celestica and the approach we are planning to take with Harmony Village (Kaplan) and.Preston Center (L.G.T.). The issues are: 1. The urban standard median does not fit the vision of the Harmony Corridor Plan (and we have been working with Advance Planning on this). 2. CDOT does not recognize the urban median as a standard. 3. It will many years before all of these design issues come into play with actual widening so we are using our best guess as to what future City Engineers, Planners, and Councilmembers will be thinking when the time comes. Patty suggested that I send you this message prior to the meeting. We will have an exhibit to use as an illustration. Call Dave Stringer or myself if you have any questions. Thanks. Ted.