Orange County NC Website
Waterstone. 331 <br /> 332 <br />David Blankfard asked for clarification about the lights, that it would be located at the exit. Michael Harvey said it was 333 <br />supposed to be installed with Waterstone but they would be doing it as part of this project. 334 <br /> 335 <br />Michael Harvey reviewed where there would be an installation of a left turn lane on Service Road and on Old 336 <br />Highway 86. 337 <br /> 338 <br />Michael Harvey then showed the 2022 buildout map. There would be two lanes of through traffic on Old Highway 86. 339 <br />There would be a stoplight wherever the access to District 2 is built. He noted Davis Road remains unimproved. He 340 <br />said two individuals raised concern that Davis Road would become a five-lane road. In his 13 years, he’s not seen 341 <br />that plan. 342 <br /> 343 <br />Michael Harvey said Ed Sirgeny with Summit Engineering is present to answer questions. Michael Harvey said 344 <br />District 1 is meant to be served by Service Road. Staff would like the developer to work on having another access. 345 <br />Staff also needs additional time to review some of Jim Parker’s comments on the TIA. 346 <br /> 347 <br />Tony Blake asked about a super street. Michael Harvey answered I’m not going to say it’s totally abandoned because 348 <br />it may have to happen. The developer has done its best to show we’re not going to get to the point to compel Service 349 <br />Road to have to right turn and U-turn. Tony Blake said the concern was how to make a U-turn with a tractor trailer. 350 <br /> 351 <br />Craig Benedict said a memo was received the day of the public hearing from DOT saying there was no need for a U-352 <br />turn. Now they’re saying you can have 900,000 square feet of warehousing or equivalent. After that would be the 353 <br />trigger point in District 1 of having to come up with another connection farther to the south. It still allows the left turn 354 <br />movement for a long period of time. Service Road was created when I-40 was built. DOT put it where they thought it 355 <br />could be signalized. Now they want more space between a signal and the interstate ramp. That much can be built 356 <br />without the need for the U-turn. 357 <br /> 358 <br />Michael Harvey said the applicant was required by staff to provide the breakdown, which he shared. It included land 359 <br />use, size, units, adjacent street traffic volumes weekday morning and afternoon peak hours. 360 <br /> 361 <br />Jim Parker said Tony Blake, if your question is if other accesses have been explored beside Service Road, yes. 362 <br /> 363 <br />Tony Blake asked if anyone has approached DOT about combining the exit ramp and Service Road. Jim Parker 364 <br />answered no, DOT used to do that but they don’t like that anymore. We understand there is a limit to this working 365 <br />fluidly. Level of service is going to dictate the service road functioning. DOT is not going to allow level of service to 366 <br />decline beyond a certain point. We will continue to try to look for alternatives to make the whole thing work. 367 <br /> 368 <br />Tony Blake said with this zoning, it doesn’t come back before the Planning Board or Orange County Board of 369 <br />Commissioners so I want to make sure we hash it out as much as we can. 370 <br /> 371 <br />Michael Harvey said that’s not quite accurate. Right now there is access from Service Road. Any access to Old 372 <br />Highway 86 would come back for a modification. If Jim Parker and his cohorts can find a way to get an alternative 373 <br />access, there is going to be tweaking of the application. Every site plan application has to have a TIA. This 374 <br />assessment is required in Orange County when the traffic trips is expected to exceed 800 trips a day but for this 375 <br />project it is for every project regardless of the expected trips per day. 376 <br /> 377 <br />Tony Blake spoke in favor of aligning the access along the power easement. Jim Parker said we have looked at a lot 378 <br />of options. At this point, none of them are 100 percent viable. 379 <br /> 380 <br />Kim Piracci said I’m assuming that if traffic circles were appropriate, you would consider that. 381 <br /> 382 <br />Michael Harvey said any viable traffic alternative would be studied but may not be appropriate here because tractor 383 <br />trailers would be using this road. Traffic circles aren’t a bad thing but it’s not as viable here as in other locations in 384 <br />Orange County. 385 <br />80