OUTBoard agenda 041917 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

DRAFT and the Orange Grove Road extension would at least relieve some traffic that would turn right onto US-70 A, but reiterated that there’s no perfect solution. He also added that he included some basic history of the congestion on Churton Street, along with numerous proposals for bypasses that were shot down in the Board’s packets to give a better idea of what solutions have been suggested and why they were unsuccessful. Alex Castro had concerns with all the new developments that are only going to make traffic worse. Heidi Perry stated that she thinks the Orange Grove Road extension will help but doesn’t think the added lanes are needed. Max Bushell also informed the Board that the interchange improvement and the Orange Grove Road extension will happen first and that the widening of Churton Street has fallen off the process and will not be funded. He added that that’s a decision that will come back before the Board again if they want to add that to the DCHC MPO projects. Jenn Sykes also had concerns with regard to doing work on both ends and nothing in between. Alex Castro added the concern of the road not being compatible with BRT operation with the way it is. Alex Castro also spoke about the lack of incentive for people to carpool, and thinks there should be more local incentive and have it advertised appropriately so that people are away aware of those incentives. Max Bushell informed the Board that Duke, UNC, and Go Triangle offer similar incentives, but that many people are unaware of these benefits. Heidi Perry suggested having a separated bike path instead of widening the road for a bike path because it’s not an ideal road for a bike path due to it being narrow and winding. She also added that with the school and parks along that area, a separated bike path would be a great economic development tool for tourism. Her second suggestion was that adding capacity with the four lanes is only going to make the congestion worse. She decided to send a private letter to the BOCC in regard to that concern. Max Bushell stated that he would add it to the CTP comments as well. Alex Castro asked if the authors of the CTP had calculated the anticipated traffic density as part of the document, if they took into account all the new developments that were coming, and if the traffic projections were accurate. Max Bushell answer that yes; they go through a very vigorous and detailed process to get those calculations and he believes they are more accurate than projections that were done in the past, as they are using newer tools starting in 2012. Heidi Perry asked if they looked at the decrease in the number of the amount of car ownership among millennials. Max Bushell confirmed that they do try to include some element of that in the scenario planning. Jenn Sykes asked about minimizing traffic through the middle of downtown by going to the south and around; i.e. getting off 40 and going down Oakdale, hitting Orange Grove and using that to get to other parts of downtown. She added that that’s the area to look into building out and looking for paths through those residential areas. Max Bushell replied that he thinks there was a western bypass considered in that region, but that proposal was shot down because of the critical watershed and possibly neighborhood opposition. Jenn also added that the neighborhoods dead end but they could build a connector through someone’s property. Max Bushell concluded his presentation with a few more information items, and asked everybody to send him their comments and feedback. He also informed everybody about the public open house at the Orange Public Library on February 16 from 5:30-7:30. AGENDA ITEM 7: BOARD COMMENTS There was discussion about moving the meeting date in March. No date was set. The Chair requested that Abigaile Pittman send out a Doodle poll to the entire OUTBoard. AGENDA ITEM 8: ADJOURNMENT OUTBoard meeting was adjourned by consensus. ____________________________________ Heidi Perry, Chair 6