110420 Virtual Planning Board Minutes

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Approved 1/6/21 169 the property owner and monitored by the County because it is a rezoning and we have to ensure that what was in that 170 master plan document continues in the future. 171 172 Adam Beeman: The traffic analysis, has that taken into account all the residents that get off that exit every day to go home. 173 I'm one of those residents and I'm not feeling the shutdown of exit 160. You offer me no alternatives to get home other 174 than running through traffic lights that I don't have to do now. Why can't those driveways come out to the intersection 175 where you want to put lights? If you were to put a light at the intersection,why can't your driveways come out there and not 176 be on that ramp? I understand NCDOT's long-term plan but there's no way to address any of the residents that live north of 177 Hwy. 70, I'm of those thousands of residents that get off that exit every day and I know you've estimated 185 seconds but 1 178 don't believe that, if I get caught at that light, I'm going to go up and over and get caught at another light so that adding at 179 least 3 or 4 minutes to my commute just to get off the ramp. I don't know why we have to have the right in/right out and lose 180 the 160 exit. Right now, a lot of us depend on getting off that exit and getting home, it's the only way for us to get home. 181 182 Earl Lewellyn: The first and biggest concern is that with the additional increase in traffic,whether it from this project or 183 another,that the weaving area between the ramps combined with the speed of exiting traffic onto the service road whether 184 there's another ramp there or not, is in fact a problem from a capacity standpoint and a safety standpoint. It may not be 185 dramatic today but with increases in traffic,whether the accesses occur onto the service road or not,that traffic if it is going 186 westbound still has to use that facility to get east and west. That is the biggest criteria. We have struggled with trying to 187 find options as well that would satisfy DOT's criteria, maintaining access for the public through the existing path. The 188 reason we did the comparison is because we always hear people say they had to wait at a traffic signal. In these 189 operations,traffic signals probably along Mt.Willing Road, cycle lengths are going to be somewhere in the nature of 60 to 190 70 seconds. Cycle lengths along the US 70 connector and the interchange ramps along the US 70 connector are probably 191 going to be in the order of 90 seconds just given the volumes and the number of phases that have to be there. That is what 192 is driving the travel time that we mentioned. It's basically the delay at the signals and it depends on when you hit the signal 193 and that's why there is variation in those times from the simulations and simply just traveling along the street. We feel that 194 is very accurate and calibrated with current conditions. 195 196 Adam Beeman: You are inserting two light into the equation that right now we don't have to contend with at all the biggest 197 contention is coming off the ramp and hitting the stop sign on Mt. Willing and hanging a right and going out into the country. 198 We will have to come of 161, hit a light,come back up over that ramp, hit another light and then continue on our route. If 199 there was the 70/85 connector that didn't force us into Hillsborough and you could make a left onto 70 then I would say 200 have at it and do what you have to do but that interjection of those two lights is going to make a huge difference on a lot of 201 people's lives in northern Orange County. There is no other way for us to get there. If we take the 85 connector it forces us 202 down 70 and you have to ride up 86 or you have to come back up. There is no good way. I think a lot of people aren't 203 going to be happy. I don't know the answer to it but I'm not happy about the lights. I understand the timing and the queues 204 and add Buc-ee's traffic now the commuters have to contend with all the traffic in and out of your store. It's going to be a 205 real turn off for the residents north of the County. 1,for one, I want the development but I'm not a fan of how you are going 206 to get this traffic flow. It is going to have a huge impact on a lot of people out in Northern Orange County. A lot of people 207 come from Virginia down Efland-Cedar Grove. I don't know why there are so many driveways. If you could stay away from 208 Mt.Willing at all costs,then it might negate some of the impact but there are a lot of people who travel out to the country to 209 go home and come to the highway to go to work every day. 210 211 Earl Lewellyn: I respect what you are saying. I actually live not too far away and travel through this area myself. Most 212 often on the weekends, occasionally during the week. I certainly don't want this to be a problem area either. That is why we 213 did the comparison to quantify how much additional time will be spent just traveling whether it's that signal or traveling 214 through there. The other thing to keep in mind is these right in and out assess points,traffic on the service road will 215 continue moving through and there will be two lanes all the way through so we have to keep that in mind. The real reason 216 we're doing this is primarily safety and capacity that is related to the existing exit 160 configuration. 217 218 Stan Beard: There is no getting around the aggravation that all the Efland folks feel about this situation. If I were part of 219 that, I would have that same aggravation.What we have strived to do all along,from the first day we met with the local DOT 220 engineer and moving through the various planning stages with those guys to figure out a way to make this work for 221 everybody. They were adamant that our development or any development at this tract,this 100 acres on 40/85, if any 222 development came along, it would trigger some fairly massive traffic changes. As we all know, no one likes to say it and no 223 one wants to hear it,with growth comes some shifts in traffic patterns and habits. Where we are here is that most 224 intersections east of here and plenty of intersections west of here are all lit. When you get down to the bottom of the ramp,