6.7.23 PB Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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606 Cy Stober: That is my analysis, yes. 607 608 Statler Gilfillen: The question I have next would be the one that I inappropriately started to ask earlier of the lawyer, you 609 mentioned that within 2 years they would correct a traffic issue, if in the first 3 months you build a development on this 610 property that causes severe traffic problems because you have not finished what you planned in 2 years, what plans do 611 you have? 612 613 Patrick Byker: I would have to take issue with that characterization. The point is that the first year’s student enrollment 614 would be 150 students, that is fairly minor increase in traffic. The timing is important because we need to survey, design, 615 go through NCDOT review, and obtain approval before we can even let a contractor build those turn lanes. That is a time 616 consuming and expensive undertaking and that is why it is not really possible to have done on day one in conjunction 617 with the school being built. However, if we discover going through this process that there is a driveway constraint or 618 another constraint that does not allow the development team to build the turn lane themselves, we will just write a check 619 to Orange County NCDOT for them to build a turn lane since they have ….authority and we would write that check 620 before the school opens. 621 622 Statler Gilfillen: I am the Eno River Township representative. I am probably the closest person to this site. I use 623 Lawrence Road on a ongoing basis. I have a number of specific questions. You or Jim Parker may be able to answer 624 these. A question was raised tonight about specific plans on the corner of NC10 and Lawrence Road. I am not sure what 625 plans you have but I am aware that that is already a difficult intersection . I believe there is a historic house with a marble 626 stone wall around it at the intersection that may get impacted historically. Do you have any plans or comments regarding 627 that intersection? 628 629 Patrick Byker: I would like to bring up our team just so that we make sure we answer your question as thoroughly as we 630 can. I will say on the record, that since this a conditional use zoning atlas amendment, pursuant to NC GS 160D 73B, 631 you are allowed to offer conditions. I will say on the record tonight, subject to NCDOT approval, we will install a median 632 on Lawrence Road at the Old NC 10 intersection. Now to answer your questions as to how we got to that point, Lyle, will 633 you give a background on the study area please? This is Lyle Overcash our traffic engineer who specializes in school 634 traffic. 635 636 Lyle Overcash: A lot of good comments from the neighbors, Old NC10 and Lawrence Road was brought up early in the 637 scoping process, the county asked for that intersection to be included in the study area. The development overall was 638 about 4,000 vehicles a day. NCDOT felt like with such a minor volume it was highly unlikely that they would make any 639 kind of improvements there. The intersection is on the HSIE list so it has an accident history. A gentleman earlier in the 640 meeting made a good suggestion about putting a median on NC10, to prevent folks from cutting the corner. We haven’t 641 studied that. Someone else had mentioned that folks are running through the intersection, maybe not stopping. It sounds 642 like if you added a median on Lawrence Road, just looking at a street view while the meeting was going on, I don’t see a 643 lot of striping that is noticeable, so I think through adding some additional striping, a stop bar, possibly adding that 644 median, and what that median would do is allow you to put up another stop sign. So that would give you two stop signs 645 as you approach that intersection so maybe that would help prevent some people from running through the intersection. 646 Again, we didn’t study that intersection in the TIA, those are just some suggestions that came to us. 647 648 Statler Gilfillen: Have you done any studies comparing accident rates with traffic on NC10/Lawrence Rd compared to 649 comparable areas? 650 651 Lyle Overcash: No, we didn’t study NC10. 652 653 Statler Gilfillen: One of the people here in the audience has raised that point that several accidents have happened on 654 Lawrence Road. Being someone that uses it, I am concerned about that. 655 656 Lyle Overcash: The posted speed limit on Lawrence Rd. is 45 mph….when we would build this development, we would 657 petition the DOT to make that area a school zone through that area so we would try to reduce the speed limit during 658 school hours to 35 mph so that would give it at least a window particularly during the AM peak hour to try to reduce the 659 speeds through that area. 660 16