Monday, May 18, 2009

Bells Landing Partners LLC-sponsored traffic analysis deficient, left a lot to be studied

As I'm reading the summary of the independent traffic impact study done at the behest of the Planning Commission in order to judge May Town Center impact, I am struck by all of the deficiencies charged to the original impact study paid for by Bells Landing Partners, LLC: the lack of baseline conditions, incorrect ramp lengths, unacceptable capacity conclusions, questionable right-of-way assumptions that need further study, discrepancies in volume and roadway characteristics, etc.

Last summer Metro Planning seemed willing to recommend the MTC proposal to the Planning Commission without any independent studies performed, relying strictly on the strength of the development partnership's sponsored reports. If there had not been the public outcry against MTC, would we have ever seen this second traffic report that seems to reject significant portions of the data collected in the developers' report? If the original proposal that was recommended to the Planning Commission is based on faulty data, shouldn't it be thrown out completely in order to follow suggestions in the new traffic report that further study is needed? The Planning Director doesn't seem to think so, but his department also recommended approval of MTC last summer.

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