Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTIS Response Letter 08-05-2020 1111 East Broadway, Missoula, MT 59802 I OFFICE 406.728.4611 I EMAIL wgm@wgmgroup.com July 27, 2020 Harley Huestis, P.E. Project Manager TD&H Engineering 234 E. Babcock, Suite 3 Bozeman, Montana 59715 Re: Arrowleaf & Perennial Park TIS – Response to City Comments Dear Harley: WGM Group, Inc. (WGM) is in receipt of the City of Bozeman review comments for the Arrowleaf and Perennial Park PUD application. Review comments number 19 through 22 are related to the traffic impact study (TIS) prepared for this development by WGM and dated April 30, 2020. The purpose of this letter is to respond to these comments. For the benefit of the reader the comments are repeated below in italics, with WGM’s comment response written in normal font. Comment 19: The 2022 No Build Traffic Volumes must not include any future adjacent projects (the hotels or Bozeman East Mixed-Use). They must only include the existing traffic volumes with a growth rate applied. Future projects that don’t have Site Plan approval should not be included in existing traffic volume data. Modify the LOS tables and any other areas where the No Build scenario is used to not include these unapproved projects. a. Provide the average daily traffic for the 2022 traffic volumes without this project included. Only peak hour trips were provided in Figure 7. Response 19: TD&H Engineering confirmed with Anna Russell of the City of Bozeman Engineering Department that WGM had been directed by City Engineering to include the three adjacent development projects in the traffic volume projections for the TIS. Therefore, the main portion of this comment no longer applies. Regarding the request to provide average daily traffic (ADT) volumes, Figure 7 from the TIS has been updated to include no-build ADTs and is attached to this letter. Consistent with the direction summarized above, the projected future ADTs include traffic from the three adjacent developments in addition to existing traffic volumes grown to the analysis year. TD&H Engineering – Arrowleaf & Perennial Park TIS July 27, 2020 Page 2 of 6 Comment 20: Provide the average daily traffic generated from the Site in 2022 and compare it to the average daily traffic volumes in 2022 in the analysis. Response 20: The ADT that the proposed development will generate was estimated based on data from the ITE Trip Generation Manual as 652 daily vehicles from the mid-rise multifamily housing units, 80 vehicles from the low-rise multifamily housing units, 361 vehicles from the senior housing units, 571 vehicles from the daycare center, 69 vehicles from the general office space, and 527 from the medical office space, for an estimated site total of 2,260 vehicles per day. Figure 10 from the TIS has been updated to include site-generated ADTs and is attached to this letter. Comment 21: Justify why only 8% of traffic is directed to the east on Baxter Lane in Figure 8 considering that downtown Bozeman is to the southeast and there will likely be commuters travelling in that direction. Response 21: Neither route to the site is terribly direct. The fact that twice as much traffic currently travels on Oak Street as compared to Baxter Street influenced the decision to assign twice as much site traffic from the southeast on the Oak Street route to the site, as did the condition of Baxter Street at the time. The possibility that 15th Street will one day be extended to connect Oak Street to Tschache Lane also played a role. It also might be considered easier to turn left from 7th Street at the signalized intersection at Oak then at the unsignalized Baxter intersection. Ultimately, the significant question is whether the conclusions drawn in the TIS would have been different had more site traffic been assigned to Baxter and less to Oak. The answer to this can be seen in the fact that such a shift in traffic would have reduced the amount of site-generated traffic at the more capacity-challenged intersections on 19th Street at Oak and at Tschache, and moved that traffic to the intersection of Baxter and North 11th where excess capacity exists. This would have made the traffic impact of the subject development appear smaller by comparison. Therefore, the more Baxter-focused traffic assignment implied by the City’s comment would not have resulted in any additional intersection improvements at the study locations. Comment 22: Do not include the future improvements required in the TIS for unapproved projects for the intersections of N 19th and Baxter and N 19th and Tschache in the report. Only funded CIP projects may be considered as future planned improvements. Response 22: The improvements committed to by the adjacent developments are included in the traffic analysis with the concurrence of City Engineering in an email from March 10th “In your analysis if you are including the projected traffic volumes from a specific development then you should also include the recommended improvements for that development.” TD&H Engineering – Arrowleaf & Perennial Park TIS July 27, 2020 Page 3 of 6 This concludes our response to the City of Bozeman TIS review comments. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. Sincerely, WGM Group, Inc. Mark Bancale, P.E., PTOE Senior Traffic Engineer MDB:aes Encl. W:\Projects\190227\Traffic\All Things Related to TIS Update in April 2020\Comment Response Letter.docx Figure 7: 2022 No-Build Peak Hour Traffic (Updated to show ADT) Figure 10: Site-Generated Peak Hour Traffic (Updated to show ADT) Figure 11: 2022 Build Traffic Volume (Updated to Show ADT)