Staff Remarks:

This traffic study has been conducted to assess the traffic impacts and evaluate the access and egress requirements for the proposed White Oak Village mixed-use development, which will encompass areas both east and west of White Oak Church Road and will be located to the north of Green Level West Road in Cary, North Carolina. The report identifies the impact of traffic generated by the proposed development and evaluates it with regard to capacity, safety, and roadway requirements. The following provides a brief summary of this study’s findings.

The project site is bisected from north to south by White Oak Church Road and is located roughly between Ridgeback Road and Green Level West Road. The site, which totals approximately 77 acres, is primarily undeveloped with the exception of the existing White Oak Baptist Church located along the eastern side of White Oak Church Road coupled with a small amount of sporadic residential development throughout the site. The project proposal would construct a traditional neighborhood style, mixed-use development and would include the following:

• 127 single-family residential units;
• 92 multi-family residential units;
• 127 condominium/townhome units;
• 60-unit assisted living facility;
• 5,000 square-feet (sf) of retail/commercial space;
• 15,000 sf of general office space;
• 6,500 sf daycare facility; and
• 19,600 sf church expansion.

As planned, the site is expected to be fully developed by 2006. Direct access to the site is proposed via multiple project driveways to and from the surrounding adjacent roadways. The majority of the project access points are proposed along White Oak Church Road and are anticipated to service the major portion of the site. Also proposed is one project access each to and from the adjacent roadways of Ridgeback Road and Green Level West Road.

For this project, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation manual was used to estimate project trips generated by the proposed facility.

Based on this information, the proposed development can be expected to generate a total of 4,290 (two-way) external vehicle trips on a weekday daily basis (2,145 entering, 2,145 exiting) of which 314 (120 entering, 194 exiting) external trips would occur during the weekday AM peak-hour. During the PM peak-hour, 486 external trips (251 entering, 235 exiting) can be expected.

Traffic generated by the site will primarily be distributed to and from Green Level West Road and Green Level Church Road.

Intersection analyses indicate that, under 2000 Existing Conditions, each of the study area intersections operate acceptably during each of the time periods studied.

Under 2006 No-Build Conditions, with the addition of normal traffic growth, all study area intersections will continue to operate acceptably during the weekday AM and PM peak hours.

Build Conditions, which include the addition of project related traffic, indicate that the study area intersections will continue to operate acceptably, as under 2006 No-Build conditions.

As part of the project development plan, White Oak Church Road will be widened across the project frontage to provide two travel lanes in each direction where directional traffic flow will be separated by a raised center median as set forth in the Town’s current Thoroughfare Plan.

Also, the existing Ridgeback Road will be paved across the project frontage to provide one travel lane in each direction separated by a double yellow centerline. In addition, this roadway will be extended from Old White Oak Church westward to White Oak Church, which will be upgraded as part of the Town of Cary Thoroughfare Plan. With this extension, the prior Old White Oak Church Road/Ridgeback intersection will be modified to remove the northbound (Old White Oak Church Road) approach leg, which will, in essence, eliminate this intersection from the project study area.

Access to/from the project site is proposed via multiple project driveways to and from the surrounding roadways. The majority of the proposed access locations are proposed along White Oak Church Road, which bisects the site from north to south and will be upgraded to provide a 5-lane cross-section in conjunction with the Town’s current Thoroughfare Plan. Also proposed is one project access each to and from the adjacent roadways of Ridgeback Road and Green Level West Road. Due to the fact that Green Level West Road is, by far, the major carrier of traffic within the study area coupled with the fact that it will remain a two-lane roadway, its’ proposed project access has been examined in detail and is described as follows:

This access is proposed along Green Level West Road, approximately 1,000 feet east of White Oak Church Road. As proposed, this access would provide for one lane entering and one lane exiting the site and would allow for all vehicular turning movements. STOP sign control is proposed at this access point where vehicles exiting the site would be required to stop.

With the above-cited geometrics and traffic control in place, this site driveway is anticipated to operate acceptably under 2006 Build conditions.

Staff Remarks: The property is within the Jordan Lake Reservoir Watershed Protection District. According to the applicant, the project will be developed under the "high density option" of the watershed ordinance. The watershed protection target of 85% removal of total suspended solids will be met with three wet ponds to be maintained by a homeowner’s association.

Slopes in excess of 10% exist along two stream corridors that run north-south on the western side of the project. Wetland areas are located in the stream corridors. The applicant is proposing 50-foot stream buffers for the project.

The majority of the project area is vegetated with existing mature trees, such as pines and hardwoods. The heaviest concentration of hardwoods is located on the northwestern portion of the project.

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