STAFF REPORT

Town Council, May 26, 2005

APF Roads Public Hearing (EN05-122B)
Consideration of public hearing for changes in the APF Roads Ordinance

Speaker:  Tim Bailey

From:  Tim Bailey, P.E., Engineering Director
Prepared by:  Tim Bailey, P.E., Engineering Director
Approved by:  William B. Coleman, Jr., Town Manager
Approved by:  Benjamin T. Shivar, Assistant Town Manager

Staff has developed a concept to modify the APF Roads Ordinance based on feedback at the retreat.  The basic concept would propose three primary changes.

Cap Road Improvements

Road improvements would be capped when the numbers of lanes existing meet the thoroughfare plan.  Subject to a Town Council approved waiver; when an existing roadway meets the Thoroughfare Plan, no additional improvements would be required regardless of LOS.  This would prevent right turn lanes and through lanes being added to intersections to meet LOS requirements.  Staff would suggest requiring dual left turn lanes to mitigate poor LOS since dual lefts are frequently needed at major intersections.  This option would require improvements to rural 2-lane roads to manage the higher traffic volumes of suburban development.  It would not require widening in many of the developed areas where multi-lane roads exist with curb and gutter, sidewalks, street lights and similar improvements which become costly to replace.

Low Density Exemption

Developments at an intensity of R-20 or less would not be required to provide a traffic study.  This would replace our current exemption of less than 100 peak hour or 1,000 average daily trips.  Consultants advised when the ordinance was written that a minimal use of property was allowed as a property right and could not be regulated.  Currently, since a small land area can generate trips below our threshold no study is required, but the traffic intensity could be fairly high.  Several small sites combined could have significant traffic generation.

Another version of this concept could allow the trip generation produced by an R-20 development.  Traffic would only be mitigated for the number of trips generated above an R-20 development.

These types of options will promote more large single family lot development.  Cost of doing a traffic study and cost of mitigating offsite traffic will be avoided providing an incentive for this type of development.

·      Buyout Option

This option would allow a developer to be relieved of an intersection road improvement requirement by a payment for the improvements approved by Town Council.  These would typically be offsite improvements.  Staff proposes that a fee in lieu payment be made at twice the total estimated cost of the improvement.  By having the amount set at twice the cost, this will provide an incentive to make the improvement.  Funds collected could be used for any transportation project and would not be eligible for TDF credits or cash reimbursements.  

A proposed schedule to make this change by July 1 is outlined below:  

Revisions to the ordinance are being pursued for several reasons.  The current ordinance is solely focused on level of service for automobile drivers (for two hours of each day) without any other considerations.  Ultimately, roads become wider and wider with no regard for other impacts.  While peak traffic congestion is one factor considered in quality of life, excessive improvements to road systems have negative impacts on other quality of life factors.  Some of these are listed below:

-  Affect the character of the community

-  Widening roads removes vegetation contained in natural areas and streetscape
   buffers provided by previous development

-  Wider roads make pedestrian and bicycle modes of transportation more difficult

-  Wider roads are a disincentive to using transit

-  Wider roads have environmental impacts such as water quality, water quantity,
    air quality, light, noise, and thermal effects

-  Wider roads have considerable cost for construction and maintenance.  Because of
   these costs, designs should not just consider peak hour traffic.  Many communities
   have realized that it is impossible to “build your way out of congestion”, as is
   evidenced by Southern California .  Cary is another example where considerable
   construction has occurred
   with low traffic volume increases, slow growth rate, higher impact fees, higher
   debt funding, but congestion improvement has been marginal while ability to cover
   debt costs has become difficult to manage.

-  Loss of parking spaces due to road widening and loss of tax base for property
   taken  

With all the offsetting issues, roads are still very important to quality of life as apparent from survey results.  The goal of these changes is to balance quality of life as a whole and not just maximize one aspect while ignoring others.  Growth in the area is a clear sign that overall quality of life must be well above average compared to the rest of the Country.  These ordinance amendments are a step in the direction of improving overall quality of life, but are not an end result as Cary tries to achieve the proper balance.  The revised ordinance provides Town Council the ability to balance some of these concerns.  The ideal goal is to establish a road width on the Thoroughfare Plan that balances all competing interests, and then build the community according to the plan.  A Thoroughfare Plan amendment is proposed as part of the process which will clarify goals that achieve a complete end result and links well with the APF Roads Ordinance.   

Staff Recommendation:  Staff recommends approval of the ordinance amendments and forwarding this item to Town Council on June 23, 2005 for Town Council action.