AGENDA #5b

MEMORANDUM

TO: Mayor and Town Council

FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

SUBJECT: Report on Traffic Calming Petitions from Several Neighborhoods

DATE: May 29, 2002

The purpose of this report is to respond to the Council’s direction on the Chandler’s Green neighborhood traffic calming petition and to do so in the context of pending traffic calming petitions from several other neighborhoods.

The Manager recommends that the Council defer consideration of these petitions until funding can be authorized for traffic calming projects.

BACKGROUND

At its May 13, 2002 meeting, the Council reviewed a report (Attachment #1) on traffic calming measures on Sweeten Creek Road, in response to a petition from Chandler’s Green neighborhood. In the absence of any available Town funding, we recommended that three speed humps ($7,500) be installed and that the Town install multi-way stop signs at the intersection of Sweeten Creek Road and Amesbury Lane provided he Homeowners Associaiton contribute funding for the speed humps. We also recommended that, if follow-up studies indicated that a traffic circle was necessary at this intersection, the Town pay for and construct the circle if and when funding ($5,000) became available.

At the May 13 Council meeting, the Chandler’s Green Homeowners said that the neighborhood preferred that the Town fully fund the approved traffic calming measures on Sweeten Creek Road or, alternatively, fund half of the cost of any and all approved measures and the Association would fund the remaining half. The Council asked the Manager to find a mutually acceptable solution and took no action on the petition.

DISCUSSION

Over the past year, several neighborhoods have presented petitions requesting implementation of traffic calming measures at various locations around Town. The following table lists the traffic calming petitions we presently have under consideration, and the status of each.

Town staff conducted traffic studies on the first four items in the table, and we are currently studying traffic calming requests for the last three. Once we complete those studies, we will work with the residents to develop appropriate traffic calming proposals for the streets involved, including cost estimates for implementation.

Street/Neighborhood	Neighborhood Requested Traffic Calming Devices	Staff Recommended Traffic Calming Devices	Total Cost for Staff Recommended Plan
1. Chandler’s Green Neighborhood/Sweeten Creek Road (Attachment 1)	Three speed humps and one traffic circle	Three speed humps and one traffic circle.	$12,500
2. Perry Creek Drive (Attachment 4)	Three speed humps and multi-way stop signs at three locations	Three speed humps and multi-way stop signs at one location	$7,500
3. Culbreth Ridge Neighborhood/Highgrove Drive (Attachment 5)	Option 1: Close Highgrove Drive. Option 2: One speed table, one speed hump, multi-way stop signs at one location and reduce speed limit to 20 mph	Two speed humps	$5,000
4. Ashley Forest Road (Attachment 6)	One speed hump	One speed hump	$2,500
5. Kensington Drive (Attachment 7)	Traffic study	Study in progress	n/a
6. Highgrove Drive in Southern Village (Attachment 8)	Traffic study (phone request)	Study in progress	n/a
7. Greenwood Road (Attachment 9)	Traffic study (phone request)	Study in progress	n/a

Culbreth Ridge Neighborhood/Highgrove Drive:

The Culbreth Ridge Homeowners’ Association requests the closure of Highgrove Drive at the connection point between its neighborhood and Southern Village. Town staff reviewed this request and do not recommend closing Highgrove Street for the following reasons:

Ø Highgrove Drive was designed as a connector street serving the northwestern part of the Southern Village Development, and was approved by the Council as such. There are no alternative facilities that could provide comparable service if this road were closed.

Ø Closure of Highgrove Drive would significantly limit access to and from the northwestern neighborhoods in Southern Village for residents, service vehicles and emergency vehicles.

The Culbreth Ridge Homeowners’ Association has proposed an alternative traffic calming plan if the Council decides not to close Highgrove Drive as requested. The alternative traffic calming plan includes one speed table, one speed hump, multi-way stop signs at one location and a speed limit reduction from 25 mph to 20 mph speed limit on one street. Please see the petition (Attachment #5) from Culbreth Ridge neighborhood for further information.

After meeting with neighborhood representatives on several occasions and field reviewing the streets in question, the Engineering staff thinks that the installation of two speed humps would provide a reasonable and adequate response to the neighborhood’s request for traffic calming.

Projected Costs

As noted in the above table, the Engineering staff is in the process of studying Kensington Drive, Highgrove Drive in Southern Village, and Greenwood Road to identify traffic calming measures that could mitigate speeding problems on these streets. (Based on the expected outcomes of our studies, we estimate that traffic calming measures could be implemented on all three of these streets for a combined cost of approximately $15,000 to $20,000.)

We think that improvements associated with all of the traffic calming petitions we presently have on file, as summarized in the above table, could be implemented at a cost of up to $50,000.

Chandler’s Green Neighborhood/Sweeten Creek Road:

The Council asked us to work with the Chandler’s Green Homeowners’ Association to come to a mutually acceptable resolution. Since the meeting, we have talked to representatives of the Homeowners’ Association and they indicated their agreement with the Town Manager’s recommendation on phased implementation of traffic calming devices on Sweeten Creek Road, but not with the funding option previously proposed by the Manager. Please see the May 22, 2002 e-mail from the Homeowners’ Association provided in Attachment #3.

The Homeowners’ Association prefers that the Town fully fund the proposed traffic calming improvements, including the traffic circle ($12,500). Alternatively, the Association requests that the Town fund half of the cost of the proposed improvements ($6,500) and the Association would pay the remaining half ($6,500). If improvements must be phased, the Association prefers that the Town fully fund each phase. Alternatively, the Association requests that the Town fund half of the cost of each phase and the Association would pay the remaining half. Unless and until the Council authorizes funding for traffic calming, we cannot recommend either alternative proposed by the Association. Please see Attachment #1 for more information on the traffic calming proposal for Sweeten Creek Road.

We have not been able to allocate funds for traffic calming measures because of the extreme financial constraints imposed by the State through withholding funds that are due to the Town. Previously appropriated funds for traffic calming have been completely allocated. The Manager’s proposed 2002-2003 budget does not include any funding for traffic calming. We are not aware of alternative sources currently available for funding traffic calming measures on local streets in Chapel Hill. Although we have identified viable traffic calming plans for several neighborhoods, the Town has no means to pay for or contribute to such plans. Therefore, we believe that plans should be deferred and no others initiated until such funding is available.

MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION

That the Council defer these petitions to such time as the Council is able to allocate funding for traffic calming projects.