Hello City of Molalla Planning,
Below is an email from Kim Parducci, our transportation consultant who we had look at the TIA.
In addition to Kim’s comments below, I don’t see that the TIA was stamped. The final TIA should be stamped, and I don’t see that being an issue now, given we have comments which can be addressed.
Please review Kim’s comments, and let me know your thoughts on the comments.
Thanks,
Aaron Speakman, P.E.
The Dyer Partnership Engineers and Planners, Inc.
1330 Teakwood Ave.
Coos Bay, OR 97420
Phone: 541-269-0732
Fax: 541-269-2044
From: Kim Parducci [mailto:kim.parducci@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2021 7:48 AM
To: A Speakman
Subject: Re: FW: Requesting feedback on the submitted TIA - SDR04-2021
Hi Aaron,
I'm going to summarize my first round of thoughts for you. I say thoughts because I haven't had enough time to dig into everything, including the City's TSP so I don't consider these complete comments, but I have some things noted that are questions that could be addressed. Kittelson is an experienced consultant and obviously know what they're doing so it's not like the report is littered with errors.
1) Count taken at Leroy/OR211 October 9, 2018 was stated to be seasonally adjusted 3.8% and then grown 2.5% per year to develop existing year 2021 traffic volumes. What they actually did was seasonally adjust the through volume (eastbound and westbound) on OR 211 and apply 2.5% of annual growth to those volumes. The southbound left and right, westbound right, and eastbound left movements all stayed the same so they are raw volumes. I bring this up because as we're looking at warrants all of the numbers matter. I've attached the count for you to easily see what the 2018 raw data was and then compare to the existing 2021 adjusted volumes on Fig 4. There might be a very good reason for not adjusting the other volumes but this is not the norm. Normally, all volumes are adjusted.
2) Regarding the signal warrant analysis, they used the 100% graphs to determine whether warrants are satisfied. This is based on the speed on OR 211 being less than 40 mph and the population being over 10,000. I don't know the area but I see that the posted speed is 35 mph (which could be driven faster than 35). I think you should ask the planner if they (or Public Works) have any speed data along OR 211 because the MUTCD warrants are based on the 85th percentile speed. In other words, if they have speed data that shows the 85th percentile speed is over 40 mph then the warrants would be based on the 70% graphs and likely met.
3) Still on warrants....warrant 4 pedestrian and warrant 5 school crossing were not analyzed. I looked back through the count and see that there are not many pedestrians crossing OR 211 or even walking along Leroy in the counts so I understand why Kittelson didn't look at these warrants but realistically, there's a lot of residential going in to the south and the new commercial center on the SE corner of the intersections so I would assume that the number of pedestrians will increase especially since the middle school is one block north on Leroy. I think that should be considered. Only 20 school children crossing in an hour are needed to meet warrant 5. Just food for thought.
4) I don't see that any traffic was assumed to re-route from the multifamily development southwest of the proposed project but there is a cross-access provided. Some of this traffic, especially school traffic, will likely re-route through Leroy when that option is available.
5) The analysis assumes a year 2022 build year, which seems ambitious. I may be completely wrong about this but if we look at the timing of this application and when it will likely be approved and then take into consideration the time it takes to get construction started and finished I doubt this development will be constructed in 2022. Every year further out should be looking at higher traffic volumes, which then impacts warrants.
That's what I have so far.
Thanks.
Kim
--
KIMBERLY PARDUCCI, PE PTOE
SOUTHERNOREGON TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
Medford, Oregon 97504 | (541) 941-4148 Cell
Kim.parducci@gmail.com | Oregon DBE/WBE/ESB Certified: No. 5726
On Mon, Aug 30, 2021 at 3:14 PM A Speakman <aspeakman@dyerpart.com> wrote:
FYI
From: R Quigley
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 10:37 AM
To: A Speakman
Subject: FW: Requesting feedback on the submitted TIA - SDR04-2021
Aaron,
Here are the additional documents Dan sent me via dropbox.
Ryan
From: Dan Zinder [mailto:dzinder@cityofmolalla.com]
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 10:26 AM
To: R Quigley
Cc: Mac Corthell; A Speakman
Subject: RE: Requesting feedback on the submitted TIA - SDR04-2021
From PG 2 of the submitted TIA:
To clarify my statement, Center Market is the only one of these that is in progress and doesn’t have an accepted TIA. This project is going before planning commission next week. One of our conditions for this project is:
Applicant will be required to resubmit traffic analysis accounting for all trips
through the intersection in the AM and PM peak hours, provide signal
warrant analysis for all warrants, and apply a population of 10,000 and over
to the analysis. The analysis must be conducted by a Professional Engineer
registered in Oregon. TIA will not be approved until the city receives
concurrence with ODOT traffic that the TIA is correct. If the change in use
meets all warrants at the OR 211/Leroy intersection, then the applicant will
be required to design and construct the signal. If the change in use does not
meet signal threshold, then no signal improvements will be required. TIA
resubmission shall be prior to submission of civil plan review and building
permit authorization review (MMC 17-3.6.020).
Gerald believed that the resultant counts from this resubmittal would meet warrants. In any event, I’m not clear on how their analysis could take into account a TIA that is not accepted.
I will put the submitted TIA for Center Market in the dropbox as well.
Best,
Dan Zinder
503.759.0226
From: R Quigley <rquigley@dyerpart.com>
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 9:38 AM
To: Dan Zinder <dzinder@cityofmolalla.com>
Cc: Mac Corthell <mcorthell@cityofmolalla.com>; A Speakman <aspeakman@dyerpart.com>
Subject: FW: Requesting feedback on the submitted TIA - SDR04-2021
Good morning Dan,
Do you have any info you can share regarding the other projects you referenced in your email. See Aaron’s question below.
Thanks,
Ryan
From: A Speakman
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 9:25 AM
To: R Quigley; S Major
Subject: RE: Requesting feedback on the submitted TIA - SDR04-2021
Ryan,
Do we know what the “new projects” are as highlighted below? We would need info on the future projects as well.
This seems off to me, considering that they claimed that they took trips from new projects into account but those projects themselves warrant the signals.
Aaron Speakman, P.E.
The Dyer Partnership Engineers and Planners, Inc.
1330 Teakwood Ave.
Coos Bay, OR 97420
Phone: 541-269-0732
Fax: 541-269-2044
From: Dan Zinder [mailto:dzinder@cityofmolalla.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 2:25 PM
To: R Quigley
Cc: Mac Corthell
Subject: Requesting feedback on the submitted TIA - SDR04-2021
Hi Ryan,
AKS/Cascade Center recently submitted an application for an apartment complex. This application is currently in completeness review. We’re deeming it incomplete and generally like to use the incompleteness period to provide some initial feedback on some items that may be outside of the completeness scope.
Molalla Planning is requesting that Dyer take a look at the submitted TIA over the next week (by Thurs 9/2). Notably, in the TIA, the Applicants found that the use change (from self-storage) did increase trips but did not put the project over the threshold for signal warrants and claimed to take current traffic counts and incoming projects into account. This seems off to me, considering that they claimed that they took trips from new projects into account but those projects themselves warrant the signals.
That said, my reading of the data in these TIAs is still a little limited. I’m wondering if the TIA meets standards and accounts for what they claim it accounts for. Any feedback you may be able to provide would be appreciated and I will send that on to the applicant and if it is deficient we need to tell them that.
The TIA begins on PG 93 of the document “2021.08.10 - SDR04-2021 - 200 S Leroy Ave - Narrative and Exhibits” within this folder:
I will create a dropbox folder with the file as it is too big to send. You can bill this project to Planning File SDR04-2021.
Thank you,
Dan Zinder
Associate Planner, City of Molalla
117 N Molalla Ave | PO Box 248
Direct: 503.759.0226 | Office: 503.829.6855
--
KIMBERLY PARDUCCI, PE PTOE
SOUTHERNOREGON TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
Medford, Oregon 97504 | (541) 941-4148 Cell
Kim.parducci@gmail.com | Oregon DBE/WBE/ESB Certified: No. 5726