[RP TownTalk] After new condos are built- what about traffic?

[Alice Ewen Walker]

Thought I'd toss in what I could regarding a couple of items raised in
the thread:

- The December meeting re-cap from M-UTC that Vernon just posted
summarizes the differences between what's proposed and the previous
proposal from Patriot Group.

(Note- the building set-back variance Dwight mentioned does not have
anything to do with adjacent buildings -- it is a variance that would
allow building closer to the train tracks. The development is in
compliance with setbacks for adjacent properties.)

- The Town did a traffic count in the last year to track how much
traffic is crossing the railroad tracks. It's very high and the great
majority of it is traffic originating outside of the town. (In my own
view, if we want to reduce traffic, it would be through limiting
through-traffic. Reducing new construction is not going to make much
of a dent in our traffic woes.)

- As far as traffic goes, it is true that the M-UTC zoning simply
addresses the amount of parking that the development must provide.

However, as a result of earlier discussions about the traffic problems
of this site, there was some redesign of the proposed entry to the
underground parking deck, based on community comment.

In Patriot Group's earlier proposal, they had put the driveway on
Lafayette, south of Riverdale Rd. Merging west onto Riverdale Rd from
this location is very challenging during the morning commute. The new
proposal instead has the driveway off of Queensbury roughly across
from Natoli Place. I believe the town made them aware of the long-ago
proposed Natoli Place re-alignment, which the design tries to
accomodate/fit with, should it happen in the future.

During the first round of discussions with Patriot Group, the
developer hired a firm to do a traffic and parking impact analysis -
presumably the town has a copy of the report.

Would be great if someone could post the figures from the traffic count.

- Alice Ewen Walker