[RP TownTalk] District Council to Vote on Cafritz, Monday, July 9, in Upper Marlboro

[Melissa Avery]

How many "units" and apartments are expected to be constructed at this site?
How many of these places of residents will have more than one person living in them? our neighbors in Riverdale Park living in a two bedroom house had 9 cars associated with the property. Based on that model  the worse case  there could be 18000 cars making multiple trips per day. 
Where would they park let alone the traffic impact.
Even if some don't drive in and out of the property at the same time every day, some will make multiple  trips in a day at various times in the day.
And what about  the projected 300+ employees of the businesses? That is an extra 600 trips.
What about the people going to the grocery store?
Don't expect them to walk or take public transportation. In fact people who support the grocery store have stated that they are looking forward to stopping there on their drive home from work.

With all this increased traffic, where do pedestrians stand in the equalization?
As it is, walking around Riverdale Park is hazard at best. Recent railroad accidents and pedestrian accidents on RT.1 should serve as a wake up call.
The survivors of those victims don't care about statistics.


________________________________
 From: Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com>
To: towntalk at riverdale-park.org 
Sent: Thursday, July 5, 2012 8:19 PM
Subject: [RP TownTalk]  District Council to Vote on Cafritz, Monday, July 9, in Upper Marlboro
 

The RP Town Council is the only authority who may make changes to town roads (which Queensbury is one).  The Council may turn roads one way, put speed bumps, rumble strips, restrict access at certain times or altogether, put more stop signs, stop lights, or any other measure that is deemed appropriate.  The State Highway Administration has that same authority over MD-1/Baltimore Avenue, MD-410/East-West Highway, and MD-201/Kenilworth.  I have not been privy to any conversations that indicated that Queensbury is to be widened.  That would be antithetical to the M-U-TC zoning’s purposes; wider roads encourage higher speeds and are by their inherent nature less-pedestrian friendly.  
 
To address some of the more technical questions that were raised:
-the traffic counts are a highly debatable number (there were multiple studies done with different results).  Even the worst case scenario however did not put the trips anywhere near 2000 additional trips on Route 1
-there are mandatory restrictions in place concerning new traffic generated by the proposed development
-a new private shuttle will be funded by the developer to run between the CP Metro/Marc, PG Plaza Metro, and RP Marc station
-all the traffic studies projected that many of the housing units will be serving the offices at M2, UMD, and commuting into DC.  Much more traffic was generated based upon the retail (2/3) vs. the residential (1/3)
-there are mandatory steps that have to happen prior to construction permits including an Adequate Public Facilities study and a traffic study (for town roads) that address infrastructure and public safety issues
-Route 1 at Van Buren will have a stop light with pedestrian crosswalks, the Town Council and Public Works is aware and currently working on addressing pedestrian crossing from Town Center to the Town Center Market
 
I walk to and ride the MARC train most mornings with 2 members of the M-U-TC committee, three other members have the businesses at Town Center; membership was specifically contemplated to include people who inherently understand the local design and pedestrian issues that the zoning contemplates.  Every application that has been before the committee has focused its comments on two primary areas: 1) design and 2)pedestrian orientation.  However, the M-U-TC committee itself can only advise on pedestrian safety issues when there is a development application – it is up to the Town Council to vote as a whole as to how to take the opinion.
 
The Council has moved over the last 12 months to begin to address these concerns.  SHA has been brought before the Council multiple times to listen to our concerns.  I would like to point out that a direct consequences to this was the Rt1/Queensbury intersections being painted with at ‘Don’t Block the Box’ signage.  This by itself does not solve the problem but it is a single step towards abating the problem.  I believe there should be red light cameras as well and selective traffic enforcement.  For the Queensbury/Town Center intersections we are awaiting the results of a traffic study to better avail ourselves of solutions.  Keep in mind that the town does not have unlimited resources; we have a maximum of 3 officers patrolling every shift and pulling 1 or 2 officers to write traffic tickets means other parts of the town and public safety are not being served.
I appreciate the general civility that has been shown.  I realize that there are some that disagree with the development but it is always important to realize that many of us are neighbors and friends and see each other on a weekly basis at the farmer’s market etc.  Disagreement is expected, and I believe incredibly healthy in any discussion.  Any single issue as complicated as the rezoning of close to 40 acres is going to bring up enormous challenges, questions, concerns, fears etc.  It is important however to move forward from any disagreement still as friends and neighbors since although there may be disagreement on one issue there is likely to be agreement on many others. 
 
Jonathan
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