Rea Road Gillespie Rezoning Request Traffic Armageddon

One of the more continuous subjects during both Gillespie Property Rezoning community meetings has been traffic. Those who attended the most recent meeting might recall Mr. Ranson's rather dismissive comment regarding Charlotte's traffic woes, "It's not my fault" 

"Russell Ranson stated that there is an existing traffic problem. He stated that the proposed road improvements will help mitigate many of these problems. He stated that the existing traffic problems are not his fault." - Transcript

Over the past several weeks we've communicated with both Jake Carpenter and Patrick Monroe regarding the traffic counts. Much to our surprise now with the 6th review (posted on October 27 the traffic count has been increased to 4,005 up from the absurdly low 2,468. 

Still about 2,000 shy of what most would consider a reasonable estimate but an improvement.

Keep in mind that city staff assume that single family detached housing generates 10 VMD (vehicle movements daily) yet multi-family apartments only generate 4.28 VMD. 

Part of the reason is that apartment dwellers are more likely to use mass transit or walk to work. Never mind that the only CATS Bus Routes on Rea Road are Express. 62 X is inbound 3 times in the morning and outbound 3 times in the afternoon.

Staff also by either policy or statute don't take into consideration outside factors. Such as future growth or traffic changes. The explanation by Jake Carpenter:

Thanks for reaching out regarding rezoning 2022-121. I understand your frustrations in this area of the City.

With respect to your question about studying specific development or school projects the answer is complicated. It is a mix between traffic engineering best practices and standards, uncertainty as it relates to other development timelines and traffic patterns, and the reasonable expectations we (the City) can expect of the development team.

Our goal is to accurately measure existing traffic and project future traffic to the extent possible. If there are projects in the immediate vicinity of the rezoning project that have completed traffic studies we require the development team to include their specific traffic projections. Other projects - either smaller projects without traffic studies, or larger projects that may be located further away - are captured by estimating a future growth rate. This growth rate is based on an analysis of past growth on study area roads, and is the best representation of how traffic changes over time.

City standards, and State law, only allow us to require developments to mitigate their anticipated traffic impacts and provide safe access to and from their site. However, we attempt to work with these development teams as much as possible to mitigate existing conditions where it makes sense for the community.

With respect to your question about the Rea Road widening – the scope of those microscopic impacts are outside the bounds of a normal development traffic study considering the longer timeline, distance of that widening from the development site, and uncertain long term changes in travel patterns.

I hope I was able to give you some level of perspective on our process and decision making. Thanks for being a part of the community involvement in this and other projects.

Thanks,

Jake Carpenter, PE

Land Development Section Manager

Charlotte Department of Transportation, Charlotte Development Center

600 East 4th Street | 6th Floor | Charlotte, NC 28202

980.221.5675 | Jacob.Carpenter@charlottenc.gov | charlottenc.gov

Other Concerns:

Additionally the rather vague wording regarding traffic "improvements" remains. The proposed timing also continues to be problematic. 

Rea Road and NC 51 Pineville Matthews Road (Inbound at 6:40 PM)

Clearly the pedestal bridge offered by the developer was nothing more than a carrot that really no one sees as an advantage. I suspect the wide expanse of Four Mile Creek at Rea Road would be cost prohibitive in placing the bridge streetside. Nevertheless the new alignment calls for the multi-use sidewalk to align with Rea Road for a greater distance.

The idea to move the parallel parking to the south side of Bevenington was a non-starter because the original concept allowed for east bound Bevington traffic to use the parking lot and west bound to use the street side parking. 

However, there may be some leverage with continued efforts regarding traffic via the UDO because one of the guiding principles is not to cause future unplanned costs to the city. Unfortunately CDOT is not as straightforward as CMS.