Report: Home Depot traffic mitigation appears inadequate
Published on October 18th, 2006
A town-retained traffic consultant concluded last Wednesday that the Stoneham Crossings proponents utilized correct methodologies for its traffic figures, but warned that several proposed mitigations appeared inadequate.
Hired by the Planning Board to conduct an independent review of the traffic figures associated with a proposed 133,000 square foot Home Depot development on Fallon Road, Gary Hebert, of Fay, Spofford, and Thorndike, declared that overall, the applicants' traffic projects were based upon reasonable calculations and assumptions.
The project, which would also include the construction of a 15,000 square foot office park at the former headquarters of 225 Fallon Road's A.W. Chesterton Company, is being proposed by Wilmington's The Richmond Company.
The Wilmington-based real-estate company purchased the 16.2-acre site from the former proprietor last spring for $7.4 million and submitted a special permit application for the mixed-use Home Depot and office park to the Planning Board last summer.
Although both uses are allowed in the commercially zoned district, retail developments are capped at 75,000 square feet, unless a special permit is granted to exceed that limit.
According to Hebert, who hadn't issued a written report on his findings as of this Monday, although there was a fluctuation in vehicular rates between national averages and those observed at five surrounding Home Depots in the area, he believed a developer-retained traffic consultant used the best information available when calculating traffic projections.
"There's a good chance that traffic could be significantly higher or significantly lower. But with that said, the average rates is the best thing that can be used," the Fay, Spofford, and Thorndike engineer said during last week's Planning Board meeting.
"My conclusion is that the data collected was reasonable and that the rates that were calculated were reasonable," added Hebert, who did predict that a greater percentage of diverted traffic, or new cars drawn to the area, would result from the Home Depot development than was forecasted by the applicants.
While the town's traffic consultant largely agreed with the methods the developer used in preparing the proposal's traffic figures, he listed several issues with the roadway mitigation package being offered to offset the impacts from the Home Depot use.
Specifically, Hebert pointed out that during his observations of morning traffic along North Border Road, vehicles backed-up all the way down the street past Fallon Road. North Border Road, which eventually passes Fallon Road near the proposed development, is situated directly across from South Street, where it intersects with Main Street adjacent to the Friendly's Restaurant.
According to the town consultant, since a morning peak hour traffic study hadn't been prepared by the proponents, who have maintained that a Home Depot doesn't attract business during that time of day, he was unable to say with certainty that the mitigation package would successfully address that problem.
In addition to that issue, Hebert also characterized as "unacceptable" the current morning backups from Fallon Road onto I-93, which result from traffic queues that build-up as cars wait to exit the highway in the southbound off-ramp near the site.
Yet another big potential issue, according to the consultant, surrounded the number of cars that regularly parked along Fallon Road, as well as the proposed layout of the Home Depot's entrances to the I-93 on-and-off ramps.
Specifically, Hebert recommended that the current 85-foot separation from the proposed entrance to the highway connection be extended to at least 200-feet, especially since traffic exiting the Home Depot would flow by yielding [instead of stopping at a sign or light] to oncoming traffic.
"It's very clear that the southbound off-ramp also has an issue from a queuing perspective. That needs to be addressed. Right now, it's queuing all the way onto Route 93," the Fay, Spofford, and Thorndike engineer advised.
"If traffic [coming off I-93] is going somewhere other than Home Depot and [a person exiting the site] thinks you're going to Home Depot and pulls out, boom. There's your potential traffic issue," Hebert furthered.
According to attorney Mark Vaughan, of Burlington's Reimer and Braunstein, the consultant's points were well taken, and the proponents would look at a way to reconfigure the site layout.
As to the parking issues along Fallon Road, the petitioner's lawyer referring to ongoing discussions with neighboring proprietors on how to eliminate that issue.
Concerned with the lack of a morning traffic study that analyzed how traffic would flow along North Border Road once the Home Depot was constructed, Planning Board member Stephen Catalano lobbied for having those results submitted to the special permitting authority as soon as possible.
Catalano, who became even more adamant in insisting that submittal after the applicants' consultant claimed the mitigation "may" better facilitate traffic flow along side streets, argued that the Planning Board needed much more concrete assurances.
"May is not a word that makes me feel very good. 'May' does not describe an improvement, although I respect the fact that you may not have had the time to study that," the Planning Board veteran responded. "This member of the board is very concerned with the mitigations. What I would like to see is some quantitative data as to what that word 'may' means."
Further pointing to the fact that only four guaranteed roadway mitigations were being proposed by the developer, all of which dealt with traffic impacts along Fallon Road, I-93, and Main Street, Catalano insisted that a more comprehensive package would need to be offered to gain his approval.
Although the Planning Board member declined to specifically outline what his demands were, saying the petitioners would have to decide what to offer, he argued that Park Street and Marble Street were at least two roadways requiring attention.
"If this mitigation is at the expense of the town, where's the benefit of moving forward with a project like this and getting more tax revenue?" Catalano said. "The petitioner should provide some type of plan that guarantees mitigation will take place that will satisfy this board as to traffic at these other intersections."
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