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HomeMy WebLinkAboutboard of directors items may 2009OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS COMMUNICATION MAY 19, 2009 AGENDA Subject Master Street Plan MSP08- 01, realignment of Beckenham and Wellington Plantation Collectors Submitted By: Planning & Development SYNOPSIS FISCAL IMPACT RECOMMENDATION CITIZEN PARTICIPATION BACKGROUND Action Required I Approved By Ordinance Resolution Approval Information Report Bruce Moore City Manager A Master Street Plan Amendment (MSP08-01) to re -align Beckenham (Collector) to intersect with Wellington Plantation (Collector) prior to either connecting with Rahling Road (Arterial), resulting in only one connection to Rahling Road. None determined Staff recommends denial. Planning Commission by a vote of 11 ayes, 0 noes recommends approval. Notices were sent to four property owners along the proposed extensions and the Villages of Wellington community Association. The Planning Commission held public hearing on October 2, 2008 to hear commends and concerns. The Collector connection from the residential subdivision developing west of Hinson Road to Rahling Road has been on the Master Street Plan for many years (prior to any urban or suburban development of the area). This Collector has been partially developed as Beckenham Drive. The Collector shown as Wellington Plantation Drive has been on the Plan for a shorter time. Several Collector alignments and even the Arterial (Kirk Road) location have been shown close to the Wellington BACKGROUND CONTINUED Plantation Drive alignment. In the case of both Collectors, alignments have been shown since before development of the area started. Collectors are intended to move vehicles and people from single-family neighborhoods to the Arterial system. In this case, both Collectors move from the existing and developing single-family subdivisions west of Hinson Road and north of Chenal Parkway to the Arterial — Rahling Road. The proposed amendment does not recommend the elimination of any Collector but rather proposes to combine them prior to their connection to Rahling Road. To make this change combines the east -west movement of Beckenham Drive with the north -south movement of Wellington Plantation Drive. The change could reduce the number of streets connecting to Rahling Road. This would lessen the number of potential future signalizations. But it could also hasten the need to signalize the resulting intersection, when it is possible no signalization on Rahling would have occurred. The proposed change would mix north -south and east -west movements and if the Land Use and Zoning are approved creating a destination at the western end of these Collectors. All the proposed changes could increase traffic demands. With the existing Master Street Plan network, traffic would be better distributed, therefore reducing the ultimate impact on the road system. 2 FILE NO.: MSP08-01 Name: Master Street Plan Amendment modifying the location of two Collectors Location: Beckenham Drive and Wellington Plantation Drive from their termini to Rahling Road Reg To re -align these two Collectors to join prior to their intersection with Rahling Road Source: Tim Daters, White-Daters for Deltic PROPOSAL / REQUEST: The request is to re -align Wellington Plantation Drive to the north and Beckenham Drive to the south, such that they become one street prior to their connection with Rahling Road. Both of these roads are Collectors. The classification and design standards for the roads are not requested to change. (Though due to existing topographic the roads may not meet the maximum grade requirement). Staff and the applicant on August 6, 2008 agreed to defer this item to the October 2, 2008 agenda in order to allow additional review time. PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION: (AUGUST 21, 2008) The item was placed on the consent agenda for deferral to the October 2, 2008 hearing at the request of Staff and the applicant. By a vote of 9 for and 0 against the consent agenda was approved. STAFF UPDATE: (OCTOBER 2, 2008) CURRENT MASTER STREET PLAN: Wellington Plantation Drive and Beckenham Drive are both Collectors. Wellington Plantation Drive serves the northern portion of the Villages of Wellington Subdivision and will connect that subdivision with Rahling Road, the Arterial. Beckenham Drive serves several subdivisions to the east and north. Currently this Collector has a break in it. The eastern section serves the Hillsborough and other subdivisions connecting them to Hinson Road, the Arterial. The western segment connects to a third Collector, Dorado Beach, and then on to the north and east to Hinson Road. When connected, Beckenham Drive will provide access to Rahling Road from many subdivisions. FILE NO.: MSP08-01 (Cont. FUTURE LAND USE PLAN Currently the Land Use Plan shows Single -Family with some Low Density Residential along Rahling Road. The Master Street Plan current alignments of the two Collectors are generally along either side of the Low Density Residential use area. An area of Multifamily is shown along the west side of Rahling Road north of the proposed intersection. There is an accompanying Land Use Plan amendment that would add Office and Commercial at the relocated single intersection with Rahling Road. Two Multi- family areas are then proposed to the northeast and southwest of this intersection. Each of the Multi -family areas is between Rahling Road and one of the two proposed Collectors. HISTORIC DISTRICTS. There are no historic districts that would be affected by this amendment. CITY RECOGNIZED NEIGHBORHOOD ACTION PLAN: The amendment area is in the Rock Creek Neighborhood Plan area with the River Mountain Neighborhood Plan area just to the north (some overlap on Beckenham Drive). Neither of these Neighborhood Plans directly address either of the Collectors involved in this application. Nor do the Plans address the issue of re -aligning or combining of these Collectors. ANALYSIS: The Collector connection from the residential subdivision developing west of Hinson Road to Rahling Road has been on the Master Street Plan for many years (prior to any urban or suburban development of the area). This Collector has been partially developed as Beckenham Drive. The Collector shown as Wellington Plantation Drive has been on the Plan for a shorter time. Several Collector alignments and even the Arterial (Kirk Road) location have been shown close to the Wellington Plantation Drive alignment. In the case of both Collectors, alignments have been shown since before development of the area started. Collectors are intended to move vehicles and people from single-family neighborhoods to the Arterial system. In this case, both Collectors move from the existing and developing single-family subdivisions west of Hinson Road and north of Chenal Parkway to the Arterial — Rahling Road. The proposed amendment does not recommend the elimination of any Collector but rather proposes to combine them prior to their connection to Rahling Road. 2 FILE NO.: MSP08-01 (Cont.) The developer has also noted that due to the topography the proposed extensions will not meet the slope requirements of the Master Street Plan. That is, the new roads will have a greater incline than allowed. This is true with their proposed alignment. Thus combining the roads does not improve the situation caused by the topography of the site. To make this change would mix traffic from two areas prior to connection to the Arterial system. It combines the east -west movement of Beckenham Drive with the north -south movement of Wellington Plantation Drive. The change could reduce the number of streets connecting to Rahling Road. This would lessen the number of potential future signalizations. But it could also hasten the need to signalize the resulting intersection, when it is possible no signalization on Rahling would have occurred. Prior to the point where Beckenham Drive is proposed to connect to Wellington Plantation Drive, Dorado Beach, a Collector, connects to Beckenham Drive. This feeds traffic from the northeast of Beckenham on to Beckenham Drive. In a preliminary review of the request, Staff had some concerns about this concentration of traffic that would result. For this reason, together with the changes proposed by a related Land Use Plan amendment, Staff requested a traffic study. This study in part is to assure that the volumes are not too high on the resulting combined Collector. Thus should the combined roadway, if allowed, be built to a higher standard to handle the volumes? Would the street network work better or as well with a more distributed traffic volume? On the surface some concerns did appear and the study was requested to get additional information on impacts. No Traffic Study has been received by the City for review. The proposed change would mix north -south and east -west movements and if the Land Use and Zoning are approved creating a destination at the western end of these Collectors. All the proposed changes could increase traffic demands. With the Master Street Plan network, traffic would be better distributed, therefore reducing the ultimate impact on the road system. NEIGHBORHOOD COMMENTS: Deltic is the only property owner adjacent to the proposed and current Collector alignments. Notices were sent to the Villages of Wellington Community Association. There has been some contact made with Staff on this matter generally informal in nature, with some expressing concerns with the changes. STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS: Denial, Staff has concerns about the implications of the combination on the two roads as well as on Rahling Road. 3 FILE NO.: MSP08-01 (Cont. PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION; (OCTOBER 2, 2008) Walter Malone, Planning Staff indicated that Staff had received a traffic study in the last ten days. A preliminary review indicated that the proposed street system would handle the traffic with the assumptions made. These assumptions included a limit of multifamily units (600), reduced density of development of the non-residential areas, and joint access between the non-residential and multifamily areas of which none are required by the Commission's previous approval of the related zoning case. Staff still believes that a more distributed system is preferred. With the model assumptions access would still be a full intersection at the locations where each of the Collectors would have been with the added full intersection and signal at the new Collector location along Rahling Road. Bill Spivey for the applicant indicated that they would design and build all the roads proposed when the Board of Directors approves the reclassifications, master street plan and land use plan. With the proposal before the Commission, Beckenham will not connect, there is a break in Beckenham further to the east. Deltic will commit to $325,000 toward the construction of this portion of the road (design and construction), if the City will work with the developers on the design and construction and the City acquires the right-of-way. The developers will also commit to traffic circles (round -about) at Rahling with Pebble Beach and Rahling and Wellington, if they will 'work' (topography and other issues). In response to a question, it was stated that $325,000 should cover most of the cost of a two-lane road, not full drainage, sidewalks etc. There are two owners through which this road would traverse and the City will have to get the right-of-way from them. This offer is to only build two -lanes. The idea being to allow the movement of the traffic projected for the road by the model (10 year projections). Further work may have to be done to bring the road to 'full' standard. The City acquires the additional right-of-way and Deltic (Chenal) agrees to contribute $325,000 toward work of construction -design in conjunction with the roadwork they would be doing on the west terminus of Beckenham. This is a 'good faith' effort to address what the model says needs to be done to improve the situation. Mr. Danny Broaddrick a resident on Valley Park spoke against the change. He was concerned about an increase in traffic due to diversions. Also he was concerned about the traffic circle proposals along Rahling Road. There was discussion about traffic circles. Bud Laumer spoke next. He took issue with the projected traffic volumes and talked about the increases he believes will occur. Due to the alignments, Beckenham will function like an arterial — continuation of Hinson Road to Rahling Road. There will be a need to build traffic calming devices along Beckenham. There has been a nine percent traffic increase and count of over 32000 vehicles for Rahling Road. He gave some examples of existing high volume streets similar to what he believes Beckenham will become. Traffic moving form east to rd FILE NO.: MSP08-01 (Cont. west due to the proposed zoning and uses that are future to the west have not be factored into the projections. There was discussion about `neo -traditional' development and the differences between this part of Little Rock and the Hillcrest area. Also there is a need for more density with the changes in the economy (gas prices, etc.). John Lessel, 158 Pebble Beach expressed support of the change and the relief this would give to Pebble Beach. A motion was made to approve the Master Street Plan Amendment. By a vote of 11 for and 0 against the amendment was approved. 5 ORDINANCE NO, AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE MASTER STREET PLAN (19,152) REALIGNING BECKENHAM DRIVE TO WELLINGTON PLANTATION PRIOR TO CONNECTION WITH RAHLING ROAD (MSP08-01); AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. WHEREAS, as the Little Rock Planning Commission believes it appropriate to amend the plan. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CITY OF LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. SECTION 1. The proposed extension of the Collector Beckenham Drive is realigned to the south and west to intersect the extension of Wellington Plantation prior to said road connecting to Rahling Road. SECTION 2. The Master Street Plan Map is hereby changed to reflect the Collector realignment as shown on the attached graphic. SECTION 3. That the ordinance shall take effect and be in full force from and after its passage and approval. PASSED: ATTEST: APPROVED: City of Little Rock Clerk Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: City Attorney " new existing scadd_pagis SCADD_TYPE Pe e — ACCESS — ALLEY COLLECTOR LOCALSTREETS MINOR ARTERIAL O e lid PRINCIPAL ARTERIAL +€xlStlh+} PRIVATE ROAD p ' — FREEWAY 'ar — RAMPS/TURNOUTS i ♦ /�f7g eck nJi � Dr 1 0> X `� P- y,�ti ��Ona! parkway Vicinity Map Master Street Plan Admendment Case: MSP -08-01 Location: Wellington Plantation Dr.. Ward: 5 PD: 19 0 450 900 1,800 Feet CT: 42.10 TRS: T2N R13W30