Sender: aryan@townofchapelhill.org
Subject: Aura Traffic Meeting
Message-Id: <SA0PR09MB6042CF29E483709B4286031FD27C9@SA0PR09MB6042.namprd09.prod.outlook.com>
To: mjones@townofchapelhill.org
To: cwillger@townofchapelhill.org
To: phemminger@townofchapelhill.org
To: kneppalli@townofchapelhill.org

Hi :

 

I attended the Aura traffic meeting last night and was pleased to see a good turnout.

 

Several community members raised the issue of how the Aura study is accounting for traffic from potential/likely future development of greenfield Estes properties. I know that in my small Council group meeting on Aura traffic last week, we expressed similar concerns and asked staff to brainstorm ideas for the best way to integrate this information into our decision-making process.  Unfortunately, no such information was presented last night, and no mention was made that such information would be forthcoming.

 

I know that staff and traffic engineers can’t predict the future, and I would be interested in learning more from them about the complexities of doing this kind of analysis, and what plans they have for meeting this interest. I’m strongly convinced that we need to take traffic from future projects into account in some way. We need to show the public that we’re taking both immediate proposals and long-term growth in the area (which has an unusual number of undeveloped sites) into account to make sure that Estes, one of our major arterials, still “works” (even if somewhat more slowly).  We also don’t want to create a “first-come, traffic-take-all” situation. If I’m understanding the capabilities of our new traffic model correctly, we should be able to run some high/medium/low-density development scenarios and see if/when Estes breaks down and decide if that has implications for the Aura proposal. (I’d like to note that we did something of the kind with David Bonk during the Central West process, which ultimately helped develop the SF and mix of uses in the final plan.)

 

The community is asking good questions, and in my opinion we need to provide answers before Council opens the public hearing in April.

 

Best,

 

Amy