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HomeMy WebLinkAboutA003 - Old Council Aciton Form dated August 14, 2001 t 0 � � C,R Item # AV5 Date: August 1 , 2001 COUNCIL ACTION FORM SUBJECT: APPROVING THE OAKWOOD ROAD PEDESTRIAN FACILITY AND SPEED LIMIT PLAN BACKGROUND: Staff has worked with the Oakwood Road Neighborhood group to develop a pedestrian facility and speed limit plan along Oakwood Road. This issue was referred to staff by City Council late last fall when it was initially requested by Stanley Cyran, 2516 Timberland Road, who has subsequently moved to another community. He was concerned that there should be sidewalks and crossing protection along Oakwood Road to accommodate children and residents who desire to walk to the Christofferson Park from the surrounding residential area. In his request, he did not believe that the current conditions along Oakwood Road (a narrow, busy, road with no shoulders) provided a safe means for children to walk to the park. Christofferson Park is located approximately 1 ,500 feet east of Timberland Road and is along the south side of Oakwood Road. It now includes a shelter, a basketball court, and playground equipment. After conducting two neighborhood meetings in May and July to discuss alternate pedestrian facility and speed limit plans, staff believes that the two measures below should be implemented to enhance safety along Oakwood Road. 1. Constructing a bicycle path along the south side of Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to the west side of the Suncrest Subdivision. This includes placing a pedestrian crossing on Oakwood Road at a location 50' east of the Green Hills Drive intersection. 2. Lowering the speed limit from 45 mph to 40 mph along Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to the west side of the Suncrest Subdivision. Discussed below is staff's review of the pedestrian facility plan and speed limits along sections of Oakwood Road that are entirely within the City Limits. Staffs Recommended Pedestrian Facility Plan To address the pedestrian safety issue along Oakwood Road, staff has discussed with the Oakwood Road Neighborhood group two different pedestrian facility plans that includes 1), constructing a sidewalk along the north side and 2), constrLcting a bicycle path along the south side of Oakwood Road. Initially, staff proposed the project to place a 4' pedestrian walkway along the north side of Oakwood Road from Timberland Road east to 100' east of Green Hills Drive for residents in the Timberland, Woodview, and Green Hills Drive Subdivisions. By completing this path, residents and their children CAF—Oakwood Road Pedestrian Facility& speed Limit-1 - could walk along Oakwood Road off the roadway shoulder where they could cross east of Green Hills Drive at a marked pedestrian crossing with an activated beacon. Residents, however, overwhelming rejected this plan during a May meeting for the following reasons and instead supported the construction of a bicycle path along the south side of the Oakwood Road. 1. The sidewalk would only be temporary and would need to be reconstructed when Oakwood Road is rebuilt. (It should be noted that Oakwood Road is not slated to be reconstructed for the next ten to fifteen years.) 2. Grading for the sidewalk would impact the ditch's drainage capacity. Residents expressed concern that this would create problems during wet periods when they may experience unexpected drainage diversion in their homes. 3. Safety would not be enhanced since pedestrians would have to walk across side street approaches including Woodview Road, White Oak Drive, and Green Hills Drive along Oakwood Road. They believed that pedestrian safety was especially a concern at the Green Hills Drive approach where motorists often do not slow when turning from Oakwood Road. 4. Multiple crossing locations at each of the existing side street approaches along Oakwood Road was believed to be safer than one marked crossing east of Green Hills Drive. They were concerned that the pedestrians crossing east of Green Hills Drive could not be seen by approaching westbound motorists on Oakwood Road due to the road's horizontal grade. (It should be noted that there is 550' of sight distance from the crest of the hill to the proposed Oakwood crosswalk next to Christofferson Park. This is an adequate distance, since conservative stopping sight distances needed for motorists to safely stop ranges from 400 to 550 feet for speeds from 45 to 55 mph. In addition, activated flashing devices at the crossing would be seen from distances of up to 1,000 feet.) Also in attendance at the May meeting were residents who lived along the south side of Oakwood Road on White Oak Drive within the Suncrest Subdivision. These residents also supported the construction of a bicycle path along the south side of Oakwood Road. They did not believe that the construction of a sidewalk along the north side of the street would enhance their safety since they would have to cross Oakwood Road twice to walk to the Christofferson Park. With the other alternative (building the bicycle path along the south side of the street) they would walk along the south side of the street and would not have to cross Oakwood Road. After reviewing these comments, staff re-evaluated their initial proposal and developed an alternate project to construct a bicycle path along the south side of Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to Suncrest Subdivision. With this proposal, staff did agree with residents that the placement of a pedestrian walkway near the bottom of the drainage way on the north side of the street is not an ideal location for two CAF—Oakwood Road Pedestrian Facility&Speed Limit-2- reasons. First, the path would be inaccessible after large rainstorms and second; it would not meet handicap accessibility standards due to vertical grades at cross street and driveway locations. With the comments received from residents, it was realized that the current walkway patterns through side and back yards in the subdivisions may be the safest means to walk to Oakwood Road from the subdivisions. These "short-cut" patterns may also continue to exist even if a less than standard sidewalk design is constructed along Oakwood Road. Since it has been noted that these "short-cut" walking routes are currently tolerated by residents, per comments received in the neighborhood meeting, staff believes that sidewalks are not needed on the north side of Oakwood Road until the street is reconstructed and permanent sidewalks are constructed along this area. Costs for constructing this path would be primarily borne by the developers on the south side. Currently monies have been held in escrow accounts from developers for constructing paths adjacent to the Wessex and Suncrest Subdivisions. To complete the remainder of the Oakwood pedestrian facility, the City would have to make a formal request to the County to bear the cost of constructing a 750' section along the Christofferson farm between the Christofferson Park to Sunset Subdivision. This 750' section would cost approximately $18,000 to grade and construct. It should be noted that the City has no means to assess costs for this section of path since the Christofferson Farm property is not within City limits, unless all assessed property owners agree to pay the assessment. Included in this pedestrian facility plan is the installation of a marked crosswalk on Oakwood Road 50' east of Green Hills Drive adjacent to Christofferson Park. As discussed with the Oakwood Road Neighborhood group, this is the most frequently utilized crossing location and one used by the majority of children crossing to play at the park. It is also centrally located along this developed area and would serve pedestrian routes to a multitude of destinations within the area. This crossing would be marked with a highly visible painted crosswalk that would be additionally supplemented with an activated "flashing yellow beacon" and pedestrian signage. Staff believes that this $2,000 flashing device would enhance the visibility and improve advancing motorists' awareness of the crosswalk location. Staff's Recommended Speed Limit Change During the May neighborhood meeting, residents raised concerns about the traffic speeds and 45 mph speed limit zone along Oakwood Road. They had reported that higher motorist speeds were creating hazards for the pedestrians and school children walking along and crossing Oakwood Road. To improve these conditions, they believed that the existing 45-mph speed limit zone should be dropped to at least a 35-mph limit along Oakwood Road. They cited that 35-mph speed limits have been designated along higher volume streets with similar conditions such as sections along South 161h Street and 13th Street. To address these concerns, staff initiated a speed zone study to evaluate conditions along Oakwood Road. During the past ten years, this speed limit evaluation had been performed four times (i.e., 1990, 1996, 1997, and 1999) along this Oakwood Road section to address resident's concerns. It should be noted that in the initial study CAF—Oakwood Road Pedestrian Facility&Speed Limit-3- conducted in 1990, staff had recommended speed limits be lowered from the unposted rural 55 mph speed limit to the current 45 mph limit. In the other three past studies (i.e. 1996, 1997, 1999) it was believed that the 45-mph limit was appropriately designated due to the prevailing traffic speeds, street conditions, and accident history. Consequently, these studies showed that there were almost no accident experience along this roadway with a gradual vertical and straight horizontal alignment. Also, the prevailing 85% motorist speeds were at levels where a 45-mph speed limit was appropriately designated. For this speed limit study, staff again evaluated existing street conditions, accident history and prevailing motorist speeds. Included in the prevailing motorist speed survey was an analysis of motorist speeds along two sections of Oakwood Road (i.e., Elwood Drive to Suncrest Subdivision/Suncrest Subdivision to State Avenue). These two sections were evaluated separately since they consisted of differing land uses (agriculture, wooded areas, low/high density development) traffic and road conditions. The traffic and road conditions varied along these two sections of Oakwood Road where higher volumes, a greater number of intersections, and more frequent pedestrian crossings existed east of Suncrest Subdivision as compared to the west end. The existing conditions east of the Suncrest Subdivision now includes a major driveway access for the Wessex and Suncrest Subdivisions that generate a higher number of turning and through movements. These developments did not exist when the other earlier speed limit evaluations were performed. After evaluating these conditions, staff believes that the speed limits should be lowered from 45 to 40 mph only along the east section of Oakwood Road from the Suncrest Subdivision east to Elwood Drive. Staff realizes that the land use along the east end of Oakwood Road (Elwood Drive to Suncrest Subdivision) has changed conditions within the past two years, whereas traffic and pedestrians volumes have increased significantly. The lowered speed limit along this section is recommended to enhance safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, and also to meet motorist's expectations who are travelling within this changing road environment. Although this speed limit does not correlate with the prevailing 85% motorist speeds, staff believes that this speed will eventually be lowered with the changes in the speed limit and the area land use. This study showed that the average speeds and 85% speeds were 41 and 47.5 mph, respectively, for motorists travelling both east and west along this eastern section (Elwood to Suncrest Subdivision). In comparison, average speeds were 43 and 49 mph for the western section of Oakwood Road. Staff does concede that the speed limits should be established closer to the 85% prevailing speeds according to industry standards since these motorists are typically driving at safe and prudent speeds. However, it is assumed that this will drop with further land use change and the increase in pedestrians and traffic volumes along this section of road. It should be noted that enforcement and signage measures will be implemented to achieve the compliance needed. During the July meeting, residents did support the lowered 40-mph speed limit as a staged measure. With this speed limit change, staff did indicate that they would monitor motorist's speeds along Oakwood Road as development or other conditions change in CAF—Oakwood Road Pedestrian Facility&Speed Limit-4- the area. Some residents believed that the proposed 40-mph speed limit should be designated along the entire length of Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to State Avenue. However, since this section is primarily within the County, Story County officials would have to change the speed limit. Darren Moon, Acting Story County Engineer, had indicated that he would collect motorists speed data to evaluate the proposed change. Staff also would work with the Story County Engineer's office in the evaluation of this data. It should be noted that some residents at the meeting believed that the speed limit should be dropped to 35 mph to correlate with the existing speed limit along South 16th Street (from Elwood Drive to South Duff Avenue). They believed that the conditions were far worse on Oakwood Road and that there were greater reasons for designating a 35-mph speed on this facility than on South 16th Street. They indicated that South 16th Street was also a two-lane facility but did not have narrow shoulders or deep ditch sections. Staff reported that the policy has been in the past to follow industry standard guidelines for establishing speed limits in correlation with the prevailing speeds, road conditions, accident history, and other criteria. As reported in the discussion above, staff believes that 40-mph is the most prudent speed limit that meets this criteria. ALTERNATIVES: 1. Approve the pedestrian facility plan to construct a bicycle path along the south side of Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to Suncrest Subdivision. This includes placing a pedestrian crossing on Oakwood Road at a location 50' east of the Green Hills Drive intersection at a cost of $2,000 for crosswalk pavement markings and an activated yellow flashing beacon. With this plan, City Council will need to make a formal request to the Story County Board of Supervisors seeking $18,000 to cover the costs of constructing a 750' section of bicycle path adjacent to the Christofferson farm between the Christofferson Park and the east side of the Suncrest Subdivision. This measure also directs the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance lowering the speed limit from 45 mph to 40 mph along Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to the Suncrest Subdivision. 2. Modify Alternate #1 to have the City cover the $18,000 costs of constructing a bicycle path along the 750' section adjacent to the Christofferson farm. 3. Modify Alternate #1 to designate a 35-mph speed limit along Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to Suncrest Subdivision. 4. Do nothing. MANAGER'S RECOMMENDED ACTION: It is the recommendation of the City Manager that the City Council adopt alternative number 1, thereby approving the pedestrian facility plan to construct a bicycle path. along the south side of Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to Suncrest Subdivision. This includes placing a pedestrian crossing on Oakwood Road at a location 50' east of the Green Hills Drive intersection at a cost of $2,000 for crosswalk pavement markings CAF—Oakwood Road Pedestrian Facility&Speed Limit-5- and an activated yellow flashing beacon. With this plan, City Council will need to make a formal request to the Story County Board of Supervisors seeking $18,000 to cover the costs of constructing a 750' section of bicycle path adjacent to the Christofferson farm between the Christofferson Park and the east side of the Suncrest Subdivision. This measure also directs the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance lowering the speed limit from 45 mph to 40 mph along Oakwood Road from Elwood Drive to the Suncrest Subdivision. COUNCIL ACTION: CAF—Oakwood Road Pedestrian Facility& Speed Limit-6-