ZMA-9-20 Old Milburine PUD Public Comment

As a property owner and resident of Old Lewis Farm Road I am in opposition to the street connection of the proposed development to Old Lewis Farm Road. In addition to the other items pointed out by fellow residents, I completely disagree with the attitude of the developers and the traffic study that the traffic impact on Old Lewis Farm Road would be negligible. Yes, their main traffic artery in the neighborhood will be connected to two main roads that seems like a better choice for traffic and it seems their assumption is that traffic will be evenly divided between these two exits. First of all I think that is a faulty assumption. I would be willing to bet that at least 3/4 of the traffic leaving the neighborhood in the morning will be headed for 540 or Raleigh in general. This will mean that the bulk of the traffic will be traveling towards Old Milburnie Road in the morning. If they believe that traffic will be evenly spread out and not back up at peak times trying to turn onto Old Milburnie Road, they have obviously never seen the traffic exiting any of the other similar developments in the greater Raleigh area. As people see long waits at their primary exit to the neighborhood onto Old Milburine Road, I am certain that a significant number of them will decide to take the cut through to Old Lewis Farm Road to hope for a shorter wait.  At peak traffic and school times just prior to the pandemic we frequently saw traffic backed up on Old Milburnie Road probably half the distance from Old Lewis Farm Road to Forestville Road and to Buffalo Road, and with a constant stream of cars making it difficult for one car to get out of our neighborhood in a timely manner. With all of the additional cars from the proposed development I see it becoming significantly worse to exit our neighborhood even if there is no additional traffic cutting through from the new development. Adding more cars from the new development would create even more of an issue.  I am also disappointed, although not surprised, that the reaction of at least one council member to the fact that essentially every resident of Old Lewis Farm neighborhood has signed a petition in opposition to this proposed connection was to scoff at the fact we didn't want the connection and essentially say that "we know best and we think you need it". I suppose they really have no reason to care what we think about them or their actions or policies since we are merely in the Knightdale ETJ and have no vote for any of them despite the fact that their actions can directly impact out neighborhood.

We live in the Lewis Farm neighborhood and are initially concerned because we did NOT receive public notification about this development, nor did any of our neighborhood except the few property owners along Old Lewis Farm Road. The fact that we are a NO OUTLET neighborhood should have been reason enough to notify "all of us" of the "recommended site access along Old Lewis Farm Road as one of the PUD roads" because Old Lewis Farm Road is our subdivision's ONLY access of ingress and egress into our subdivision. We are OPPOSED to Old Lewis Farm being used as an access from the subject PUD and recommend that a cul-de-sac be designed within the right-of-way of the proposed subdivision instead of providing access to Old Lewis Farm Road.  Old Lewis Farm Road is a 30+ year old road that was designed for a 31 Lot subdivision and is currently is need of repair with the cracking/alligatoring pavement and dips/holes that the State DOT repeatedly fills. Access from the PUD site onto Old Lewis Farm Road would add several hundred vehicles to a road that wasn't built to accommodate that kind of traffic. There is also a culvert under Old Lewis Farm Road at the Wake County property that is in need of some type of repair because the road continues to dip/sink in that area no matter how many times the state adds asphalt; therefore, a stormwater/culvert study needs to be performed.  Comments below are in reference to Per Ramey Kemp's document, page 7, 2.1 and Master Plan pages 4 & 7:

1) The "tie to the existing stub" as referred to on pages 4 & 7 of the Master Plan is technically a driveway for Curtis Lewis even though it shows up as a 50' right of way (r/w) on BM 1989 Page 676 recorded in the Wake County Registry. The r/w, to the best of my knowledge, was never conveyed by deed or plat to the State of NC by the developer of Lewis Farms, Mr. Curtis Lewis. Again, we are OPPOSED to Old Lewis Farm being used as an access within this r/w from the subject PUD and recommend that a cul-de-sac be designed within the right-of-way of the proposed subdivision instead of providing access to Old Lewis Farm Road.

2) Ramey Kemp's document indicates traffic study was conducted in June 2018 "during peak hour traffic volumes of a typical weekday AM & PM;" however, this study fails to consider that school was NOT in session in June which drastically reduces traffic on a daily and peak-hour basis for all surrounding intersections and many families take vacation after graduation. The volumes ONLY consider June and does not depict true traffic volumes for any of the surrounding and impacted intersections. Also, with completion of building the new school, Neuse River Middle, which was built to accommodate a larger attendance, we believe the traffic "projection" is further understated even though the report indicates attendance increased from 1,163 to 1,450, that number also omits the # of increased teachers. A few years ago the "flashing light" with a 4-Way STOP at Old Milburnie Road and Forestville Road was upgraded to a "signaled" light because of traffic congestion and wrecks.

3) Primary safety concern at the intersection of Old Lewis Farm Road and Old Milburnie Road. There is only ~325' from the centerline of the school's entrance to the centerline of Old Lewis Farm Road. Currently, when school traffic backs up because traffic is making a left into the school off of Old Milburnie Road, the entrance of Old Lewis Farm Road is blocked and the only way out is right turn or make an unsafe or illegal traffic movement to get around traffic to go left on Milburnie Road. Also, the backed-up traffic causes a visual obstruction for drivers leaving Old Lewis Farm Road whether turning right or left because a driver can't see on-coming left traffic from the Forestville Road direction. Adding more traffic to Old Lewis Farm Road increases unsafe travel and wrecks or possibly death and there are many students on buses that are at risk.

4) Currently, the intersection at Old Milburnie and Buffaloe needs improving. This is a big safety risk. I wonder many times how many wrecks and lives will it take for someone to improve this intersection. There needs to be center turn lanes and a left turn arrow. It is almost impossible to take a left at the intersection from Old Milburnie onto Buffaloe due to south bound traffic on Old Milburnie. We need a left turn lane here with a direction signal similar to what we currently have at Forestville and Buffaloe. I watch drivers run that light turning left. Sometimes only (1) car gets through.

We are not necessarily opposed to the development of these properties, but this is one of many developments approved or proposed for the next 3-5 years, and regardless of what the traffic study/counts forecast, without major improvements to the roads and intersections leading to I-540, traffic and road conditions in this 7 square-mile radius is going to be unsafe and unbearable. Many times developments are approved with no consideration to proper intersection and road improvements.

 

Just a follow up to the previous comment from Louann and I. This is spelled out in an e-mail I sent to Kevin Lewis and forward to Ms. Heather Smith, the Town Clerk. The stub street into Old Lewis Farm Road is not a street. It has never been named nor has NCDOT ever accepted or provided any maintenance to the stub. It basically serves as a drive way for Curtis Lewis, one of the developers of Lewis Farms. I appreciate McAdams comment about essentially an escape route for our residents with a natural disaster, but we stand by our first note and prefer the road coming out of the PUD be cul-de-sacked. The gentlemen from Ramey Kemp never addressed the time frame for the study with the middle school being on break in June of 2019. We have driven Old Milburnie Road for the past 27 years and can assure you that when school is in session, the numbers are much hire than what was shown in their traffic study,

I oppose this project as I am concerned about a few issues. 1: the public road public 50foot road will bring more traffic to old lewis farm road which is already in need of repairs. 2: this develoment is more inclined to be in town and we are still a rural area and it is not consistent with the area. 3: I am concered this devlopment will bring crime to the area. 4: more traffic on old milburnie road. 5: I live behind the school and i am afraid the kids will cut through the yards and that is not ok.

I am neutral on the proposed development. During the neighborhood meeting it was discussed that a traffic impact analysis had been completed that covered the connections and potential traffic impact to the connected Brighton Knoll subdivision. Upon reviewing the Traffic Impact Analysis, there is a passing reference to a fourth access road on page E-2. The study states, "Brilliant Drive was not studied as a part of this TIA due to the negligible traffic that would be expected to be added to this roadway". This decision is supported by an opinion that Brilliant Drive is not anticipated to be a main access for the proposed development. Based on the studies of the other access points and that none of the site drives studied will be signalized intersections, I would prefer that a full analysis of the impact to Brilliant Drive and to Endwell Drive be completed prior to approval of this development with required connections to the Brighton Knoll subdivision. Brilliant Drive and Endwell Drive are narrow and do not have sidewalks. Any increase in traffic through the subdivision, whether from Old Milburnie PUD or to Old Milburnie PUD, will significantly affect the safety of pedestrians and other drivers. I fully understand that the Town of Knightdale promotes interconnectivity and the original design of the Brighton Knoll neighborhood provides for those connections. I would prefer that a traffic impact analysis show the anticipated increase in traffic that will occur once the two subdivisions are connected and any improvements that are needed to maintain a safe neighborhood. These improvements should be completed by the developer as part of the town approval for the Old Milburnie PUD. Thank you for your attention to this request.