Rock Creek Developer Downplays Traffic Impact

Ten vehicles at one North Side intersection is the difference between developer Lancze Douglass being forced to contribute money for intersection improvements and the project gaining approval as proposed.

As a result of a traffic study, Douglass would not be required to help pay for any improvement at Addison Drive and Standard Street, a three-way intersection just north of Francis.

A hearing on the apartment project is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

Douglass is seeking approval for an additional 96 units at the Rock Creek Apartments on the northwest corner of Beacon and Nevada.

He would also build 168 parking spaces, 46 of them covered, and a six-foot high fence along Nevada.

According to a traffic study completed by Inland Pacific Engineering and paid for by Douglass, the apartments would create 52 trips during the morning rush hour and 60 during the evening peak.

According to the report, non-retail commuters would comprise a majority of the traffic and most would be traveling southwest toward the city’s core, eventually passing through.

The original traffic study looked at four intersections in particular: Nevada and Beacon; Nevada and Francis; Standard and Addison Drive; and Addison and Francis.

“All the intersections analyzed are working at acceptable levels of service with the majority working at good peak hours level of service,” concluded the report. “The Rock Creek apartment complex does not affect the level of service at any intersection analyzed.”

City traffic engineers were initially not convinced 90 percent of the traffic would travel south on Division because the street is already congested.

City engineer Lou Dobberstein asked for an additional analysis.

In that addendum, project engineers reallocated a portion of the traffic away from Division. Still, they concluded the volume going down Standard and reaching Addison - 10 vehicles at peak - would not be enough to create an unsatisfactory level of service at that intersection.

Dobberstein said current policies do not allow the city to assess a fee for any future improvements unless a direct impact can be proven.

“If they’re showing no impact, they don’t need to mitigate, that’s a current city policy,” Dobberstein said.

It’s likely the next developer who sends traffic down the same route would have to pay some of the cost for intersection work.

If that occurs, that developer would also argue that much of the traffic is already there and the cost of the work should be assumed by taxpayers.