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Home My WebLink AboutSDP201700032 Correspondence Initial Site Plan 2017-06-30 ,fl g 30 June, 2017 Attn: County of Albemarle Department of Community Development 401 McIntire Road Charlottesville, Virginia 22902 Re: Dunlora Park Phase II — Initial Site Development Plan SDP201700032 Attachment: Daily Progress article dated 18 June 2017 citing growth and traffic along Rio rd. Dear Sirs, We, the undersigned, have received your notification regarding the Site Review of Dunlora Park Phase II. We feel as neighbors, and those most affected by the new development that our comments are relevant and will hopefully receive consideration in your review. Our opposition to the Phase II proposal falls in to two categories: 1. DENSITY. The proposed eleven unit afterthought is compacted into an area that in the phase one proposal only included two units. An example of this density is not found anywhere in the area and especially not fronting a busy thoroughfare such as Rio Rd. The nearest example might be the duplexes on Hydraulic Rd, but they are built on a separate access road. We do not believe that this plan is in keeping with the surrounding housing and development. 2. TRAFFIC CONCERNS. A. Exit from Dunlora Dr. onto East Rio rd is already difficult. The traffic line that builds up from the light at John Warner pkwy blocks the intersection to Dunlora Dr, despite signage that warns against blocking the intersection. This intersection serves as the southern exit point for nearly 400 residences in Dunlora, 20 from Shepard's Ridge, and because of the difficulty in making a left turn out of Belvedere, many of the 700 residents opt to drive through Dunlora to access east Rio Rd at this intersection. B. The proposed access to the row homes is an alley that will be very close to the Rio Rd. intersection and Varick St. (the main entrance to phase one). School buses, trash trucks, UPS trucks and the like will need to access this alley and likely back up the traffic to Rio Rd. Will emergency service vehicles be able to access this alley? C. There is already a visibility problem at the intersection of Rio Rd. due to the hill that blocks the view of coming traffic. This row of homes, pushed forward on the lot to create room for the alley behind it, will further impede visibility and compromise safety. m The attached article highlights many of the ongoing and future developments along our portion of Rio rd., as we are sure you are well aware. The development of this intersection, as proposed, will limit the County's and VDOT's ability to further improve this intersection and traffic problems from this growth. We ask for disapproval of this plan and hope that any future plans will address our concerns with the Rio/ Dunlora intersection. 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O C h ca 4 d� �;,; 3 / G: rcls --X-1450A-) Li) t Pc,-8-1) 9b0 (.(1-&) /1/2 W ie r 3/TY,OOt a c��Nt� 60 s ,�,. ,4, /,ziAit , ' 4 C W mks .!7/q��x �1�Yi� S3 �A� v . . � yore Rio Road traffic concerns persist as more growth planned • BY ALLISON WRABEL • Jun 18' 2O17 "Residents in the Rio Road area of Albemarle County are concerned about traffic, and more development is expected to come online in the near future. Along East Rio Road, more than 700 new housing units have been approved or are in the process of seeking approval. There are commercial developments that also have been proposed, including the new Senior Center Inc. project, the Center at Belvedere, as well as a Soccer Organization Charlottesville Area complex and a new hotel. Last week, Supervisor Brad Sheffield held a community meeting, attended by about 20 people, to discuss concerns related to the developments and how the county is working to solve traffic issues. Sheffield said he wanted to hold the meeting to get ahead on some issues, as well as to document more concerns for the correct entities. Representatives from the county's community development department, the Albemarle County Police Department and the Virginia Department of Transportation were present to answer questions and take notes on concerns. "Sometinnoo, the answer is just that there's nothing we can do, but at least you know that we're aware of theprob|nm.^ hemaid. ''Sumotimeo. it'eauoimp|eoewadon'thaveenuughreoouroee.^ Residents asked about the area where John W. Warner Parkway and Dunlora Drive connect to Rio Road, and expressed concerns about the short left turning lanes with the expected additional traffic. Sheffield said he wished that the intersection had been designed differently with the expectations of the by right growth in that area. "I don't think we have a clear understanding of how we can mitigate that area with the growth that is coming," he said. "[We] discussed a corridor study for that area, but it's only in its infancy. Hopefully, we'll get that going and try to get a better understanding of how we can handle the traffic." Two intersections along Rio Road where traffic signals have been repeatedly sought by residents, Putt Putt Place and Belvedere Boulevard, were mentioned at the meeting. Along Putt Putt Place, a developer is seeking permits to build a hotel and an apartment building near the current Arden Place apartments. "They're working on Arden Place II up front," said Kevin McDermott, Albemarle's principal planner for transportation. "We are seeing what the application says is a potential hotel and residential units. The hotel will be maybe around 120 rooms, and an apartment building of around 150 units, all right there at the Putt Putt Place." That intersection previously has not met VDOT's warrants to install a traffic signal. "That developer is working on a traffic study right now, so we don't yet know exactly what the configuration of that intersection's going to need to be to handle the additional traffic that will be produced by that development," VDOT spokesman Lou Hatter said. Hatter said they are also continuing to look at the Belvedere Boulevard and Rio Road intersection due to new developments. "It's very possible in the near future that we're going to have to look at some different type of traffic alternatives at that intersection," he said. "I'm not going to say `signal'; a signal may not be the best answer, but there may be a need to make some change." Another area of concern mentioned was the difficulty in getting to the Rio Hill Shopping Center after turning right onto U.S. 29 North from the Albemarle Square shopping center or Rio Road. Residents at the meeting said it is hard to cross traffic coming from underneath the Rio Road intersection to get to the left turning lane to enter Rio Hill, and many people are using Woodbrook Shopping Center as a cut- through. Hatter said another way to get to the shopping center is to continue on Rio Road over U.S. 29, turn right onto Berkmar Drive and then turn right onto Woodbrook Drive. "To a certain extent, part of this is redistributing the traffic based on new road options," he said. "That's what we tried to do. We did not have carte blanche to build a new roadway. We worked within the limitations of what we had available, and we tried to craft a solution that moved the regional traffic, as well as the local traffic." Speeding and increased traffic on Huntington Road, which had been used as a cut-through during the construction of the Rio Road grade-separated intersection, was discussed. "We can do another study on Huntington that will not only give us the amount or the number of cars that are more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, it will also give us the volume of traffic, which we can go back and compare to the volume study we did, preconstruction,"Albemarle Police Lt. Miller Stoddard said." Allison Wrabel is a reporter for The Daily Progress. Contact her at (434) 978- 7261, awrabel@dailyprogress.com or @craftypanda on Twitter.