More on ALDI (also Florida Ave. and traffic)

ALDI (which I discussed in this earlier blog post) was discussed at two city board meetings that I attended this week. (The Oak Ridger has reported on the second of these meetings, Thursday’s Planning Commission work session.) I’ve learned a lot more about the proposal and the issues involved in its siting.

I have learned that the site proposed for the ALDI grocery store is zoned UB-2, which is a business zone that is suitable for this type of business. Thus, Oak Ridge city government bodies have no zoning decisions to make regarding this project. The City Council will, however, be asked to approve vehicle accesses to the site from Oak Ridge Turnpike and Florida Ave. (Note that the City cannot deny access to a highway from a legal lot that fronts on that highway; city government can only weigh in on the location and configuration of that access.) Before that Council action happens, the Planning Commission will be asked to approve a site plan, which includes specifications for things like setbacks from property lines, onsite traffic patterns, parking lot configuration, and landscaping.

Tuesday evening the Traffic Safety Advisory Board (a volunteer city advisory group whose meeting I had not attended previously) reviewed — and tentatively recommended approval for — the traffic access plan for the ALDI project. With a project engineer (Bob Walker of ETE Engineering) who lives in Anderson County and works in an office on the turnpike in east Oak Ridge, several TSAB members who live in northeast Oak Ridge, and a couple of neighborhood residents in attendance, the somewhat rambling discussion at this meeting produced a lot of insights on how people get from one point to another in east Oak Ridge.

The access plan calls for the main store entrance on Florida Avenue, where about 75% (estimated) of the customer traffic would occur and where semi-trailer trucks would enter to make nighttime deliveries. There would be no median cut on Oak Ridge Tpke. in front of the store, but vehicles could make right turns into and out of the parking lot at a new entrance/exit to built there. (Also, trucks would exit there on their way back to Nashville.)

Although the layout for the Sonic drive-in west of the site includes a provision for a frontage road to provide access to this site, city engineer Steve Byrd recommended against using that because the Sonic entrance could not safely accommodate a big traffic increase without a new traffic light, but he says there would not be a large enough influx of new traffic influx to meet TDOT “warrants” for a new traffic light at that location. (Also, it appeared to me — and Steve Byrd agreed — that the frontage road access might not be configured properly to allow a semi-trailer to turn in and out.) Byrd said it would be much safer to send most vehicles to the stoplight at the Florida Ave. intersection, where there is a stoplight, but no protected left turn. Although as a rule I like the idea of frontage roads in lieu of curb cuts, in this instance I must admit that Byrd is giving wise advice…
Nearby residents understandably don’t like the idea of new traffic, especially semi-trailer trucks, on Florida Ave. (I was particularly concerned to hear that the stop line at the intersection might need to be pulled back 10 ft to accommodate turning trucks.) Also, they are concerned that many people traveling to this store from the west would avoid turning left onto Florida Avenue (what Byrd and Walker assumed they would do) by traveling on Tennessee Avenue (or a smaller residential street) to a right turn on Florida Ave. Several TSAB members agreed with this opinion, and also pointed out that it often is difficult to turn left from Oak Ridge Tpke to Florida Ave.

After much discussion, TSAB voted to recommend the proposed access plan as a safe option for providing access to the proposed development, but some members had reservations, mostly related to effects on Florida Avenue.

Having observed the meeting, I will be interested in seeing how this recommendation is presented to City Council; I hope that Council receives a report that describes the board’s reasoning and concerns in addition to the final vote. However, past observations lead me to guess that Council will get filtered information that does not include much detail, if any.
I was surprised to hear that the ALDI company estimates that the new grocery store would have a total of only 400 vehicle trips per day (meaning just 200 customers a day), especially considering that they plan a 93-space parking lot, when Oak Ridge’s zoning code requires only 68 spaces for a store of the size they plan. It seems likely that the daily customer volume, and thus traffic impacts, would be larger than is currently being projected. That observation and the discussion at the TSAB meeting leave me thinking that the city does not yet have a good handle on how this new store could affect Florida Avenue. Also, after studying the site plan, I think the city could ask that semi-trailers enter and exit the property from Oak Ridge Turnpike (right turn in and right turn out), instead of using Florida Ave.

[To be continued -- this post is long enough already]