What Road Improvements Does the Developer Propose?
The developer of the proposed Lowe’s at Market Street at Porters Neck Road is focusing his road improvements primarily on the Porters Neck Road stub that currently provides access to Porters Neck Shopping Center. He is willing to widen Porters Neck Road eastbound out of his development to include two left turn lanes for north on Market, one lane for straight onto Porters Neck Rd., and one right turn lane for south on Market. He will also lengthen the right turn lane on southbound Market to facilitate turning into the development. He has also said the left turn lane on northbound Market Street will be lengthened, but I don’t know whether the developer would be doing this or if there will be a reliance on NC DOT (North Carolina Department of Transportation) to do this in conjunction with a median on Market Street at this point.
Further possibilities: we have been told that northbound Market Street will get two left-turn lanes onto Porters Neck Road in conjunction with a median strip. Southbound Market Street may get two left-turn lanes onto eastbound Porters Neck Rd.; and westbound Porters Neck Road may get a dedicated right-turn lane at Market Street. These improvements appear to be the result of traffic studies that show traffic in this area has increased since the opening of the US 17 bypass, rather than the 30% decrease forecast by NC DOT while planning that project. We expect NC DOT, not the developer, will do these improvements but don’t know the time frame. These improvements would require the developer to further widen the Porters Neck Road westbound entrance for two lanes into the shopping center. This would bring the lanes of traffic on Porters Neck Road at the traffic light to six lanes. We are told the developer will also be proposing a road looping from the Lowe’s entrance to connect to the alleyway alongside the dry cleaner in the existing Porters Neck Shopping Center. Presumably, this would become a safety valve if backups at the light become too severe.
In his meetings with our group and with what he’s told the county since the July County Commissioners meeting, the developer is not willing to consider any road other than Porters Neck Road and filtering traffic through Porters Neck Shopping Center.
The Best Solution
The joint venture partnership working on the Lowe’s project has control of not only the 16 acres for which rezoning is requested, but also 50 acres behind this property. This “back acreage” will be the site for future shopping center development; indeed it’s already zoned B-1 for neighborhood shopping center.
The best solution to solving traffic problem is the following: a road through this “back acreage”, behind the existing shopping center and behind Cypress Pond apartments, linking into Hays Rd. along the southern border of the apartment complex and out to Market Street. This is undesirable from the developers’ standpoint: substantial additional expense, additional time, wetlands mitigation, and the need to either acquire additional property, obtain easements, or include other property owners in their joint venture.
Such a road would, in our opinion, in the long run make the developers’ property much more valuable: (1) a shopping center on the “back acreage” would become more attractive to quality tenants given adequate road access; (2) this road would become a parallel road to Market Street in an area that will in future face substantial additional traffic. The latter would be appreciated by residents and should be a consideration of the County Commissioners. This is the solution that should be required as part of rezoning approval. THE COMMISSIONERS MUST NOT APPROVE THIS REZONING REQUEST WITHOUT A SECOND ROAD ENTRANCE BEING BUILT PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF A BUILDING PERMIT.
Watch this Internet site for information regarding the agenda for the Commissioners’ September 4th meeting, timing of this item on the agenda, material presented to the Commissioners by the developer and where to go if you would like to attend. Thank you for your interest in this situation.
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9 comments:
Gentleman…
No matter how many entrance/exit points you request and/or build the fundamental problem is still the same as a funnel. Multiple nodes in/out to ONE (I repeat) ONE artery, the problem will still remain the same, traffic! Not to mention the fact that you are “trapped” in a corner, when considering the boundaries and perimeters of that corner. I have visited all the Lowe’s facilities here in town and not one has the limiting boundaries that this corner presents.
Unless the flow of traffic can be dispersed and channeled into more than one thoroughfare (i.e. MARKET) you will never alleviate the proposed traffic increase.
Oh, yeah, what about delivery vehicles (18 wheelers trying to access that intersection). Oh Christ, what a mess!
I support everyone’s efforts to create a compromising solution, but to simply require one additional exit point to Market, is NOT the proper path.
A few thoughts on this whole thing.
If we fight off Lowes, the land is already zoned for a multitude of other high traffic uses. Think Wal-Mart. I would rather have a Lowes.
The connection to Hayes road is really not workable. It just looks like NIMBY to me. All it does is route traffic from the intersection at porters neck, through/past cypress pond.
A good entrance at porters neck should be designed to also accommodate estimated traffic volumes for the entire development. This includes the additional 50 acres. A single entrance is best. All additional entrances do is impede the general flow along market street.
Making a requirement for improvements prior to a building permit is completely unfair to the developer. It would be better to link it to the certificate of occupancy. At least the developer could work on both in parallel, but the store could not operate until improvements are made.
A performance bond is not a bad idea either. I lived in Virginia in a city where development promises were completely ignored. (sound familiar?) The solution was a performance bond - essentially insurance on making the improvements. If the developer failed, the city make claim and hired the work out themselves. This is a very expensive way for the developer to fail to make improvements.
The median on market is a safety issue. By forcing drivers to use specific locations for turns (and not using the center as an acceleration lane), traffic on market is improved.
Maybe a single entrance/exit with an long long extended median (Sorry Wendy's....no loss there....who eat's @ Wendy's anyway, YUK)would be a good idea? At least all the exiting traffic would be "tied-up" within the Lowe's parking area and not Market.
Despite what you think, you're getting a Wal-Mart. They come in pairs you know. They are the poster children for development blight. Kick them both out, or allow your Porter's Neck to become another tacky clone of any car-dependent suburb in America.
And I always love the development in the name of progress argument. Progress for who? Certainly not me. I am worse off.
These types of developments have no future anyway. We are facing a coming oil crisis, the last one. We need to wake up and start planning for the future, not allowing the same cartoon landscape crap over and over again.
Happy motoring!
Again I say to you....Joe-Walker or Jim-Bicycle, move to another country or maybe Disnetland, because you ARE living in FANTASYLAND. So take them somewhere else.
YOU WILL NEVER MAKE A DIFFERENCE ....WAKE UP!!
People turn deaf ears to guys like YOU!
And take your soap-box with you.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
You people are living in a one-time hydrocarbon bubble that is coming to an untimely end. How inconvenient for the motoring masses in the US. Other cities are doing something about it. Irvine, CA, Austin, TX, Portland, OR, NYC are just a few. What is Wilmington doing? This development is a prime example.
Learn to ride a bike. It will do you some good. You just may have to.
"YOU WILL NEVER MAKE A DIFFERENCE ....WAKE UP!!"
I'll remember that.
I've already made a difference. Did you know that I helped get Wilmington's first bike park established, the Blue Clay Bike Park? Did you know that as a result of efforts of folks like me there is a project, the Blue Clay Corridor Bicycle Project that will tie downtown to the North Cape Fear Community College, the bike park, the new schools and developments that will be built with off road walking/biking lanes? Do you know about the Cross-City Trail? The Trolley trail?
You need to wake up. I don't live in fantasy land. Anybody who thinks that we can keep doing things the way we have been is living in fantasy land and in for a very unpleasant awakening.
Well, there are several things apparent by your statements.
You don’t work and if you did, you would not be wearing decent clothes (let alone a tie), “Mr.Flip-Flops and cut-offs”.
You don’t do grocery shopping because (a) you’re a chauvinistic male and that’s a woman’s job and (b) it is impossible to bicycle more than one bag at a time.
You own a tent, because if you owned a home, you would not be able to transport anything substantial, to fix a problem.
So why don’t you take your lumberjack attitude and go find a mountain somewhere!
Or go ATTACK the diesel buses, trucks, trains and airplanes out there and leave the common folks alone. You want to cry……..challenge them.
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