TOWN OF GILBERT

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movement since they are not very far away. However, they believe that they can make it clear that if they need to go south on Greenfield, unless you’re moving at a time when it is very clear, you must make righthand turns. Their experience has been that their parents do with the school ask them to. Chairman Wittmann said that there was also a small charter school one quarter mile from the proposed site. Mr. Earl said that he had made an effort over the past couple of weeks to go to that intersection at AM peaks between 7:30 and 8:30 and PM peaks at 3:30 PM and the 5:30 PM peak and this is a problem that is going to exist in the future, it is not a problem today. Allowing unrestricted movement of parent cars this is simply not workable in a charter school environment. Chairman Wittmann said that it appeared like the 56th Street local was not located on an arterial street and may have access to a residential street before getting onto a collector Street. Mr. Earl said that 56th Street is a major collector and used by the entire neighborhood. The movement is down to Thomas Road where they are making rights out of the facility down to Thomas and then going East or West on Thomas. While it is not on an arterial it is very close to an arterial. Chairman Wittmann said that the main exit from the parking area doesn’t appear to be directly on the collector but on a residential street before you get to the collector. Mr. Earl said that it is actually exiting on 56th Street which is the major collector. He said that they do not allow parents to turn left out of that exit. Commissioner Cavanee joined the meeting. Vice Chairman Oehler indicated the site map and asked if there were two lanes of egress where you could be in a right or left lane and not be stacking. Mr. Earl said that was correct, there are two lanes, one to go right and one to go left. Chairman Wittmann invited the Town Traffic Engineer to come forward. Erik Guderian, Town Traffic Engineer, came forward. Mr. Guderian said that in terms of Vice Chairman Oehler’s question about the access there is only a single right turn and left turn lane. There is not a dual lane where there is a single left turn and right turn coming out onto Baseline. Chairman Wittmann asked for Mr. Guderian’s overview on the site. Mr. Guderian said that what they have to look at are the numbers and unfortunately they have not seen many numbers because the numbers that have been presented in the traffic impact analysis shows that, yes they can get their vehicles on-site, it is getting them off site which is the issue. Because Baseline Road is a six lane arterial and Greenfield road is a four-lane arterial that will be congested, they had to look 10 years into the future to see what sort of impact the site would cause. They do not have the opportunity to make those left turns out onto Baseline. Mr. Guderian said that in terms of some of the methodology that the applicant says that they will use, there is only a direct access out onto Baseline which is six lanes and will have a median in the future. To have the joint access agreement onto Greenfield road, these full access driveways are not exclusive to the school site but are shared with the other commercial properties. There are two other commercial parcels that will be part of the overall development. It is nice to say that they will make their parents make three right-hand turns and then they will get back to wherever they need to go. Mr. Guderian said that he would like to show the Commission where the three right-hand turns were located and pointed out on the site map that you would need to go all the way over to Higley which is 3/4 of a mile Planning Commission Regular Meeting 10-2-13 10
and then you must go north up to the 60 and come back around or Guadalupe and through so it is essentially a two mile detour. In past experience with schools it has shown that once parents are off the school site the school has no authority or jurisdiction and it is the Town that must deal with those traffic issues. A two mile detour to get back to Greenfield, if you live directly west of the site, is a difficult movement to make. Another issue that makes the site difficult is the existing driveways and the way they are built. They have various short storage lengths of approximately 40 to 60 feet which is not conducive to putting a traffic signal in because you can stack 2 to 3 cars before you start losing efficiency of the traffic signal. The major issue that traffic has with the traffic analysis is that it has shown that to get out of the site without everyone making a right, the Town has a concern that traffic will try to make U- turns or cut through the commercial properties. They may have people monitoring the site, but the way that they have the traffic signals coordinated there is a very small window for people to make a left out onto the site. The school drop off area for the archway is approximately 150 feet from the driveway and their analysis is showing that the queue will extend past and backup any sort of on-site traffic. It is the same thing with the preparatory if that is the main point of access to make lefts the analysis is showing that the queue will extend past the driveway. Essentially what they are saying is that everyone is going to be making a righthand turn. The new analysis that was just received by staff shows that they will have traffic going over to Greenfield and there is no way for a monitor to see what sort of stacking is happening at the Greenfield driveway because of buildings obscuring their view. The traffic analysis does not show, because they did not report it, that the intersection, if they shift the traffic over there, will cause great delays and blocking of that driveway and the business access. There was a previous plat on the site for 75,000 feet of medical and dental office. Mr. Guderian stated that he wanted to show the comparative trip generations that they were talking for different types of land uses that could go on the site and referred to the following chart: Mr. Guderian stated that the figures on the chart come out of the traffic study that the applicant has prepared and that the site will generate 913 trips which include both inbound and outbound trips in the AM peak hour and 654 in the PM when school is getting out. On the previous plat there would be 179 trips in the AM peak hour or 1/5 of what the school is generating. With regular office building the numbers would be slightly less. They also looked at general retail of a shopping center where the AM peak hour is decidedly less and trip generation increases in the PM peak hour. Chairman Wittmann asked if the traffic impact analysis study submitted by the applicant did not include the school located to the South. Mr. Guderian said that was correct. In their previous iterations of the traffic study they were just showing access out onto Baseline and so staff really focused on the intersections along Baseline. In the new study that was submitted recently the only access point that they really looked at and do not have traffic counts for, they assumed some traffic would access on to Greenfield but did not look further south. Planning Commission Regular Meeting 10-2-13 11
Page 1 and 2: TOWN OF GILBERT PLANNING COMMISSION
Page 3 and 4: October 2, 2013 public hearing and
Page 5 and 6: ZONING DISTRICT TO APPROXIMATELY 22
Page 7 and 8: Commissioner Powell said that he ap
Page 9: a residential zone, which was their
Page 13 and 14: and affect the drop-off area. Staff
Page 15 and 16: Chairman Wittmann asked if she unde
Page 17 and 18: Chairman Wittmann opened the public
Page 19 and 20: study of evaluating how many reside
Page 21 and 22: was built at Cooper and Warner and
Page 23: (SF-6) with a Planned Area Developm

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