Despite warnings of torrential rain, 40+ people came out to the General Milwood Meeting on the 24th. Many thanks to Molly Scarbrough, the city planner for the North Burnet Gateway Plan and Ben Bufkin from the Domain for giving updates and answering questions. They did an excellent job answering questions, and we should all appreciate and respect their passion for what they do.
The goal of the meeting was to start to raise awareness of neighbors about potential services, parks, and transit opportunities that may be coming, as well as increased density that these dissimilar but overlapping efforts will bring.
The material presented was a good overview of the two efforts. From the City we learned about proposed density zoning overlays, likely sites for commuter rail transit stations in the development area, and recommendations for some highway improvements providing some traffic relief at the 183/360 interchange, and the likely inclusion of bike connectivity through the zone. From the Domain we learned about density in the next phase, their emphasis on mixed use, and the likely inclusion of parks and connecting trails in future buildouts.
An equally important goal was to begin to help them understand the neighborhoods in the North Travis Triangle have concerns about the traffic impact on Duval that predate them – and the calls for more comprehensive traffic planning only get louder with the potential for a second downtown at the mouth of Duval.
First, the Domain. The immediate concern for many residents is that northmost entrance to the Domain is 600 yards or so from the exit ramp, and 450 yards or so from the entrance ramp. The Domain's own filed Traffic Impact Analysis(TIA) in 2004 shows traffic backups from people attempting to leave this driveway could be at unacceptable levels with the infrastructure currently on the ground, and the density they intend to add is substantial. The concern that best case this entrance and exit generates three lane weaving, and worst case will cause accidents as impatient people try to cross three lanes from a dead stop.
In this, I truly believe the neighborhoods and the Domain actually have unified goals. Neither neighborhoods nor prospective retail want dangerous access points, or awkward freeway access. The Domain obviously will seek to build a substantial community of residents, all of whom will have the same expectations of reasonable access to their homes as the neighborhoods. Their own development plans have an additional entrance and exit ramp north of the current driveway that could be part of a win-win solution. So I'm hoping that we can begin a conversation about the future of this couple of thousand foot stretch of frontage road that starts from a goal of common interest.
Secondly, the North Burnet Gateway planning area. It is a planning overlay, not a redevelopment plan, and it does have a very long thirty year time horizon. However the dramatic density that will come in this area as large as current downtown will bring a substantial traffic impact on those trying to use 183 and MoPac in the area. Even in the most wildly optimistic rail scenarios, this area from mopac east in the plan has only three highway ingress and egress points that will see substantially increased use – Burnet, Braker, and Duval.
Is traffic going to come anyways? Yes. Will the density envisioned make it come faster, and with more certainty? In my opinion yes.
I'd like to see an additional level of study done that deeply considers the following questions:
1. Is there a point where new traffic potentially coming into the area would cause us to look at any additional plausible ways to realign or reorient entrance and exit ramps and frontage roads in this area. What is that point, and what are the remotely plausible ideas that might be considered.
2. Where is Duval today in terms of its traffic capacity, given the extensive use of Duval as a traffic cutthrough from Cedar Park and Leander to MoPac and major employers like IBM and National Instruments. What will be the projected impact of new VMU designations, the Domain, and North Burnet Gateway on Duval traffic? What if anything can be done about that?
3. The Domain TIA references the potential to expand the frontage road that parallels the development by an additional lane in one of its projections. What factors drive the decision on when a lane such as this would be considered?
If a study like this could be done, it should be done with independence from the team currently working on the North Burnet Gateway plan to eliminate any potential perception the study would be done to justify the work already in place.
More to come…
