Board of Aldermen 03-08-2022 Page 15
Cathey. | said if he doesn’t sponsor it, | will because on the other side of the road is Ward 8. So it’s my people that are
the ones that are concerned about it even though this is technically in Ward 7.
So what’s happening is people are coming out of the Bluestone apartments, and the Louisburg Square apartments, and
people who are eating at Pizza Hut | guess as well and the only way out of that way is to take the U-turn if you want to go
North or to go all the way down and take a right down by Barnes and Noble and Shaw’s. So it was there to try to protect
people from getting into accidents because people aren’t waiting all the time. They’re supposed to stop but if they see an
opening, they take it, and people are taking the U-turn because they have the light. It’s potential for risk and for accidents.
Since we’ve put this in, gas prices have skyrocketed and now you have all kinds of traffic going in and out of there. So |
think honestly, and | hope Matt Sullivan is still here, | think there needs to be a bigger fix for that whole thing because it’s
beginning to get really messy down there and there is going to be other problems not just this right turn on red, but there
are going to be other things that we need to work on because we're starting to get more e-mails about it in general. | think
it’s a bigger issue, but for now we've started with this. Thank you.
Alderwomen Kelly
Thank you and thank you for bringing this forward. | had some questions. | did look through the discussion at
Infrastructure and I’m actually pretty knowledgeable about this area. | do go here for gas, so | Know how busy it can get
there. | do know that Matt Sullivan is here and wondering if he could speak to the end of the memos that the Planning
Department is looking at the bigger solution and | wanted to know what that is. Because | always get worried that we’re
making a short-term decision to try to fix something when there is a longer-term solution with the businesses that we
heard from and the business that will be going in.
Matt Sullivan, Community Development Director
Good evening members of the Board. Matt Sullivan, new Community Development Director. It feels good. | also believe
that Dan Hudson is on and I’m not going to put him on the spot speaking to this, but the implication there is we also
recognize as the neighboring owners made us aware this evening that there is other potential development proposed in
this area and approved development in this area. That included additional traffic impacts that were contemplated in the
Planning Board's review of the application at that time.
So the comment made to larger development trends in the area is simply to say we need to be more deliberate as we go
through traffic study and corridor study to ensure that any proposed developments and even those that are approved
currently are adequately mitigating the traffic. What | will say is that we have been in direct contact with Bu’s about the
current condition and the approved condition and asked them to supply additional traffic study data for us to review and
consider and we may, in fact, compel them (I’m comfortable saying this on the record) we may in fact compel them to
return to the Planning Board to make circulation changes to their site to deal with these conditions that we are witnessing.
We believe now only because of the current gas price trends but also because of the design of the site, that the traffic
impact was under estimated and therefore the impacts to Adventure Way and the DW Highway corridor were not
adequately planned for. So we’re taking more comprehensive look at this intersection certainly based on that
contemplated development, but we do intend to intervene with BU’s directly as they have created in combination with other
businesses a compounded affect an unsafe intersection condition here. | hope that addresses your question.
Alderwoman Kelly
It does. If | could have one more follow-up. So | guess that’s really good information. | understand there is increased
traffic here and what I’m trying to wrap my head around because I’m looking at this amazing traffic study - if you’ve ever
looked at one, they are quite interesting to look at - but | think my question is around is the attention to this spot just
because we have additional cars because that right turn from Adventure Way is not the Bu’s people. You have to go in,
and around, and back onto DW. So those right turns and those U-turns should have already been going on the whole
time. So I’m trying to figure out where...
Matt Sullivan, Community Development Director
Yes absolutely. | think it has been exacerbated by the BU’s development. Certainly this is not a new condition, but | think
it's been amplified based on that new development. | don’t know if it’s appropriate to call on Dan Hudson if he still has
joined us this evening. He may be able to speak more adequately to some of this. If he’s not available | can certainly
provide some additional information.
President Wilshire
