HomeMy WebLinkAbout20230216 118, 121-125 Woodlawn Special Use Permit Public Comment (11)July 20, 2023
RE: Special Use Permit for 118 Woodlawn and 121-125 Woodlawn Avenue - qualitative traffic
assessment report
Dear Planning Board Members,
I am in opposition to the request for a special use permit for the above mentioned property.
Regarding their submission of a traffic report please consider the following:
1.The report states that Bolster Lane exit will be a left hand turn. What it does not consider is
the incoming traffic from Van Dam including the several residence that park just off Bolster.
This road is challenging to navigate without the addition of added traffic and during the
winter this will become even more difficult.
2.Stated in the report is that the Woodlawn/Van Dam intersection due to truck/hospital traffic
and the intersection of Broadway/Van Dam can back up traffic. This admission is correct
and will only worsen with the added traffic and increase congestion for the residents and
others using this route. Their solution is to inconvenient residence by rerouting us North to
the intersection of Greenfield and Rt 50. This intersection is actually Rock and Rt 50 which
indicates they don’t know the actual name of the roads because they did not do a site visit.
To do an accurate evaluation of the traffic at this intersection and surrounding areas they
should have done a site visit to fully understand the negative impact this would have not
only on our neighborhood but all traffic on Van Dam. Their other option would be to reroute
us West on Vermont to access the light at Clinton/Van Dam. Increased traffic to those
streets would be a safety issue to the children and families that reside on those streets.
3.According to the report there is no comparable land use codes to apply to this use
therefore they are reliant on the provided information by the applicant and ITE
methodology. They have trips generated by a fine dining restaurant as 40 and a meeting
room based on 12. This does not account for all of the other meeting rooms nor does it
account for the total 140 person seating and therefor underestimates traffic usage. In
addition, they have underestimated the 6 number of employees. The standard for fine
dining restaurant based on their number of 40 is 1 manager, 1 hostess, 1 bartender, 8
servers, 1 chef, 1 sous chef and 1 dishwasher for a total of 14. Again the traffic usage has
been underestimated.
4.The Trip Generation Summary shows peak time usage for am and pm and Saturday but
does not take into account the traffic generated by those coming for breakfast or lunch.
This omission does not accurately represent the increased traffic.
5.The comparison to Church traffic is inaccurate. They claim that the church had 50 entering
and 54 exiting for a total 104 peak hour on Sunday. The fact is that there were 20 cars at a
maximum during Sunday peak hours.
6.The claim that site related traffic would not impact the intersection of Woodlawn/Van Dam
is inaccurate. They have not taken into account the time it takes to get through the
intersection. When there are 4-5 cars waiting to get into the parking this will back up traffic
into the intersection. Traffic backs up at that intersection as it is. To add more traffic would
displace resident traffic pattern and increase the safety of not only of the residence but any
one using that route.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Julie Slovic
122 Woodlawn Avenue
slovicjulie@gmail.com