June 17, 2009

City Council will mull west-side street plans

By Rodger Nichols
of The Chronicle

     
     Thursday night, The Dalles City Council and The Dalles Planning Commission will hold a joint work session on a plan for future transportation developments on the west side of The Dalles. The meeting starts at 6:30 and will be held in the ballroom of the Civic Auditorium.
     Work sessions do not normally allow public comment.
     “The primary purpose of a work session is to allow the governing body to work on something,” said City Manager Nolan Young. Neither the planning commission nor the council will be voting on the proposal Thursday.
     Young did, however, say that the presenters from Kittelson & Associates had agreed to allow interested parties to comment at the end of the work session, with comments limited to about three minutes per person.
     At issue is what the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) calls the “I-84 Chenoweth Interchange Area Management Plan.” (IAMP). It details what changes can be made by the city as development grows on the west side, particularly in the area between the freeway and the Columbia River.
     The plan is part of a negotiated settlement between ODOT and the city, which approved a zone change in 2006 from industrial to light industrial/commercial on a 67-acre piece of property just east of I-84 at the Chenoweth intersection. ODOT estimated full development of the industrial land as commercial retail space could generate between 18,000 and 25,000 daily vehicle trips, overwhelming the Chenoweth interchange.
     Building or modifying interchanges is very costly, ODOT argued, and the state wanted to protect its investment in the interchange, which was built in 1997.
     The plan, developed after taking stakeholder input at an initial open house in March, had its first airing June 11 in a heavily attended open house. Aspects of the plan drew criticism from a number of local business owners and citizens.
     The plan would roll out in three phases in response to developments of certain sizes.
     Phase I: Restripe the lanes on the interchange overpass to include side-by-site left-turn lanes onto I-84 and install a traffic signal at West Sixth and Hostetler. ODOT estimates these modifications could handle the traffic from 75,000 square feet of commercial development or 470,000 square feet of industrial development.
     Phase II: Add traffic signals to the ramp terminals on interchange overpass, and build three roundabouts — at West Sixth and Chenowith Loop Drive, at the intersection of Highway 30 and the ramp to the Chenoweth overpass, and at River Road and an intersection with a new street that would serve the Wal-Mart property. That should handle traffic from 410,000 square feet of commercial development or 2.6 million square feet of industrial development.
     Phase III: Widen West Sixth Street to five lanes from Hostetler out to River Road, with a raised median from Chenoweth Loop Road, build an underpass under the railroad tracks at Hostetler, and extend Hostetler toward the Columbia to a fourth roundabout which would intersect with the other end of the new street through the proposed Wal-Mart development. This, ODOT estimates, would handle traffic from 560,000 square feet of commercial development or 3.5 million square feet of industrial development.
     Commenters noted that the Wal-Mart development, if it comes to pass, would be a 150,000 square foot building, and thus would trigger both Phase I and Phase II changes.
     Phase III, which was labeled “20 year plan” at the presentation June 11, drew the most criticism from the audience at that open house. (See sidebar). If ultimately implemented, the agreement would be a formal commitment by ODOT to provide transportation facilities and a formal commitment by the city to provide the supporting local street network and to ensure future land uses protect the interchange.
     According to Kittelson and Associates, the phases and development levels are very general and represent the infrastructure that would be needed if the area develops at 10 percent, 55 percent, and 75 percent of the area’s maximum build-out potential.
     It also makes the assumption that development is spread out uniformly throughout the area and not loaded onto the system at a single point.      Concentrated development could require additional intersection modifications.
     “The ultimate purpose of this plan is to identify for the city what type of infrastructure will be necessary for the vacant and under-developed property within the study area to develop at its maximum potential,” said. Susan Wright, senior engineer at Kittelson. “That maximum potential is a very significant amount of square-footage and will take many more than 20 years to achieve.      However, by setting the framework we can ensure that as property develops, the city has a plan to guide them so that new development does not end up precluding the city from being able to implement the long-term plan (i.e. by blocking necessary future connections, not providing sufficient right-of-way, etc.). “Having this long-term vision will also allow the longer-term and more costly improvements to be funded collectively over time by all properties that will benefit from the improvements rather than getting to a point where no one can develop their property because no one property can afford the next improvement that is necessary.”