Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Public Works

TO:	Chuck Soules, Public Works Director
FROM:	Shoeb Uddin, City Engineer
CC:	Dave Corliss, Cynthia Boecker, Diane Stoddard, Sheila Stogsdill, David Woosley, Scott McCullough, Davonna Moore, Paul Patterson, Jonathan Douglass, John Miller
Date:	January 31, 2008
RE:	Bauer Farm Development Additional Access Driveways onto West 6^th Street

This memo is intended to provide a summary of staff review comments focusing on the proposed additional Access Driveways onto West 6^th Street as outlined in the latest Bauer Farm Preliminary Development Plan (PDP). (See Exhibit A).

Background

In 1998, the City of Lawrence, in partnership with Douglas County and the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT), developed the West 6^th Street Access Management Plan. (See Exhibit B). The principal objective of the West 6^th Street Access Management Plan is to ensure efficient operation of West 6^th Street as a Principal Arterial while facilitating development along the West 6^th street corridor. To achieve that objective, the Plan recommended, “…a four lane median divided arterial with a posted speed limit of 45 mph. Full access to West 6^th street would only be allowed at quarter mile spacing”.

In 2005, the City of Lawrence and KDOT completed the 15 million dollar West 6^th Street Reconstruction project following the recommendations and guidelines outlined in the West 6^th Street Access Management Plan. According to the City-State agreement (See Exhibit C) for this project, access onto 6^th street along the proposed Bauer Farm is prohibited unless approved in writing by the Secretary of Transportation of the State of Kansas. It is important to note that access rights along the north side of 6^th street across the Bauer Farm property were purchased by KDOT as part of the reconstruction effort of West 6^th street. (See Exhibit D).

On January 10, 2006, the City Commission conditionally approved the Bauer Farm PDP with the stipulation that the PDP would be revised to adequately address the 12 conditions of approval (See Exhibit E) and be re-submitted to the commission for approval. One of the 12 conditions required the applicant to obtain approval from KDOT for the “Right-In only” access onto 6^th Street located approximately half way between Wakarusa Drive and Champion Lane (labeled as “Access Driveway No. 1” in Exhibit A), or alternatively remove the “Right-In only” access from the revised PDP.

In March of 2006, the Bauer Farm Development team submitted a request to KDOT for approval of the “Right-In only” Access Driveway. The City staff supported this request and provided favorable recommendations to KDOT. And after a lot of discussions and deliberations, KDOT agreed to allow the “Right-In only” access as requested. (See Exhibit F). However, KDOT did reserve the right to close this Access Driveway in the future if warranted due to safety reasons.

Since then, there have been a number of additions, revisions and modifications to the Bauer Farm PDP. The most notable revisions with respect to West 6^th street Access Management are summarized below.

1. Revision of the approved “Right-In only” driveway into a “Right-in, Right-out” driveway, labeled as “Access Driveway no. 1” in Exhibit A.

2. Addition of the “Right-In only” access driveway, labeled as “Access Driveway no. 2” in Exhibit A.

3. Addition of the Traffic Signal and Median Cut at the intersection of Wakarusa Drive and Bauer Farm Drive.

Staff Review Comments and Recommendations

The City Engineering and Planning staff has thoroughly reviewed the above mentioned revisions in the latest Bauer Farm Preliminary Development Plan.

The additional access driveways would potentially compromise the safety of the traveling public and would also adversely affect the operational efficiency of the West 6^th street corridor as a Principal Arterial, as envisioned in the West 6^th Street Access Management Plan. (See Exhibit G) for detailed Staff Review Comments). The “Right-Out” movement onto 6^th street from “Access Driveway No. 1” is of safety concern due to potential conflict with the large number of through traffic on 6^th street. The proposed “Access Driveway No. 2” is too close to a major intersection, e.g. 6^th and Wakarusa.

The proposed Traffic Signal at the intersection of Wakarusa Drive and Bauer Farm Drive is too close to the existing Signal at 6^th and Wakarusa and the future signal at Wakarusa and Overland Drive, and therefore, will have detrimental effects on the operational efficiency of these two intersections. Coordination of these three signals (6^th and Wakarusa, Wakarusa and Bauer Farm Drive, and Wakarusa and Overland Drive) would be logistically quite challenging, if not impossible. There are concerns about potential overlap of queue lengths of these intersections. The clear distance between the intersections of 6^th and Wakarusa, and Wakarusa and Overland is approximately 700 feet; and the proposed Traffic Signal at the intersection of Wakarusa and Bauer Farm Drive is approximately half way in between these two intersections. It is not clear at this time how the proposed Traffic Signal would be viewed by the “6^th and Wak” Development Team.

KDOT does not support the proposed additional access driveways and has expressed concerns about the detrimental effects of the proposed traffic signal at Wakarusa and Bauer Farm Drive on the operational efficiency of the existing signal at 6^th and Wakarusa. (See Exhibit H)

It is important that City policies and codes are adhered to consistently across the board in order to promote a congenial and conducive atmosphere for new developments in Lawrence, Kansas. The proposed access driveways onto 6^th street would constitute significant waivers and deviations from adopted city policies and practices with respect to access management and therefore, would create bad precedence for future development proposals and for existing commercial establishments who would desire similar access onto 6^th street or other arterial streets through out the city. In particular, the City and KDOT closed the entrance to Wakarusa Crossroads Shopping Center during the reconstruction of West 6^th street. The 6^th and Wak development, the Oakley Addition at 6^th and Folks, Northgate Development and Mercato Development have not been granted access onto 6^th street.

It is also important to consider the cumulative and incremental effects of waivers and deviations from access management standards, guidelines, plans and procedures. Needless to say, there are numerous locations in town where we have been experiencing the cumulative effects of a large number of access driveways onto arterial streets.

Finally, it would not be prudent for staff to recommend approval of the additional access driveways as shown in the latest Bauer Farm PDP due to reasons outlined in this memo. Even if these additional Access Driveways are approved by the City, KDOT permit will still be required.

Respectfully submitted,

Shoeb Uddin, P.E.

City Engineer