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Plans for Handling More Cars
Are Up for Interpretation
R eading through Athens-Clarke County's code of ordinances is
an exercise in patience. Or bewilderment. Or interpretation.
It's not your typical light reading. But during an exchange
between officials at the July 2 mayor and commission meet
ing, the interpretation of one particular item came up???specifically, the
extension of Hickory Street through the Selig Enterprises development
between East Broad and Oconee Streets and why the county no longer
considers it a public street.
Eighteen months ago, when the first version of the development
came to light, the issue of Hickory Street was second to the proposed
big-box store on the site. That's because, according to the county's
Transportation Corridor Concept Map, the extension of Hickory Street
was part of a larger transportation plan implemented more than a
decade ago.
What???s the TCC Map Again?
Jo Ann Chitty, senior vice president at Selig Enterprises, tells
Flagpole that Hickory Street was included in the development because
it was part of the transportation map. Selig wanted to adhere to that
requirement, she adds.
So what's with the debate? The TCC map includes
a future Hickory Street through the Selig property
and, while plans now include the road, one more
issue stuck like a thorn in a few commissioners'
sides: why this new extension of Hickory Street is
not a public road???which is where the interpreta
tion comes in.
According to Section 9-29-2 of the county code,
a "dedication" of a street???turning the property
over from a private owner to the government???
happens when "a development requiring a planning
action, partition or subdivision takes place on the
owner's property.
"The development will result in increases in the
traffic generated (pedestrian, bicycle, auto) in the
area, by some measure," and thirdly, "the property
contains a future transportation corridor on the
official map," which is the Transportation Corridor
Concept Map. When these three elements are met,
according to the code, "land will be dedicated by a
property owner."
Commissioner Doug Lowry questioned Planning
Director Brad Griffin on that topic on July 2. In his
response???and in a later interview with Flagpole???
Griffin noted that because the code did not call
for compensation for the landowner, the street dedication was off the
table, because officials never discussed the exact route or buying right-
of-way with the property owners.
"I don't think we're in the position to tell them, 'It's gotta be here,
and you've got to dedicate it,"' Griffin told Lowry at the July 2 meeting.
In a later interview, Griffin said if the road were public, "then we're
getting in the same issue where we need to acquire it from them."
The TCC map exists so developers know about ACC's future infrastruc
ture plans. "The roundabout at Tallassee and Whitehead: it shows up on
that map as an intersection improvement," Griffin says. "So if someone
came in and didn't want that roundabout, they could pull a permit [to
build where it was proposed]."
While the map doesn't give the Planning Department the right to
take that land away, the landowner would be notified of the plans
for the intersection when the permit is pulled. Often, he says, it's in
the best interest of the property owner to go along with the TCC map,
because it will likely increase access to their development.
Griffin refers to the TCC map simply as a planning tool. "The map
itself is anything from specific, detailed projects, it can be ones that
show up on the state level, to local projects that are in the works, to
intersections, to concept lines," he says. And the purpose of those
lines is that "we need to have a connection for long-range planning
purposes."
An April 26 Planning Department memo notes that "depending on
the nature of the development, the protection of these corridors may
be served through proper design or possible purchase by Athens-Clarke
County."
A Private Road
When a residential subdivision is built, the developer typically deeds
the roads over to the county. David Clark, director of the county's
Transportation and Public Works department, says he can't think of a
time the county has paid a developer for a road. "That's not to say it
couldn't happen, but it would be unusual," he says. "The developer
builds the streets to our standards and then turns them over." Typically,
he adds, a developer doesn't want to manage the streets in their devel
opment because of the cost.
That's not the case with Selig, which agreed to maintain the road
through the development in order to keep it private. (The company is
granting a permanent easement to ACC to guarantee public access.)
The extension of Hickory Street, according to the Planning
Department, will include most everything a public road has???bike
lanes, sidewalks and parking, for example. Selig's site plan includes
brick pavers near the intersection with East Broad Street, something
not allowed on ACC public roads. Selig also can control parking as they
choose, rather than Athens Downtown Development Authority, which
oversees metered spaces, decks and surface lots downtown.
Among its 459 pages, Selig's traffic study refers to the "site drive
way" but does not address traffic flowing in and out of the roadway.
Instead, the report, prepared for Selig by the Marietta firm A&R
Engineering, recommends funneling westbound traffic on Oconee Street
onto Foundry Street and a traffic signal at Foundry and East Broad
streets to alleviate the increased traffic generated by the development.
Clark tells Flagpole that if a development adds traffic to warrant a new
traffic signal???"whether or not it's adjacent to the development or
down the street"???it's the responsibility of the developer to pay for it.
As a state highway, Oconee Street is governed by the Georgia
Department of Transportation. Teri Pope, spokeswoman for the DOT,
says that from the state's perspective, all that matters is how the
development accesses the state route, no matter if it's a public or
private road. When "a commercial business wants access, they have to
meet our standards, and they pay for the upgrades needed," she says.
That means that another stoplight proposed by the traffic study for
Oconee Street, at the entrance to the Selig development, would have to
be paid for by Selig if it is approved by DOT.
Requirements for a new stoplight on a state highway follow the
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, a set of national guidelines.
"We require a traffic study to go along with it, but that is par for
the course, and typically [the developer] waits to get local approval
because they know we require a lot of documentation to even look at
it," Pope says. "Commercial buildings used to do a lot of building on
spec; now they wait until they are sitting on a permit to say go."
Kristen Morales
Selig Enterprises will extend Hickory Street from the Multimodal Center through its property.
6 FLAGPOLE.COM-JULY 17, 2013
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