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0195-Zoning-narrative-revised-12-16-11Revised: 12-15-11 Zoning Compliance Narrative: Section 350-11.5 B (3) (b) – Traffic Reduction The proposed development of the Zoe Senior Retirement Community incorporates several methods to reduce overall vehicular traffic volumes. The following is summary of these measures as outlined in the City Zoning Ordinances. Public Transit, van- and car-pool incentive programs, including parking facilities and weather protected transit shelters. -The proposed site plan includes four (4) parking spaces that will give priority parking location to employees who enroll in a carpooling program. These spaces are directly in front of the employee entrance. Assuming each carpool program participant has two occupants in the vehicle this will eliminate a minimum of 4 round trips from the peak hour traffic counts. -The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) route R42 currently provides service on Route 9 past the site from both the center of Williamsburg and Northampton. Additional transfer routes provide service to numerous surrounding towns. Sage Engineering has made several attempts to contact PVTA regarding the creation of new stop at the entrance to the Zoe facility without success. With PVTA approval Chakalos investments would be willing to install a covered transit shelter on the south side of the proposed driveway to encourage employees and visitors to utilize public transit services. Assuming 15 percent of the anticipated employee and visitor traffic utilize this service, public transit will reduce up to 6 (39 peak trips*15%) round trips from the peak hour traffic counts. Encouraging flexible hours and work weeks. -Due to the nature of the proposed facility, allowing flexible shift hours and work weeks is not feasible. Consistent and regulated staff hours are required to provide for the residents. However, according to the Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Handbook, for assisted living facilities typically the majority of the traffic to and from the site is employee traffic. Typical shifts begin at 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. therefore employee commute traffic will not coincide with peak traffic flows on adjacent roadways. This will not reduce the number of trips to the site, but will significantly help reduce impact on adjacent roadways. Encouraging pedestrian and bicycle access to the site. -The proposed project includes provisions to encourage both pedestrian and bicycle access to the site. To encourage pedestrian access, a five foot wide sidewalk connecting the proposed development to both Route 9 and the existing Linda Manor facility has been provided. A sidewalk along Route 9 connecting the proposed driveway and the existing Linda Manor driveway has also been included as requested. To encourage bicycle access to the site, an exterior bike rack has been proposed to provide a secure and convenient storage area. There will be space for employees to change out of bicycling clothes but no shower facilities. Given the close proximity to the center of the Florence and Leeds neighborhoods, assuming 10% of the employees and visitors chose to walk or bike to work this would eliminate up to 4 round trips from the peak hour traffic counts. Provisions of integrated land uses, including on-site services, retail, and housing -The proposed facility is classified as an assisted living facility. Residents of the facility will be retirement aged and require general living assistance. The majority will not have vehicles, and will not leave the facility without the company of their guests or facility provided transportation services. The facility does include an assortment of services including two beauty salons, a convenience store, a café, a wellness center, and a coffee bar, as well as laundry and meal services. These on site amenities will reduce the number of trips off site for residents, employees and guests. However, it is difficult to quantify the number of trips eliminated. Maximum peak hourly trips occurs on Sundays and results in a total of 39 trips to and from the site. Estimated reductions for car-pool, public transit, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic is 14 trips or 36% of the total trip. This does not include the reduction in peak traffic due to non-peak hour employee traffic and the reduction from the numerous on-site services. Section 350-11.6 B (2) – Traffic Mitigation The applicant is proposing to comply with the traffic mitigation fee via improvements to the offsite infrastructure and in-lieu-of payments. During preliminary discussions at a round table meeting, it was requested that a sidewalk be installed along all frontage along Route 9 and between the new proposed driveway, and the exiting Linda Manor driveway. The applicant is proposing to install this sidewalk to meet a portion of the mitigation requirements. The proposed sidewalk is approximately 515 feet long, 250 feet of which is in front of the two house lots not included in the project. The total preliminary estimated cost of the 250 feet approximately $17,250. The remainder of the required mitigation will be paid in-lieu-of. Mitigation Fee: 84 Units x 0.6 trips/unit x $3,000/trip = $151,200 Roadside Sidewalk value: $17,250 50% of Roadside Sidewalks Value: $8,625 Payment Required: $ 142,575 Waiver Requests: Section 350 11.5 B (3) (c) Traffic Study The applicant is requesting a waiver from the above section requiring a detailed traffic assessment report of the adjacent Route 9(Haydenville Road). The estimated peak hour trip ends generated by this proposed facility, ranging from 23 trips during the weekday morning to 39 trips on a Sunday are very low in relation to the traffic carrying capacity of Route 9. Route 9 is built to Massachusetts Highway Department standards and will not be negatively impacted by the addition of the new trips from this proposed facility. Based on 2009 traffic data obtained from Mass DOT, Route 9 at the Williamsburg Town line carries an average of 9,900 vehicles per day. The typical working shifts for this type of facility begin at 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. which does not coincide with the peak hour of commuter traffic on Route 9. We have prepared a traffic trip generation report to determine the peak hour traffic counts listed above. This report is included in this package. Section 350-8.1 C Off Street Parking Requirements The applicant is requesting a waiver from the above section requiring a total of 76 parking spaces at a rate of 1 space per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area. The proposed plan shows a total of 74 parking spaces. In general the parking spaces are intended for employees and visitors only, as the majority of residents do not have vehicles. We are requesting a waiver from the additional spaces required for the 3,281 s.f. basement. The basement will only be utilized for mechanical and operations space, it will have no residents or services. The total square footage of the remaining portions of the facility is 73,118 s.f. which would require 73 parking spaces. The proposed operator/manager of the building has extensive experience in the field and believes this number of parking spaces is adequate for the proposed facility. In addition, the adjacent Linda Manor Extended Care Facility is owned by the same property owner and operated by the same entity as the proposed facility. These two campuses are proposed to be connected via a driveway and pedestrian sidewalk. Section 350-11.6 B (1) allows at the Board’s discretion shared parking spaces between facilities. Linda Manor currently has 85 parking spaces and by current zoning is required to have 51 spaces, leaving 34 surplus spaces that could be used for overflow parking.