Ordinance No. 20258 - Laserfiche WebLink

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WEST E[A~ENE PAPJ<WAY ~D~F~ED PROJECT_.O~NSi~NCY V~TH THE STATEV~3DE PLANN(NG ~S AND TRANSPORTATION PLANNING RULE area. To reasonably accommodate storewide and regional transportation needs, consideration was given to whether West 1 lth Avenue from Garfield Street to the Oak Hill area outside the UGB reasonably could be convened from a local road to a limited access facility meeting Statewide Highway standards to serve intra- and inter-regional travel needs. Through study, many factors were found to impede this action; including the numerous signals and intersections that are part of the existing local road network, over 100 existing commemial enterprises with direct access to West 1 lth Avenue, and an inefficient connection between West 1 lth Avenue and the 6th and 7th Avenue couplet by way of G~eld Street, including two signals and two 90- degree turns. To rectify these condkions would require (1) elimination of most direct accesses to West 1 lth Avenue through the construction of frontage roads or rearrangement of access to other roadways; (2) construction of interchanges at strategic locations serving regional and/or local travel; and (3) construction of a complicated, if not impossible, connection between West 11 th Avenue and Highway 99 in the Garfield Street area. Accomplishing these modifications is not reasonable because the adverse impacts are too severe. The required modifications would cause the displacement or extensive access changes to over 100 commercial and light industrial businesses immediately adjacent to West 1 lth Avenue, Garfield Street, and 6th and 7th Avenues. The changes would require extensive alteration of the land use pattern established over the last 25 to 31) years. These actions would severely impact the commercial land base of the city and substantially impact local employment, business income and tax base. Property owners would need to be compensated for taken property. Resulting loss of parking spaces and landscaping associated with businesses could result in inadequate numbers of spaces or inadequate landscaping measured against City of Eugene standards. Internal circulation and truck movement patterns would be adversely impacted. Providing alternate accesses to all affected properties would also be very disruptive and expensive. Also~ a major objective identified ~br the West Eugene Parkway is to relieve traffic along West 1 lth Avenue so that it can operate as a local road serving local residents and businesses. Converting West 1 lth Avenue into a limited access highway contradicts this objective and violates formalized project goals underlying this project aimed at avoiding impacts to existing commercial and industrial development. For all of these reasons, improvements to West I tth Avenue cannot reasonably accommodate the identified need. West Eugene needs both West 1 Ith Avenue, operating as a local road serving area residents and businesses, and a facilky serving storewide and regional twanspormtion needs. The displacement, cost, and environmental impacts that would result from the improvements needed to improve West 1 lth Avenue, together Mth the associated social costs resulting from disruption of the existing land use pattern of the area, are simply too great when considered together. Other existing arterials serving the West Eugene area include Royal Avenue, Beltline High-way and West 18th Avenue. See Figure 1. Each of these facilities is important to the overall regional and local transportation netw~ork. However, these facilities do not represent connections that can provide adequate relief for the east-west traffic flow such as to eliminate the need for the ~.JEP. Moreover, individually a~d cumulatively, they would significantly increase VMT per capita° Royal Avenue, a minor arterial, is located approximately 1.4 miles north of West 11 th Avenue. The roadway passes through and serves primarily residential properties and is adjacent to a park and elemen~ry school. From west of the UGB to Terry Street, Royal Avenue is a two-lane facility with a painted fog line and a posted speed of 45 miles per hour. From Terry Street to Bertelsen Road, the roadway is a three-lane section with bike lanes, no parking, and a posted speed of 35 miles per hour. East of BerteBen Road to Highway 99~ Royal Avenue narrows to two lanes with bike lanes and no parking. Accesses are typical of residential streets (Lo, numerous eurbcuts). EXHIB~ C-I - FIND{NGS 32