Ordinance No. 20258 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~sr E~NE PARKWAY ~OD~FIED PROJECT~NSISTEN~ V~TH THE STATE'V~ PLANNING GOALS AND TRANSPORTATION PL~J~N!NG RULE to place the three interchanges needed and still meet the design requirements of the project. Under OAR 660-012-0065(5~a), jurisdictions need not consider alternatives that are inconsistent with applicable standards or not approved by a registered professional engineer. Moreover, any design that would remotely approach meeting the geometric design requirement would displace substantial property associated with the West Lawn Memorial Park cemetery and/or the Lane Memorial Gardens cemete~, and displace commercial and industrial prope~ies in the vicinity of Ter~ Street and Beltline Highway near West 1 lth Avenue. Green Hill Road At-Grade A~ternalive The Green Hill Road At-Grade Alternative would extend the Modified Project westward to Green Hill Road, where it would terminate with an intersectiom A sweeping curve to connect the Green Hill Road and We~ t tth Avenue leg of the alternative would extend west to the project terminus. Double lefts and double rights would be required at each of the intersections of Green Hill Road with West 1 lth Avenue and the WEP. This alternative cannot reasonably accommodate the identified transportation need primarily for two reasons. First, the alternative would impact sensitive species and wet prairie wetlands south of the railroad. Second, from an engineering standpoint, the alignment would be unsafe and is not recommended. This alternative would create conditions likely to result in a high accident location at the intersection of the WEP with Green Hilt Road. Drivers traveling east to ,,vest would encounter condkions where traffic moving at high speeds along a limited access facility first must nearly come to a stop in order to negotiate the cu~e from the WEP onto Green Hill Road, and then immediately cross a railroad crossing. The likelihood is high that this desi~ would result in a high percentage of violent crashes resulting in debilitating injuries or death. Traffic volumes across the railroad track would increase to an excess of 26,000 daily crossings, increasing the number of train/auto conflicts significantly. The proximity of the intersection of the ~P at Green Hill Road to the railroad crossing also conflicts with railroad safety standards. For these reasons, the Green Hill Road At-Grade Alternative is operationally infe~ible and enviromentally unreasonable and therefore cannot reasonably accommodate the identified need~ Southern and Southern {~odified) Alternatives The Southern Almrnative would follow the Modified Project alignment to Danebo Avenue, then shift the alignment sonthward through the Green Hill Technology Park and other parcels identified in the ~SE[F? as developable industrial lands before reconnecting to West 11th Avenue east of Green Hill Road. The Southern (Modified) Alternative would be located somewhat to the north of the Southern Alternative, and connect to West 1 lth Avenue slightly to the west of the Southern Alternative although still east of Green Hill Road. Compared m the Southern Alternative, the Southern (Modified) has greater adverse impacts on wetlands and threatened and endangered plants, but would provide a largerbuffer dismce from a plant, Kincaid's Lupine, that serves as a host to the federally proposed endangered Fender's blue butterfly. While both the Southern Alternative and Southern (Modified) Alternative would function from a design and engineering standpoint, neither is a reasonable alternative because of their impacts to threatened and endangered species; their significant impacts to developing industrial lands in a manner inconsistent with acknowledged ~mprehensive plans, the WEWP and reasonable invesm~ent- backed ns; their damage to the integrity of the compromises realized in the WEV/P; and their overall costs. These impacts are addressed in detail in the Alternatives Memorw~dum, incorporated herein by reference. EXHiBiT C-i - FINDINGS 37