Planning Commission Minutes 2015 04 23

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes April 23, 2015 Page 5 of 23 there is cost to the developer to incentivize the development and pay for the tenant finish. If the business grows, the tenant finish dollar is lost to the developer. It is a big lost leader. Developers say they need a concentration of office space. Using Interlocken or Centennial or CTC, there is a lot of varying floor plate and leasable sizes so business can be retained. In the South Boulder Road Small Area Plan, there is no office market. In addition to transportation, in addition to rooftops, and in addition to retail, having office space present is a very important ingredient for offices to succeed. Troy Russ presents on Infrastructure and Main Street Realignment • Why Study a Main Street Realignment? o Public Input • Pedestrian crossings of SBR are lacking, uninviting and perceived as unsafe. ■ Traffic congestion in the Corridor is a threat to the success and livability of the corridor. ■ Downtown is lacking a gateway from South Boulder Road. o Comprehensive Plan states "Explore realigning Main Street on the southern edge of the (SBR) corridor to align with Centennial Drive to provide a gateway to downtown and provide a safe and efficient access plan for the (SBR) corridor" Currently South Boulder Road and Centennial Drive do not meet. From a traffic engineering perspective, the traffic signals are too close, called "offset intersections". It is really one intersection but split into two. The objective of the signal timing on SBR from a vehicle perspective is to clear the center. The breakdown of an intersection is when there is no movement, and it happens on occasion for the southbound left turn Centennial traffic. The eastbound SBR traffic at peak hours stops at Main Street signal and fills up the intersection so Centennial traffic has nowhere to go. The problem is the offset. From a signal timing perspective, the focus of the alternative is to limit how full it gets. It is not how efficiently cars move through the corridor. From a pedestrian perspective, because Main Street and Centennial only have a limited "green window", it is not efficient for pedestrians to "block their way". The crosswalks are currently located on the outside edge of the corridor. It is inconvenient for a pedestrian to have them on the outside since pedestrians like "line of sight". For school children to get to Louisville Middle School, we are forcing them to cross SBR and Main Street. Staff looked at three options. • Option 1 — DO NOTHING o No modification to the intersection. No pedestrian improvements. o Zoned Residential Low (RL) Density. Land currently underbuilt. Allows up to 26 units, likely 16 units. Desired pedestrian underpass not likely near this intersection. Options 2 and 3 — REALIGN MAIN STREET o Public Works recommendation. o Newbold property (Main Street Property Holdings II, LLC) o Malerba property o Tesone property — small corner would be used Option 2a o Realign Main Street and create a 2-3 acre park, taking roadway o Tesone property not needed other than southeast corner o Malerba property and Newbold property necessary o Fully operating traffic signal intersection for all movement o High activated signal (HAWK). Pedestrian activates the signal to flash red, no yellow lights. This signal needed to stop cars when train arrives. o Median closed with no turning. Option 2b o Realign Main Street and create 2-3 acre park