RE: A Traffic Impact Statement for a Proposed Mixed-use Development at 400 Windmill Road

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1 James J. Copeland, P.Eng. GRIFFIN transportation group inc. 30 Bonny View Drive Fall River, NS B2T 1R2 June 27, 2016 Stephanie Nowe-Morris, NSAA LEED AP SNMArchitect Limited 27 DeWolfe Court Bedford, NS B4A 3N7 RE: A Traffic Impact Statement for a Proposed Mixed-use Development at 400 Windmill Road Dear Ms. Nowe-Morris: INTRODUCTION At the request of SNMArchitect Limited, the GRIFFIN transportation group inc. has carried out a qualitative Stage 1 - Traffic Impact Assessment in support of the planning application process for a proposed mixed-use development located at civic #400 Windmill Road (PID # , , and ) in the community of north Dartmouth, Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). The proposed development will be comprised of two multi-story buildings that will contain general commercial office space (17,450 ft 2 ) as well as 72 residential apartment units. The subject lands are generally located between Nootka Avenue and Fernhill Drive, on the east side of Windmill Road. The total area of the consolidated properties measures about 1.38 acres and is currently occupied by the Ship Victory Beverage Room. The subject properties are located in the HRM Urban Service Area, that is within the Dartmouth By-law area. The traffic impact assessment associated with the proposed residential development is discussed in the following Sections. The site context is generally illustrated in Figure 1 and the proposed site plan is shown in Figure 2. STUDY AREA AND SITE CONEXT Windmill Road is generally aligned in a north-south direction with a three-lane urban cross-section (one travel lane in each direction plus centre left turn lanes. It is under the jurisdiction of the HRM and appears to function as a minor arterial street that connects downtown Dartmouth to the south with the Burnside Industrial Park area to the north.

2 Nootka Ave Windmill Road Civic #400 Existing North Access Existing South Access Fern Hill Dr Source: Bing Maps wwww.griffininc.ca Study Area and Site Context Figure 1

3 Existing South Access Location (to be closed) North Access New South Access Windmill Rd Source: SNMArchitects Proposed Site Plan Figure 2

4 There are two existing accesses serving vehicular traffic entering/exiting the Ship Victory Beverage Room. It is understood that these two accesses are located within a Nova Scotia Power Corporation utility easement which forms the north boundary of the subject lands. As shown in Figure 2, the proposed development will continue to be served by two vehicular accesses. The existing north access will remain while the south access will shift slightly to the south. EXISTING TRAFFIC CON DITIONS Since the proposed development will have a mix of both residential and commercial office land use types, and that the Windmill Road corridor accommodates weekday commuter traffic demands, it seemed reasonable to assume the highest overall study area volumes would occur during the weekday morning and afternoon peak periods. Therefore, these two peak times were selected and used in this assessment. A site visit and data collection effort was carried out on Wednesday April 27 th, 2016 to measure sight lines, observe traffic volumes, measure vehicle operating speeds and so forth. In addition, representatives of HRM Traffic Management were contacted to obtain their most recent traffic volume data. HRM provided historical traffic data from their on-going traffic data collection program which was recorded in the vicinity of Nootka Avenue. These data are contained in Table 1. Table 1: Windmill Road Historical Traffic Volumes (Average Weekday Peak Hours) AM Peak (vph) PM Peak (vph) Southbound Northbound Two-way Southbound Northbound Two-way July June vph vehicles per hour As shown in Table 1, there is very little change in the two-way traffic volumes between the 2010 and 2012 data sets and it was therefore assumed there has been little to no traffic growth in this corridor in the recent past. This is typical of roadways in established areas such as this. It is also interesting to note that the peak travel direction during peak times is relatively even between the northbound and southbound directions, particularly during the weekday afternoon peak. Considering the peak period volumes shown in Table 1 and the capacity provided by the threelane cross-section (i.e. one travel lane in each direction plus a centre left turn lane) it appears there is residual capacity available in the Windmill Road corridor to accommodate some future traffic growth. 400 Windmill Road Mixed-use Development Page 4 Traffic Impact Statement

5 SIGHTLINE REVIEW The driver sight line review was based on the guidelines contained in the Transportation Association of Canada s (TAC) Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads. These guidelines use design speed for determining criteria such as minimum stopping sight distance (SSD). The design speed is associated with a range of vehicle operating speeds on the major roadway. It should be noted that the regulatory posted speed limit along Windmill Road is 50 km/h. During the site visit, the consultant team measured operating speeds (85 th percentile speed) in both directions along Windmill Road. The survey results showed that operating speeds were 56 and 59 km/h for the northbound and southbound directions, respectively. As such, a 60 km/h operating speed was applied to this analysis and the minimum required SSD for this operating speed is 85m. The available sightlines were measured from the proposed south vehicle access location since this appeared to be the critical location having reduced sightlines to the south along Windmill Road. Available sightlines to the south were measured to be about 90m and available sightlines to the north were greater than 100m both exceeding the minimum requirement. It was concluded that the existing driver sightlines to/from both the proposed north and south access locations meet or exceed minimum design guidelines for drivers moving to and from the proposed development, given the expected vehicle operating speeds. The observed sight lines are provided in Figure 3. Figure 3: Sight lines from the proposed north driveway on Windmill Road Looking south along Windmill Road Looking north along Windmill Road 400 Windmill Road Mixed-use Development Page 5 Traffic Impact Statement

6 SITE TRIP GENERATION In order to assess the change in traffic volumes on the study area streets under future conditions, there was a need to determine the number of new vehicles that would be entering and exiting the proposed development. This is referred to as the trip generation calculation process. Typically, traffic engineers use trip generation rates published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) to forecast site-generated volumes for specific land use types, if deemed appropriate. Based on our review of the land use types being proposed it was determined that the ITE trip generation rates for both residential apartment units and general office space were appropriate. As such, ITE s Trip Generation, 9 th Edition document was used and the forecast site-generated trips are summarized in Table 2. Table 2: Site Trip Generation for the Proposed Residential Development Trip Rate Vehicle Trips / Hour In Out Total Size AM Peak Hour Apartment (220) 72 units 0.51/unit General Office (710) 17,450 ft /1,000ft AM Peak Total PM Peak Hour Apartment (220) 72 units 0.62/unit General Office (710) 17,450 ft /1,000ft PM Peak Total In summary, the proposed mixed-use development is expected to generate 64 trips/hour (31 inbound and 33 outbound) during the weekday morning peak period and 71 trips/hour (33 inbound and 38 outbound) during the weekday afternoon peak period. This generally equates to about one vehicle trip every minute during peak times of the day. All of these trips will be added to the Windmill Road corridor, yet will be further dispersed to the north and south depending on the driver s destination. 400 Windmill Road Mixed-use Development Page 6 Traffic Impact Statement

7 TRAFFIC IMPACTS ON SURROUNDING STREETS The qualitative assessment of the current traffic operational conditions on Windmill Road and the study area intersections was carried out during the field review. As discussed earlier in this letter the peak period traffic volumes observed using the Windmill Road corridor appear to be below the capacity for this type of street and there were minimal delay times observed for drivers entering the Windmill Road corridor traffic stream from side streets and accesses. In addition, the forecast site-generated traffic for a proposed 72 apartment unit and 17,450 ft 2 office space development is expected to generate an additional vehicle trip per minute during peak times of a typical weekday. It is expected these new vehicle trips can be accommodated in the Windmill Road corridor with only a marginal impact on traffic operations. FINDINGS & CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions were gleaned from the qualitative traffic impact assessment of the proposed mixed-use development located 400 Windmill Road: The recently recorded peak hour traffic demand using Windmill Road was about 950 vph during the morning peak and about 1,150 vph during the afternoon peak (two-way volumes). This equates to an approximate daily average of 10,000-12,000 vehicles/day which is well below the capacity of a minor arterial/major collector street with a threelane cross-section. The proposed mixed-use development will be comprised of 72 residential apartment units and 17,450 ft 2 of general office space and is expected to generate 64 trips/hour (31 inbound and 33 outbound) during the weekday morning peak period and 71 trips/hour (33 inbound and 38 outbound) during the weekday afternoon peak period. The qualitative traffic operational assessment suggests there is residual capacity on the study area street system. It appears the new traffic volumes generated by the proposed development are expected to have a negligible impact on traffic operations along Windmill Road corridor. The driver sight lines measured from the critical location of the proposed south access location meet or exceed the 85m minimum stopping sight distance requirement. This minimum requirement is based on free flow 85 th percentile vehicle speeds observed to be 56 km/h in the northbound direction and 59 km/h in the southbound direction. In summary, the traffic generated by the proposed mixed-use development is expected to have a negligible and acceptable level of impact on the traffic operating conditions along Windmill Road. Based on the analysis findings and conclusions the following steps are recommended: 400 Windmill Road Mixed-use Development Page 7 Traffic Impact Statement

8 Original Signed Original Signed