City Conducts Traffic Study for Proposed Gas Station
After deciding against a traffic impact analysis in May 2011, the city will now conduct one for the proposed Giant gas station on Bay Ridge Road.
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Annapolis is conducting a traffic study for a proposed Giant gas station on Bay Ridge Road more than a year after saying the study wasn't necessary.
The city's Planning and Zoning Department hired a Gambrills-based company called Traffic Concepts to conduct the two-phase analysis, said Jon Arason, the department's director.
The study, which cost Giant Foods approximately $10,800, should be completed and ready for the Board of Appeals to review at its January meeting, Arason said.
The board was set to discuss the gas station at its Nov. 20 meeting.
Developers for Giant supermarkets applied for a special exception from the board to build a Stop and Shop gas station in the parking lot of the Bay Forest Shopping Center in August 2010.
Residents of the Fairwinds Condominiums, located adjacent to the shopping center, quickly opposed the idea. They claimed the new gas station, which would offer discounts to Giant shoppers, would greatly increase traffic to the area.
Fairwinds residents demanded a traffic study, and sued in May 2011 after the Board of Appeals decided the study wasn't required.
In August, an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge remanded the board's special exception granting approval for the gas station with instructions that it had to explain why the study wasn't needed.
Residents are hopeful that the study will kill Giant's gas station proposal by showing too much of a negative impact on area traffic, said Ray Sullivan, an organizer for Save Your Annapolis Neck.
He thinks the proposed location would be better serve the community as a restaurant or office space.
Arason said anyone who wishes to view the results of the study will able to do so once it's completed and reveiwed by the city and Anne Arundel County.
JamesRich
8:34 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Traffic studies are usually a joke. Let's see if this one looks at all the issues involved (e.g. 1. The phenomena of affinity/rewards based gas stations as the City has already admitted that there is very little information available to guage the impact. 2. The City's own bicycle master plan that is trying to create a cut through from Bay-Ridge Road via Victor Parkway for bicycles, pedestrians and vehicles thus creating a four way intersection in the middle of a pedestrian and bicycle friendly residential area (see Annapolis' Bicycle Master Plan on the City's website) 3. How these safety/transit issues relate to the criteria needed for approving a special exception. And f finally, how this is can be justified as fitting into the vision of the Annapolis comprehensive Plan. Will this traffic study merely be a count of cars or would it take the numerous factors mentioned previously (not to mention the various cut-aways, the one lane/two lane configuration that exists, as well as bus transportation and the issues caused by people not patient enough to wait for the busses. Here's hoping the City does it's job this time and isn't naive anymore to chalk this up as "just a gas station".