On Tuesday, May 17, the Auburn City Council approved a development agreement with ACC OP LLC, the developer of a six-story retail and apartment building dubbed 191 College Street.
The agreement will allow the developer to close the sidewalk on the southern side of Glenn Avenue between Wright Street and North College Street. The closure will last for more than a year as the complex takes shape.
The new development will replace the University Chevron gas station on the southwestern corner of College Street and Glenn Avenue. The six-story complex will have retail businesses on the bottom floor and residential living above.
At no point during the construction will the sidewalk or lanes or North College Street be closed along the construction eastern perimeter.
A portion of Wright Street and its adjacent sidewalk will also be closed for the entire duration of the project from May 2017 to August 2019. Wright Street will be used as a delivery and loading dock for the construction.
The closure of the sidewalk will be accompanied by the narrowing of Glenn Avenue to allow for the construction of the complex.
Currently the lanes of Glenn Avenue along the stretch of the development are 11 feet wide. Once upward construction of the development begins February 2018, the lanes will be narrowed to 10 feet wide.
"You're going from 11-foot lanes to 10-foot lanes," said Jeffrey Ramsey, director of public works for the City of Auburn.
According to city officials and the site developers of 191 College, there are several other roads in Auburn with 10-foot lanes and the narrowing of the lanes will not inhibit traffic flow.
"We're trying to avoid closing a lane at any time on Glenn [Avenue]," said Miles Hill, a representative of the developer. "Right now we have nice, wide, 12-foot lanes and as you may recall, Glenn widens from three lanes ... into four lanes."
Susan Hunnicutt, a member of the grassroots organization Keep Auburn Lovely, confronted the council and asked for a traffic study to determine if the lane narrowing would have an adverse effect on traffic flow downtown.
Hunnicutt also called into question the experience and expertise of the city's engineering department.
"It sounds reasonable," Hunnicutt asked. "Have y'all had a city or independent traffic engineer do a traffic impact study to make sure that what sounds good actually is good. Have y'all had that traffic impact study done?"
City Manager Charlie Duggan said there was not traffic study to be done and that the city's engineering department was more than capable of determining the effects of lane narrowing.
"There's no traffic study that you would perform for taking lanes from 11-foot to 10-foot," Duggan said. "While it's shrinking down the size of the lanes, it's not going to create more congestion in the intersection."
Hunnicutt disagreed.
"You don't know that for sure," Hunnicutt responded. "You're just using what you think is common sense, but you're not — are you a traffic engineer?"
Ward 8 Councilman Tommy Dawson told Hunnicutt not to use a demeaning or derogatory tone.
"He's trying to do his job," Dawson said. "If you want to hear him let him talk."
Hunnicutt interrupted Dawson and said she didn't know what Duggan's job was.
"You're being facetious with what you ask," Dawson said. "Anybody with common sense tells you that going from 11 feet to 10 feet doesn't affect traffic flow. ... I spent 30 years in the Auburn Police Department, and I have driven around this town a lot more than you have. One foot is not going to affect traffic flow."
The argument continued over the closure of the sidewalk along Wright Street, but returned to the narrowing of the lanes on Glenn Avenue just a few minutes later.
"So y'all need to do the right thing," Hunnicutt said. "So that's the question, what's it going to take for y'all to do the right thing tonight and table this until you get a solution. You heard what I said, so you need to do something about it."
Ramsey stood up in the council chambers and defended his experience as a city engineer.
"I've got over 30 years of experience as an engineer," Ramsey said. "The MUTCD, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, allows 10-foot lanes in the urban setting. We're allowing what the [manual] allows in this area. Even when you look at the capacity analysis from ... 11-foot to 10-foot lanes, there's no reduction in the capacity of the lanes. We felt comfortable..."
Hunnicutt asked if Ramsey was a certified traffic engineer when he finished.
"I am a professional engineer with 30 years of experience, I am on the National Board for Transportation, I have done numerous traffic studies for the city of Auburn, and I think we have an excellent traffic flow in the City of Auburn," Ramsey said. "We have five engineers that look over these plans as well."
In other city council news:
- Terry and Michael Boarts, parents of Melissa Boarts who was shot and killed by the Auburn Police Division in early April, confronted the City Council on Tuesday night. The Council refused to comment on the advisement of their legal counsel.
- Preliminary annexations and rezoning for a future assisted-living facility on Wire Road were approved by the City Council.
- A resolution to rename Sophia Way to Sophia Court was approved by the City Council.
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