DOT Traffic Light Criteria Slows Green Village Plan

A traffic light at the entrance of the Green Village Retail and Apartment plan would not be immediately approved by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and would require a traffic study to prove the need for a signal, according the project’s traffic engineer.

“The state’s traffic engineering experts determined, through our efforts, that, with the signals...synchronized to the north with Valley Road and Partridge Road and the driveway to the south, there would be disruptions on a regular occurrence on the Route 206 traffic,” Green Village’s Traffic Engineer, Gary Dean, said at Thursday night's Planning Board meeting. “It would create breaks in traffic or gaps that would allow the projected volumes from this site, at full build-out, to operate.”

“We all know it will take a long time to make a left turn,” he added.

The design includes a southern driveway where those entering and exiting the site can make right and left turns in and out of the site. That driveway is opposite the United Rent-All driveway. There is also a right-turn only driveway north of the first, where drivers can only make right turns in and out of the site.

The project would include stop signs at the site exits, Dean said.

The entrance design incorporates portions of a DOT project, called 15N, that includes a three-and-one-half-mile section of Route 206. The 15N project included widening the highway and installing concrete barriers, much like the area immediately north of it. However, funding was deferred in the late 1990s, so the project never occurred, Dean said.

“All of the elements of the state plan were considered, and not only the Gateway project, but this project,” Dean said. “It’s keeping that driveway in the same location as was envisioned in the 15N project.”

Work on the project would occur in phases, because of the safety concerns. It would proceed according to the DOT’s plan for the 15N construction and would include delaying construction of the plan’s retail portions.

But in order to get a traffic light at the location, the project would need to undergo traffic monitoring, and would need to meet or exceed 199 trips to or from the site during a one-hour peak period.

“That is a threshold used by DOT,” Dean said. “When one exceeds [it], it puts it into a whole different category of permit review. It requires mitigation and project improvements. It essentially is a standard that is set by DOT that says, ‘Once you get beyond 199 trips, we really need to take a look at how the project could affect a corridor’.”

As a result, the developer agreed to conduct traffic monitoring that determines the project’s impact on 206, once the site has 180 filled units. From those numbers, it could then determine the project’s impact once more units are filled, and whether it will approach the 199-trip mark.

Dean identified three possible solutions for the traffic concerns in the area, including state comes through with the 15N project and addresses access for site, receiving approval for a traffic light from the DOT,  or constructing a concrete barrier that prevents left turns.

For owner Mike Avolio, the concern is safety. While he’s not opposed to the plan, he’s seen numerous accidents and is aware of the traffic outside his store. Some days, it will take between five and eight minutes to turn out of the site, and there are times he’ll prohibit his drivers from making left turns out of his business—which would be directly across from the plan’s southern driveway.

He also questioned the state’s denial of a light at the intersection.

“I heard mention of a light,” Avolio said. “That makes more sense to me, a light where they have to stop. I personally don’t understand how this is going to work. I’m just a layman, but I’ve been going in and out of that driveway for 25 years.

“...I’d like to see the township question, if the developer’s willing to bring in the issues on that intersection on their dime, and the state says, ‘no,’, then there’s something wrong with the state,” he added. “Maybe the township can go into this and look into that.

According to Township Planner Bob Ringelheim, the DOT standards governing traffic signals necessitate the initial no answer, but the town and the applicant will explore it further.

For resident Marilyn Rodriguez, the concern is increase traffic in her development from people who cannot make a left onto Route 206 South.

“As it is on 206, it’s a parking lot.,” said Marilyn Rodriguez, of Elmendorf Circle. "Literally, a parking lot, Monday to Saturday. There is no way anyone is going to be able to make a left turn from there. They will be forced to make a right turn. If they make that right turn, where will they go? Maybe they will turn onto Valley Road and make a U-turn in my development or the development before my development.”

The hearing will continue at the Planning Board’s March 1 meeting, since the applicant was unavailable for the February meeting dates.