May 9, 2017
The Planning and Appeals Board Public Hearing on May 9 was very well attended by residents opposing the development. This did not go unnoticed by the Board. Special thanks to Harbour Point for the large number of supporters attending.
At the start of the Public Hearing the The City of Gainesville, Community Development Department recommended the proposal for the Oak Hall development be approved "with conditions" (open the Learn More tab for downloads of the Public Hearing detail documents). The conditions were zoning related and also included some improvements for intersections including access lanes and traffic signaling. There were 5 speakers against the Oak Hall development - the major focus being Dawsonville Hwy traffic problems, lack of any significant highway improvement projects in the queue, insufficient data on the impact of the development and the planned layout in certain areas being out of character with the existing homes in the area. The Board vote was tied 3 to 3 with the Chairman breaking the tie for approval to move the project forward to the City Council.
The City Council will hold a Public Hearing on June 6 to hear from residents before making their decision. The June 6 Public Hearing is our last opportunity to convince the City Council to delay their decision on the Oak Hall Development. This delay would allow the time needed to gather more relevant data on the impact of the development on traffic and to initiate programs to move highway capacity improvement projects up the priority list.
May 1, 2017
New Site Plan dated April 23, 2017 available in the LEARN MORE section
April 27, 2017
At the request of the Planning and Appeals Board a new Traffic Impact Study was prepared by Oak Hall Companies. With that, new annexation and rezoning requests were submitted for review and approval. The PAB meeting is scheduled for May 9 at 5:30 P.M. in the Gainesville Justice Center.
The new Traffic Impact Study is essentially the same as the previous study (Jan 24, 2017) with the addition of traffic counts at the North Lake Square intersection and changing the Outparcel from the no-build condition to the Lanier Tract Phase Two condition. There are still two main issues:
1 - the traffic count data available from GDOT is sparse in the area of interest so making accurate forecasts for both future traffic volume and the impact of the new development are difficult to make (at best)
2 - the current traffic problems on Dawsonville Hwy, especially at the McEver intersection, need to be analyzed and plans developed to improve flow. This should be done before any new (large) development is initiated.
On item one - a detailed review of the Oak Hall Traffic Impact Study was submitted to the Planning and Appeals Board for their review and comment. It requests the Board's review and decision on the development be postponed (again) for several months awaiting the completion of studies on the McEver intersection and the review of the Arcadis model.
On item 2 - a just noted, a study of the McEver intersection is underway and a new more extensive study is planned to be funded shortly. The Arcadis model is rumored to be completed mid to end May. Members are also working with the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization (GHMPO) to have 3 strategic Dawsonville Hwy improvements/expansions moved up the priority list
so they can reach the approval and funding stage. But even on a good day these improvements would be at least 5 years away.
March 18, 2017
As you know the Planning and Appeals Board review of the Oak Hall Traffic Study has been delayed until their May 9 Meeting.
Here's a summary of what has transpired since the announcement.
We have met with representatives from:
City of Gainesville Engineering
Gainesville Public Works
GDOT Traffic Engineering
We are in the process of setting up a meeting with the GDOT Planning Bureau.
At each meeting we have been presenting our concerns about the negative impact of the development on traffic and questions about the data gathering process. Overall the response has been positive but take that with a grain of salt. For sure we expect the responsible parties to do a much more thorough investigation of the new Traffic Study before voting on the Oak Hall development.
We expect the new Oak Hall Traffic Study to be completed around March 31. As soon as it is released we will submit an Open Records Request (ORR) for a copy.
We have also submitted an ORR for the Arcadis traffic study. Arcadis is an engineering firm that has been contracted by GDOT to create a traffic model for the Dawsonville Hwy corridor. Their data was collected in February of 2017 and will be the most current of any of the groups.
As soon as the 2016 GDOT intersection and traffic data is released we will also submit an ORR. This will allow us to compare 2017 winter data to 2016 summer/fall data to validate concerns about seasonal variations in our area.
Needless to say a significant amount of time has been spent by the people who have been setting up and attending meetings, writing to City, County and State officials and researching documentation and reports. A large turnout at upcoming City meetings is critical and we need you to show your support by attending and bringing others.
But right now, it is important to send letters to the City officials to make them aware of your concerns. See the TAKE ACTION tab for the names and contact information.
Points you may want to include are:
This portion of Dawsonville Hwy has been growing rapidly and, with it, more frequent traffic jams and delays are occurring. Make sure you include your personal experiences.
Then perhaps touching on the following:
As the warmer weather comes this traffic will only increase making a bad situation worse.
You are pleased the City decided to request more information from the developer before making a decision. And hope the data will be reviewed in detail with the overall interests of the community and the citizens in mind,.
Request that additional development on Dawsonville Hwy be significantly curtailed until an improvement plan has been developed that can handle the added traffic. Ideally new development would be coordinated with highway improvements to minimize the negative impact.
As always check out the web site for the latest news.