To update the county’s highway plan in the comprehensive plan, the Tippecanoe County Commissioners on Monday passed a resolution. To alleviate traffic congestion, the Area Plan Commission suggested that Lafayette and the county build a non-residential urban collector route connecting the Veteran’s Memorial Parkway and CR 600S.
Doug Poad, the APC’s senior transportation planner, stated that after looking at the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan, they realised that the south side of Lafayette had a lot of room to expand both residentially and commercially.
The 2050 MTP projects population and economic growth in this area, according to the plan commission. There were 1,634 dwellings and 5,396 people in this region (tract 107) in 2018, and those numbers are expected to rise to 4,836 dwellings and 10,588 people by the year 2050.
As of 2010, there were 1,775 jobs here, and that number is expected to more than double by 2050, reaching 5,775. The plan commission considered the anticipated increase in population to assess whether or not the city and county would need to make infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the anticipated increase in population.
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Concord Road and CR 450 east were the only major roadways the APC identified that ran north to south through the area. The APC found that, depending on the extent of expansion in this area, this area of the community could see an excessive quantity of traffic owing to bottlenecking between these two roads.
All the below statements are given by Journal And Courier,
Poad explained, “We started looking at the road grid system in this area, specifically between Veteran’s Memorial Parkway, CR 600 South, Concord Road, and CR 450 East.”
“Seeing that we may be receiving some substantial growth in this area, we started looking more closely and decided that we should probably have another north/south corridor between Concord and 450 East.”
About three-quarters of a mile east of Concord, the road would begin next to Woodland Elementary School and conclude in front of Wabash on Veterans Memorial Parkway.
“We decided that it (should) not be a road that carries a large number of traffic. It should be one classification above a local road being what we call a new non-residential collector. It will be a pinch wider than a local road,” said Poad.
The APC also proposed designating this route as a non-residential collector road with the goal of restricting the number of driveways allowed along this road in favour of limiting access to planned commercial, industrial, and residential development. The APC has also stated its intention to construct a trail on one side of the road in an effort to make it easier for children to walk to school.
“We realized the fact that the school corporation, especially those in the county are struggling with bus drivers. And that if a trail is built, and if subdivisions connect to this road with the trail, it will allow safe passage for children walking to and from school.”
According to Poad, the purpose of this change to the county’s comprehensive plan was to account for the potential future need for this route. The report simply highlighted the need for the route in the future; it did not identify when or by whom it would be built.
Despite agreeing that the road will be necessary in the long run, Commissioner Dave Byers questioned why the APC hadn’t considered building it in the middle of Concord Road and CR 450 East. According to Poad, the plan commission debated putting the road smack in the midst of the two, but ultimately decided against it because of the existing industrial growth in the area.
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