By Pauline Masson –
Traffic problems on Candlewick Lane will be resolved sooner rather than later if Planning and Zoning Commissioners have their way.
The commission voted 6-0 Tuesday, April 11 to postpone action on the preliminary plan for a new industrial park while the city studies traffic leading to the development and considers building a secondary road between Hwy N and Industrial Drive that would take industrial park traffic off Candlewick altogether.
What triggered the action was a request from Daniel Conway for approval of the preliminary plan for Pacific Logistics Park, a 10-lot industrial subdivision on a 48-acre tract of land located along the north side of Industrial Drive.
The property was recently rezoned from agricultural to light industrial on recommendation from P&Z, and over objections of the neighboring property owners who argued that the development would add to storm water runoff and traffic.
On Tuesday evening, commissioners heard from nearby homeowners, industrial park business operators, the developer and one alderman-elect, which led them to the conclusion that the time to fix the Candlewick Lane problem is now – before another industrial park is constructed.
Westlake homeowners say a creek between their property and the proposed industrial park that frequently floods their yards will only get worse when new plants are built there.
P&Z Chair Linda Bruns said Cochran Engineering had presented a plan to manage storm water run off from the development and the city had ordered a third-party engineering study to review Cochran’s plan.
Candlewick Lane homeowners say their lifestyle is already damaged by excessive vehicle traffic and more cars and trucks from ten new businesses would completely destroy tranquility in their subdivision.
Alderman-elect Anna Meadows said that the commission seemed to have a hand on the Westlake storm water issue. She urged them to bring some relief to the Candlewick residents.
Developer Conway said the city could fix the problem in one week’s time. They could choke down Candlewick to prevent trucks from entering and could replace the gate that was formerly at the end of the street to prevent industrial park employees’ cars from using Candlewick.
Resident Tom Love said a traffic study giving actual counts of vehicles had been available for six months. He conducted the study and provided results to the city. Love said he set up a Reconyx Hyperfire HC500 trail camera for one week to capture the traffic entering and exiting Industrial Drive via Candlewick Lane.
Over a seven-day period from Sept. 27, 2022 to October 3, 2022, on week days between 1,000 and 1150 vehicles traveled over Candlewick each day. On the weekend, the number of vehicles dropped to 354 on Saturday and 221 on Sunday. The study showed a total of 6,080 trips down Candlewick in one week.
Conway said if the city does not choke off Candlewick to prevent semis from entering the subdivision, when the industrial park is built an additional 30 to 50 trucks will travel over Candlewick each day.
Although they were unsure how to do it, commissioners said before the industrial park can begin construction the Candlewick traffic problem needs to be solved once and for all.
“This has been going on for years,” Commissioner Mike Bates said. “If we don’t fix this now, the problem will only get worse.”
Bates said replacing the gate that once blocked entry to Industrial Drive from Candlewick seemed like the simplest solution. But Commissioner Jerry Eversmeyer said there was nothing simple about Candlewick.
He said the city accepted federal funds from East West Gateway to improve Candlewick as a feeder road. If the road is closed off and the feeder road classification no longer applies, the City might have to give the money back.
One solution would be to acquire a five-acre tract of land adjacent to Candlewick Lane and build a secondary road from Hwy N to Industrial Drive. Another possible alternative route would be to widen Myers Farm Road as an entry to Industrial Drive.
Robert Van Allen, president of Continental Products said a gate across the entry to the Industrial Drive would draw a backlash from business operators.
“Seventy percent of employees in the industrial park, use Old Gray Summit Road. That’s our labor pool. We have to get people in and out of the park,” he said.”Continental moved out there before there was a Candlewick. That’s our road.”
Gary Koelling said he agreed with everyone.
“I’m all for developoment,” he said. “But we need to take care of the people who are already in our town. We have o figure out how to fix these roads before we go ahead with these developments.To make a decision on this (preliminary plan) now would be a mistake.”
P&Z chair Linda Bruns said she would like to see answers to all the questions before plans for the industrial park move forward.
At Bruns’s request, commissioners unanimously agreed to table the preliminary plan approval while the City conducts a professional traffic study and considers building a secondary road.
City administrator Steve Roth said First and Osage street improvements and the Denton Road Bridge are under construction. He wanted to wait until both projects were finished to evaluate the truck traffic
The issue is expected to come back to P&Z at its next meetng.
The industrial park has existed long before the Candlewick subdivision. The current Candlewick homeowners should have known of the traffic before they bought their homes. If a gate is the solution and traffic is diverted to a Denton road, what will the traffic do when the Meramac river floods Denton?
Everyone of those cars and trucks pass over Lamar to OGSR to Hwy N. And then those roads have all the subdivision traffic on Hwy N. Why don’t we just shut down Lamar, the people on OGSR and HWY N moved there before Lamar and all the traffic, Candlewick people moved there with the road there. And then the people directly to the right of OGSR has all the traffic coming from Congress on top of OGSR. You make an Industrial Rd and more people will travel it. So then you add that to the mix.
Glad they are going to ‘ third party revue’ Cochran’s water calculations. Cochran told city admin they could save big dollars by leaving out the storm water inlets when they rebuilt the roadway on Candlewick. Now water runs over roads and lawns , passes the existing inlets ( to fast) and pools at Industrial swamping Aurora’s ponds and flooding Industrial and Midwest by Continental Products much more than ever before.
Water issues; put in a 36 in. culvert pipe, with a swale above, running from Candlewick to Denton and move detention basins to south side of new development so if (when) they fail water will flow south, not north.
Use the city’s favorite real estate tool, ‘ eminent domain’, and build a 40 ft. road way along Myers Farm Ln. to the west end of Capper and extend Capper to the east to Denton through the old cement plant property.
Gate Candlewick and , if needed, take the funds out of Steevie’s salary because of all the ‘zoning tricks’ he has pulled over the last years.