A long-time traffic-inducing and potentially dangerous approach to entering and exiting the Sunset Avenue roadway — left turns in and out of Woodland Drive — will soon be removed from the equation as it pertains to traffic flow near the Highway 24 corridor.
In considering the granting of a conditional re-zoning that would allow a tax business to operate on Woodland Drive, the Clinton City Council voted to allow the proposition after much consideration and deliberation, taking into account public safety and traffic concerns.
In the process of approving the application, a provision to the decision was added, requiring the addition of an island to enforce exclusively right turns in relation to Sunset Avenue, whether leaving or entering Woodland Drive.
Councilman Holden DuBose brought up the potential for exacerbating an existing problem, sharing, “My biggest concern is the traffic coming off the main road.” He continued, “I mean, we’ve gone the last four or five years with major congestion right here.”
“There’s no turn lane to turn in, and it wasn’t set up for business; that area is zoned residential,” DuBose continued. Looking to other causes of an already-congested portion of the avenue, Councilman Daniel Ruggles pointed out, “On Woodland Drive, you already have a daycare and a nursing home.”
DuBose expanded on his reservation as he clarified, “There are going to be left-hand turn stops — probably six to eight people an hour; that’s more than every 10 minutes that a car is stopping there.”
Citing tax season as a condensed period in which accounting firms are most busy, Ruggles pointed out, “We’re mainly talking about two months out of the year.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s two months, three months, five months — I think we need to think about that,” DuBose rebutted.
He continued, “That’s my opinion,” but emphasized, “I’m not saying I’m against it — let’s not confuse that.”
Seeking input that addressed the public safety aspect of the matter, Mayor Lew Starling said, “Let’s hear from our police chief. What are your opinions about traffic coming out?”
”Obviously, we try to mitigate any speeding or crashes in congested areas, and my concern is that it is a four-lane highway,” Clinton Police Chief Anthony Davis noted. “So, my suggestion is, if you want to pass the conditional permit, I would put a condition on it, coming out of Woodland Drive, that all traffic goes to the right and there be no left-hand turn there.”
Councilwoman Wanda Corbett had a positive reaction to this concept and the possibility of it killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.
Expanding on Davis’ suggestion and keeping in mind Ruggles’ reference to other businesses, she considered, “So the turning right that we’re discussing would also be for the daycare and Forest Hill?”
After an affirmative response, she continued, “If we’re to say OK, and conditional use is going up there, then everybody coming out of there is turning to the right.”
“So,” Corbett elaborated, “That’s mitigating a problem that we already have because that’s making the traffic flow better for the two businesses that are already behind the applicant’s property.”
She concluded, “So, everyone would be going in the same direction and not crossing over the highway, and it’d solve a problem.”
There was some discussion on the matter of which entity the road belongs to in so far as it would affect the necessary steps to carry out this potential project, but it was clarified that Woodland is a city street.
This prompted Councilman Neal Strickland to ask, “Because it’s our street, if we put a barrier there, would we have to work with DOT on that?”
Lyle Moore, senior planner with the Clinton Planning and Development, explained, “Typically, DOT would approve it because it is our street, but, just as a courtesy, letting them know what’s going on is a good move.”
Mary Rose, director of Clinton Planning and Development, approached to provide some specifications on the logistics.
“We would also have to discuss with our public works director about making some changes to Woodland,” she explained.
This is because, as she further clarified, “If you’re talking about mandating a right-out, as part of this conditional zoning, we’d have to put some type of concrete island there so people could not go left.”
This built up to the consideration of funds, as Rose continued, “If this is a condition of this conditional rezoning, and this is a development agreement between the city and the applicant,” she noted, “it needs to be decided, as part of this development agreement who bears the cost of the island in the center.”
In a sort of collective stream of consciousness, with the council members all talking at once, they expressed that they felt the burden should be on the city and not the individual.
Starling then brought the bundle of considerations to a vote, first on the original rezoning consideration, and then on the condition of the rezoning.
The Council unanimously approved the rezoning request, and the condition that there would be a concrete island placed such that Woodland Drive would be strictly “right-in, right-out,” and that the city would bear the costs of funding the roadway addition.
As far as the plans go for putting this into place, Public Works Director Chris Medlin expressed that the process has started in the most basic sense.
Medlin shared, “Even though it’s our street, we reached out to DOT as a courtesy, and they were fine with it because it’s our street.”
This is just as Moore suggested would be the case while the discussion was being had at the council meeting.
For now, the cost is yet to be determined, and plans are still in in development.
“At the moment, the city is developing specs on it, and the construction will take place sometime after the first of the year,” Medlin noted.
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