Traffic Increase Will Come to Circle Down if Three.Nine.Four is Constructed

When Global One Golden Valley, LLC brought plans to the City of Golden Valley to develop a 308 unit apartment building and a 118 unit senior living facility near Highway 100 and Interstate 394, the Minnesota Department of Transportation immediately noted that traffic would be an issue.

In an October memo to City Director of Planning and Development Mark Grimes, MnDOT Senior Planner Michael Corbett requested a traffic study,  saying that “the proposed development as shown represents a substantial increase in units/trips from the existing land use.”

See MnDOT memo to the right.

On Oct. 24, professionals from Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., a traffic consultant to the city, presented traffic findings which showed that the Three.Nine.Four development would bring a 2,299 more cars to the area each day.

According to the study, the development would bring 163 more cars during the morning peak hours  and 203 more cars during evening peak hours.

See SEH Traffic Study memo to the right.

“The added volume from the three new developments results in added delay on all approaches,” SEH professionals said in a traffic memo, referring to the addition of The Arcada and the development of the space at 700 Xenia Avenue.

Though the Three.Nine.Four would cause an increase of traffic, when considering the developments that have been proposed there in the past, the Three.Nine.Four has the least traffic impact.

Short Elliott Hendrickson traffic engineers focused attention on the Golden Hills Drive and Xenia Avenue intersection. In previous studies, and with other proposals, heavy increases in traffic would have called for an “exclusive westbound right turn lane” and a “shared through- right lane.” With The Arcada and the Three.Nine.Four, those additions aren’t necessary.

The biggest issue for nearby residents is the influx of traffic that might be seen on Circle Down.Traffic consultant Mike Kotila said in a recent City Council meeting that the traffic on Circle Down probably can’t be mitigated.

“It’s a large magnitude of cars, but it’s not unheard of on other streets in Golden Valley,” Kotila told councilmembers. “Regent Avenue north of Golden Valley Road carries over 2,000 cars and does operate safely. But that doesn’t address neighbor’s concerns of livability.”

What do you think? Are concerned that proposed developments will bring too much traffic coming to Golden Valley? Tell us in the comments.