State Highway Administration officials have answered concerns of homeowners and lawmakers about a proposed residential development by calling for new information and studies related to traffic flow.
SHA is asking Dale Thompson Builders Inc., developer of the Riverdale project, to do additional studies, and will do some of the work through its own agency. The 30-acre condo and townhouse development is proposed for the Route 32 and Cedar Lane along the Middle Patuxent River at the edge of west Columbia.
"Obviously they're giving it careful consideration," Bridget Mugane, president of Howard County Citizens Association, said of the state highway agency. "I think it means that the public concerns and actions of our legislators have caused the SHA to take it seriously. I think they're going the full nine yards here. I think it's because of the pressure generated."
The data that SHA will gather includes trip generation studies at similar Howard County developments that contain age-restricted housing to determine whether traffic estimates for peak hours are accurate. The agency also will analyze the cumulative effect of all planned developments in the Cedar Lane corridor and review accident data for the interchange near the proposed new homes. SHA also will review sight-distance issues within the traffic interchange.
Developers are being asked to revise their traffic impact study to address trip generation and sight issues and to consider the option of an entrance north of the Middle Patuxent River. They also are being asked to develop a simulation to show the extent of backups that would occur under various scenarios. In addition, developers are being asked to analyze an option in which the double right turn would remain on the westbound Route 32 to northbound Cedar Lane ramp, but it would have a signal that would control traffic.
Telephone calls made to Dale Thompson Builders were not returned.
Alan Klein, a spokesman for the Coalition for Columbia's Downtown, said one of the reasons that his group weighed in on the Riverdale issue is because members of the organization believe that traffic from the project would directly impact downtown.
"It's a clear example of the county as a whole having the mindset that if it fits with the letter of the law and somebody wants to build it, then it gets built," Klein said. "That's the whole point of Columbia, that we're not going to be just sprawl."
Klein said he is happy with officials' response to public concerns.
County Executive Ken Ulman, Del. Elizabeth Bobo and state Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer have voiced concern about proposed traffic changes to accommodate the Riverdale project.
In addition to traffic problems, residents have raised environmental issues, and they say they fear potential damage to historically significant sites from the proposed housing development.
Some have criticized the evolution of the project through the years. In 2004, a project proposed by developers Dale Thompson and Donald R. Reuwer called for 140 townhouses and a two-story office building on the site. By moving a sensitive planning boundary, the project gained immediate access to more than 400 housing allocations in Columbia.
Without the zoning adjustment, the project would have to wait years because housing allocations in the southeastern district had been taken by the Maple Lawn, Maryland and Emerson developments.
june.arney@baltsun.com