Stuart Small commented over 1 year ago

Traffic Analysis 
Concerns around the development include: 
• The Boulevard – described in the DA submission as “a generous 2 lane 2 way standard. (Sufficient width for 2 travel lanes and 2 parking lanes.). The road pavement is 11m wide. 
The Austroads Guide to Road Design Part 3: Geometric Design clearly states in Section 4.2.5 that a standard traffic lane width of 3.5m is desirable in urban areas. Further, in figure 4.46 it identifies that in a parallel parking scenario that the width required for the parking lane and the adjacent travel lane is 6.3m (Section 4.10.2 identifies a need for 0.5m clearance for the parking, Figure 4.45 identifies parking requires 2.3m à6.3m width). That gives a total pavement width required of 12.6m. 
This clearly exceeds the existing 11m width and is thus not a generous 2 lane 2 way standard. 
• The Boulevard is a designated bus route, with buses utilising the route throughout the day and especially in the morning and afternoon peaks. The compromised pavement width introduces a high level of risk to the operation of this bus route that will be further compromised by an increase in vehicle traffic generated by the development that would be expected to significantly increase the traffic movements along this stretch of the road network. 
• The Boulevard, that portion that will be utilised to access the developed property, is utilised for parking by several different types of users. These include parents picking up and dropping off school kids at the bus stop in this section of the road network, customers of the adjoining commercial gym and physiotherapy clinic, and commuters who car pool. The capacity of the parking in this portion of The Boulevard is stretched on several occasions during the day. This was obviously not observed by the developers consultant when they visited the site for their traffic flow analysis as they stated that “very low existing parking demand observed on the approach road network”. The public historically utilise only one side of the street for parking due to the lack of width of the road, however during busy periods both sides are utilised and the risk of accidents are increased. The increase in traffic from the development will further increase the risks of an accident occurring in this location. Council also needs to consider the future development of the sports field located between The Boulevard and the development that on occasions will have parking overflow the available off-street capacity and fill the on-street parking. The consultant also didn’t observe the existence of a bus stop on The Boulevard. 
• The Boulevard is the only route for cyclists to gain access to the local road network and any future cycleway network. The MidCoast community does have a high level of bicycle use for fitness with cyclists regularly being observed to utilise that portion of the rod network servicing the network. The road width has not been designed to cater for cyclists and has been adequate to date due to the fact that a reasonable proportion of the blocks of land within Tallwoods is yet to be developed. Once Tallwoods is fully developed and the develop is fully operational the safety of cyclists would be significantly compromised due to the road network not being designed to cater for cyclists. 
• Coastal View Drive at the entrance to the development does have sight distances in both directions, however vehicles heading in a westerly direction past the entrance to the development have travelled down a very steep decline and the resulting average speed of these vehicles at the entrance to the development will be higher than would normally be experienced. This increases the risk considering the very large volume of vehicles entering exiting the development to service both the residents and the on-site commercial oeprations. 
• Traffic generation from the development will be significant for the land area of the development, because of the density of the development. It will consist of residents visiting local shops and services, staff working at the development to support the residents, deliveries to the development, and visitors to the development. The level of traffic generation will exceed that of adjoining land because of both density and land use type. This increase in traffic development will have a negative impact upon the road network through Tallwoods which was not designed or constructed to handle it. 
• Controls that should be considered to minimise the impact upon existing residents of Tallwoods if the development was to proceed would include: 
o Construction of a footpath along Coastal View Drive and The Boulevard to the existing bus stop, including the construction of a pedestrian refuge to cross The Boulevard. 
o Limits placed upon the ownership of vehicles within the development, i.e. car parking not to be allowed on any of the individual lots set aside for the manufactured homes. That is vehicles limited to the official parking spots provided throughout the development, i.e. 20 car parking spots. 
o If limits on vehicles isn’t implemented there needs to be a strong consideration on construction a special intersection treatment at the entrance to the development. 
o Upgrading of the bus stop on the Boulevard. 
o Upgrading of the road pavement from Blackhead Road through to the development to match the new road volumes generated by the development. It should be noted that the pavement is unlikely to survive the extended construction period of the development due to the use of heavy vehicles and the condition of the pavement currently. 
o Parking restrictions to be implemented along The Boulevard with these restrictions to be offset by the construction of additional off-street parking – ensuring that such constructions doesn’t place limitations upon the future functionality of the sporting fields and it’s required parking arrangements. 
o Construction of a cycleway along The Boulevard through the choke point at the entrance to Tallwoods. 
o Construction of an all-weather cycleway/footpath to Hallidays Point commercial precinct, that is also suitable for mobility scooters. 
o It is highly likely that a major drawcard for residents to the development to utilise the adjoining golf course and their highly likely to utilise golf carts. An off road access route for golf carts needs to be provided between the development and the golf course. This would be achieved through the construction of an underpass for Coastal View Drive. 
o Increases in bus services should be strongly considered because of the extra patronage generated by this development. 
o The pathway along the site frontage to Blackhead Rd is currently proposed to be 2m wide which is inadequate for a shared path with cyclists. Width needs to be increased to cater as a shared path. 
o Upgrading of the construction access of Blackhead Road is to be such that when delivery of homes is undertaken that stoppage of traffic along Blackhead Road does not last longer than 2 minutes for each delivery and that such deliveries are to be away from peak morning and afternoon periods. 
Stormwater Analysis 
Concerns around the development include: 
• The development is proposing that each allotment will utilise a 1kL rainwater tank to minimise peak volumes of stormwater discharged when combined with stormwater quality treatment storage devices. The density of the development is such that utilisation of the rainwater tanks would be realistically limited to indoor use. The nature of the residents is that this use would be limited and any sustained rain event would quickly cause overflows from the this on-site storage system. 
• The property is currently vegetated with minimal to no hardstand areas onsite, thus maximising the infiltration capabilities of the system. Construction of the development will convert almost all of the property to being impenetrable, thus generating significantly more stormwater than currently being experienced. Observations to previous rainfall events has shown that the capacity of downstream drainage structures are close to capacity already during such rain events. The construction of this development would likely exceed the capacity of the downstream system. The existing Tallwoods stormwater detention system’s capacity is exceeded during current rainfall events. 
• During current rainfall events the stormwater system in the vicinity of the proposed sports field is exceeded. Observations confirming this includes overland flow coming off the sports field and entering the kerb and gutter between the gymnasium and the entrance to the Tallwoods along The Boulevard. This storm water has pushed the kerb inlet pit(s) to capacity with water ponding onto the road pavement. The developers water sensitive design strategy clearly identifies that when the internal storage systems are exceeded that the stormwater will be discharged onto the adjacent playing fields. 
• Considering the observations of the existing capacity of the stormwater system, redirection of stormwater from the development onto the sport field should not be allowed to occur. An alternative system should be constructed to take this excess volume of stormwater to the southern side of Blackhead Road via a stormwater pipe network. 
General amenity and impact upon local residents: 
• The development proposes to construct a high density gated community, lot sizes typically around 230m², adjacent to urban residential lots typically closer to 1,000m² and larger. This disparity is significant and creates a negative impact upon local residents. The proposal from the developers provides no offsets for such a large negative impact. 
• The MidCoast community in recent surveys clearly identified that the major attractant for people to come to and stay in the area is the natural environment. The environment around Tallwoods is enhanced by the retention of a large amount of remnant vegetation and the addition of significant landscaping, predominantly native. The development proposes a screen of vegetation around the boundary and a few small trees through the development, the density of vegetation will be significantly lower than adjoining properties within Tallwoods. The resulting visual impact will be significant in a negative way, especially from those properties within Tallwoods that overlook the development. This impact can only be reduced by reducing the density of the development and increasing the landscaping within the development. 
• Sustainability is now being recognised as an important element of any development. This development by proceeding with such a high density will create a significant heat well due to the construction of the road network and the high amount of roofing throughout. There is minimal ground able to absorb the heat. This will cause properties needing to run their air conditioning more. The nature of the manufactured homes is likely to see less investment in solar generation as well. 
• Staging of the works and dedication of the sports field for Council purposes. It is noted that the developer proposes to not finalise the dedication of the land until the last manufactured home is installed. Such a proposal could be manipulated in the developers favour and see a significant delay in the dedication. An alternative of the dedication occurring prior to issue of a CC for the last stage should be considered. 
• The developer proposes that the construction of a cycleway along their front boundary is sufficient to offset their contribution towards HP10 and 11 of the old GTCC S94 plan. This is insufficient considering it won’t result in the cycleway being connected to Hallidays Point. This development, with resident using mobility scooters is likely to be a large generator of demand for such a connection to be constructed and should contribute to construction of such a piece of infrastructure and not be limited to the development frontage. 
• The developer’s submission identifies that they historically cater for the over 50’s market, there is no indication that there is any restrictions to the age of people purchasing homes within the site. As evidenced by the concerns raised by other members of the public about the social impact this development may have upon the local community, if it is to go ahead the concerns may be tempered by requiring that only people aged over 55 be allowed to own a site within the development. The resulting internal community may be more amenable to the local community. 
• As witnessed by the responses to the DA to date, the local residents don’t perceive the development as complementing the existing community that exists around Tallwoods Village. Allowing the development to proceed will cause considerable public angst. The developer also doesn’t recognise how vastly different their development is to that that already exists. In the first instance the development should be rejected, if this is not possible, sufficient controls should be implemented to reduce the impact upon the existing community and some additional works to offset the negative impacts experienced by existing residents.