2016-08-09 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                      9 AUGUST 2016


Traffic impacts to the intersections south (at Goodchap St/Eumundi Rd) and north of the site, at
Ernest St/Hilton Tce) are modelled to receive increases of 20% and 3% respectively. The analysis
indicates the impacts will not be insignificant and suggests improvements to the Eumundi Noosa
Road intersection to significantly improve its performance, and those works have recently been
implemented by Council. Council are also planning to upgrade the Ernest St/Hilton Tce
intersection in the short term future.
Council engaged Holland Traffic Engineering (HTE) to undertake a peer review of the traffic
assessment. HTE indicated likely impacts at the Ernest Street intersection could be expected to
be higher, at around 5-6% but agreed that both intersections will perform adequately to the 2027
assessment horizon.
Notwithstanding the acceptable intersection performance, it is important to acknowledge the
development would “use” spare capacity at these intersections and this could come at the
opportunity cost of other future development affecting these intersections. Further assessment of
development scenarios has not been undertaken at this point.
Access
Holland Traffic Engineering’s peer review of the proposed access arrangements finds critical
issues with the development’s vehicle access arrangements, specifically:
   The proposed access arrangements result in extremely tight bus manoeuvring requirements
     when departing from the relocated Goodchap Street bus stop in front of the premises (much
     tighter than suggested by Translink bus stop layout standards). It may not be possible to
     achieve a satisfactory arrangement for the proposed relocated bus stop
   The proposed access arrangements (left in/left out) are problematic in regard to u-turning
     vehicles accessing the site from the north. There will be impacts on Goodchap Street and
     Juron Street and to their residents. Overall, there may be a satisfactory access solution for
     the proposed development, but the current proposal does not achieve satisfactory access
     arrangements, and it would not currently be possible to condition appropriate access
     arrangements.
   On-site entry vehicle queuing provisions of the proposed on-site traffic layout are insufficient.
     With the currently proposed levels on the plans, grades on the access driveway will not be
     able to comply with the requirements of the Australian Standard.
   The traffic report indicates the position of the rear loading refuse truck having only 1.5m
     available at the rear to load bins, and then only just being clear of the path of vehicles entering
     the site. It is likely that the refuse truck driver would park further forward to leave a more
     appropriate space to rear load the refuse bins, and thus intrude into the path required for
     vehicles entering the site.
   A medium rigid vehicle departing the proposed loading bay, would not be able to do so if
     there is an ambulance in the adjacent bay, and the information supplied indicates an
     ambulance would not be able to satisfactorily access the proposed loading bay if there is a
     service vehicle in the adjacent bay.
   The applicant has not satisfactorily demonstrated two-way vehicle passing can occur in the
     basement in accordance with the requirements of the Australian Standard. For example, a
     modified T-junction arrangement is proposed near the base of the basement ramp, to
     overcome sightline issues, but the vehicle paths supplied indicate that the vehicle
     undertaking the tight U-turn from the ramp significantly crosses onto the wrong side of the
     aisle. There are a number of modifications required to the layout to address issues like this
     in the basement.
Resolution of the issues identified above would potentially require modification to the building
layout and would most likely result in a loss of parking spaces.



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