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MEMORANDUM TO: Lee County Board of Commissioners John Crumpton, County Manager FROM: Amy J. McNeill, Design Review Coordinator DATE: August 15, 2016 088 REF: NC 78/Tramway Road Traffic Concerns and Request for Information Prompted by the Sanford Soccer Field Complex Conditional Rezoning Request In response to a recent rezoning request to allow for a soccer field complex to be developed off of Airport Road (SR1213), which is a short dead end road off of Tramway Road / NC Hwy 78, the Lee County Board of Commissioners requested at their June 20, 2016 meeting that staff provide additional information regarding vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the area to assist in making a decision regarding this request. This information will also be shared with the Sanford Planning Board and the Sanford City Council. Planning staff (Marshall Downey, David Montgomery and Amy McNeill) met with James Garner, Asst. District Supervisor for Division 8 / District 2 of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), to discuss this matter. As a result of this meeting, staff has requested the following information from NCDOT: Traffic Data: The board was interested in the volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in this area. The residents in this area expressed concern regarding the high volume of vehicular traffic, especially during times of the day when the students attending the two nearby schools (Southern Lee High School and SanLee Middle School) are being dropped -off or picked -up and during sporting events. The residents are also concerned about the high volume of people who walk along Tramway Road (and in their front yards) since there are no sidewalks in this area. Staff has requested vehicle traffic counts from NCDOT during the active school year since this will provide the most accurate information regarding the high volume of traffic in this area and traffic concerns appear to be an ongoing matter for the residents of this area, even if the soccer field complex is not developed. Therefore, this study will have to be done in September or October and staff will forward this information to the boards upon receipt. NCDOT does not have numbers for pedestrians walking along the roadway and staff has verified that this type if information is not information that NCDOT typically provides. Mr. Garner of NCDOT will contact the NCDOT Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation to see if they have any information that may be useful and staff will provide this information to the boards The following information was assembled using NCDOT traffic counts via intelligent data within our GIS system and records from the Planning & Development Department.