Parkview Golf Course Decision - Neighborhood Concerns Ignored!

The City Council and Mayor Maguire completely ignored concerns over the negative impacts the proposed development will have on the adjacent neighborhood of Fairway Hills. 

This is what our city government ignored in their decision to approve the development plan (plat) as it was presented:

1)  Fairway Hills already has some of the most impactful outside traffic of any Eagan neighborhood due to soccer. Every evening from 4 to 9 cars cruise through the heart of the neighborhood on their way to and from soccer fields located in Fairway Hills. It significantly impacts the safety of people walking, biking and playing in the neighborhood.

2)  Per a study dated January 22, 2013 the new development is projected to  increase traffic by 61 percent (540 current trips per day, 390 additional trips per day) on most of Interlachen and by 31 percent on Pebble Beach Way (670 current trips with 210 additional trips). By my own calculations, the development will increase traffic by 100 percent on the section of Interlachen east of Pebble Beach Way to the golf course barrier (540 current trips per day on Interlachen with additional 390 + 210).

3)  The new development traffic going through Fairway Hills is going to a roadway, Pilot Knob, that is already 50 percent busier than Cliff Road, the logical point of exit and entry to the proposed development. Given the obvious fact that there will be more development south down Pilot Knob than to the east along Cliff Rd, the traffic disparity between Pilot Knob and Cliff Road will continue to increase. It makes no sense to direct additional traffic through Fairway Hills to Pilot Knob. Beyond that, the ability of traffic to get onto Pilot Knob at Interlachen already is rated an F during peak hours while operating at C during other times of the day. F is the worst possible rating, but doesn't mean conditions can't get worse. It only means it is already operating very badly and it will only get worse. Meanwhile the all Cliff Road access points between Pilot Knob and Lexington operate at Level of Service E or better.

4)  Fairway Hills is bearing a disproportionate share of Eagan's traffic burden due to the current soccer traffic and now, on top of that, a projected significant increase in traffic due to the proposed development. It is not fair, right, reasonable or in the best interests of the Citizens of Eagan for this to be done to a neighborhood, especially without any comment/justification by our City Council.

5)  There was some comment/question related to routing new development traffic through Fairway Hills and it had to do with connectivity of neighborhoods as a principle, I believe. If that is a principle in the area of development, it can't be the only one. It's hard to believe that neighborhood connectivity would trump safety, burdening a neighborhood already heavily impacted by traffic with even more traffic and everything that follows from that including reduced property values.

6)  As a final point, I want to include an observation made related to Steeplechase, a new development less than .2 miles down Pilot Knob from Fairway Hills. It's similar in size to the proposed Dakota Path and only has one entry/exit point onto Pilot Knob, which is 50 percent busier than the access available to Dakota Path at Cliff Road.

The only mention of the proposed developments' impact was raised by Mayor Maguire. He asked about traffic. Can portions of Fairway Hills streets accommodate the projected 100 percent increase in traffic. He queried the City Engineer who indicated that local streets like those in Fairway Hills can handle 3,000 cars per day and that projected increases will fall far below that mark. The Mayor asked the City Engineer if the carrying capacity of streets was like a pipe? The Mayor concluded that a pipe is designed to handle a certain level of fluid; likewise a street is designed to handle a certain level of traffic. It's the same thing. 

No one on the City Council nor any of the City experts present at the meeting jumped in to help the Mayor out, to point out that the impact of increased traffic was much more than the simple engineering ability of streets to handle more traffic. Safety is an issue, the sense of neighborhood, the sense of well-being and comfort at not having an excess of cars whizzing by, the impact on property values in homes seen as less desirable due to the level of traffic etc.

The Mayor and City Council did not do justice to the concerns of the Eagan citizens of Fairway Hills.