TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—A traffic consultant for the proposed Four Seasons Marketplace at Pascack Road and Washington Avenue said that recent traffic counts and pre-Covid traffic volumes show “high operating levels of service” at the busy intersection once county intersection upgrades are completed.
A sixth hearing on the proposed 17,100-square-foot marketplace — which might feature up to 11 shops including a restaurant — is scheduled before the Zoning Board of Adjustment at town hall, May 16 at 7:30 p.m.
The consultant, Dean & Dolan, Somerville, was addressing a recent Boswell Engineering review that pointed out 15 concerns with problems in a traffic impact analysis done by Dean & Dolan, traffic consultant for 660 Pascack Realty LLC.
In a May 5 letter to the Zoning Board, Dean & Dolan traffic engineer Gary Dolan said the consultant recently conducted traffic volume counts in March and April 2023 at the Pascack Road and Washington Avenue intersection that found “no difference” between September 2022 traffic counts when motorists were advised to avoid the intersection due to ongoing construction.
Motorists are still being advised to avoid the intersection as overhaul work continues. Some residents have called for a traffic study following the official completion of the intersection work, although that appears unlikely given the applicant’s need to approve such an extension.
Moreover, the Dean & Dolan response letter said using Bergen County’s pre-Covid traffic data at the intersection from 2017 “results in minor changes in Level of Service, all are acceptable and will continue to provide high operating levels of service once the county improvements are completed.”
The response letter said its prior traffic study used an Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Land Use Code for a Retail Strip Plaza for less than 40,000 square feet.
The letter said this land use code, “includes typical tenants such as restaurants, retail stores, banks, health clubs, etc. Strip retail plazas also typically include restaurants as well.” The letter said use of this code used the “more conservative and higher (traffic) projections per the recommended ITE practice.”
The Boswell review had said that trip-generation rates for a restaurant can be “significantly higher” than the “Strip Retail Plaza” land use code, and that “trip characteristics need to be identified and discussed.”
The Dean & Dolan response noted, “As a restaurant tenant has not been identified it is not possible to clarify the intended hours of operation.”
On the applicant documents page, both dated April 14, applicant engineer Bertin Engineering, Glen Rock, responds to prior comments from the Bergen County Planning and Engineering Department and Zoning Board comments about the proposal.
Prior Four Seasons Marketplace hearing dates on March 21 and April 18 were postponed by the applicant, 660 Pascack Realty LLC, following Boswell’s traffic review letter, posted on March 21, that noted specific concerns with the Dean & Dolan traffic study.
(See “Boswell: ‘Disconnect’ in Applicant’s Strip Mall Traffic Estimates,” Michael Olohan, April 3, 2023, Pascack Press.)
New Dean & Dolan Traffic Counts
The two new traffic studies were conducted on a weekday. March 30, 2023 and on a Saturday, April 13, 2023, to compare evening and weekend peak hour traffic counts. The Dean & Dolan response letter runs three pages, with 39 pages of appended support material.
The letter can be accessed on the Four Seasons Marketplace documents page online, under Boswell Review Traffic Response Letter, document #35.
“The appended figures show a comparison between the September (2022) traffic counts and March (2023) traffic counts. As noted, there is virtually no difference in traffic activity over the past six months. The influence of remaining construction has not materially affected traffic conditions,” wrote Gary Dean, of Dean & Dolan, in the letter.
“Nevertheless, our office obtained historic traffic data available from Bergen County collected in 2017 to ascertain ‘pre-Covid’ traffic conditions and before intersection construction commenced. “A revised intersection operational analysis was completed for the projected future site traffic and shows that while the use of the six-year-old traffic count data results in minor changes in level of service, all are acceptable and will continue to provide high operating levels of service once the county improvements are completed. These projections were completed for the AM, PM and Saturday peak hours. As such, any influence of the construction will not alter the conclusions reached in our analyses of favorable future operating conditions,” wrote Dean.
Dean said the revised traffic analyses also used the phasing sequence and timing developed for the intersection, as designed and provided by Boswell, which was a prior Boswell review criticism.
Tributary status questions
In addition to traffic concerns addressed by Dean & Dolan, resident Michael Agnello of Meisten Street has regularly expressed concern about the status of an unnamed tributary running behind homes on Meisten Street’s eastern side, directly behind the marketplace plaza at 660–682 Pascack Road.
The concern has been raised, briefly, during prior Zoning Board question periods, but as testimony did not address the issue, future questions and comments will have to wait until public comments are allowed, which is generally at a last meeting before the Zoning Board makes a final decision on the application.
Boswell Engineering, the township’s engineer, recently found that the “more precise” LIDAR (light detection and ranging) data mapping of the unnamed tributary’s drainage basin was found to total 48.823 acres — which is below the 50-acre threshold to be a state-regulated waterway and protected as a Category One waterway, said a Boswell official.
Agnello believes the developer will need to install a riparian buffer to protect the waterway, or at least take extra precautions to reduce polluted runoff flowing to it, if the waterway is protected as a Category One tributary as he maintains.
Previously, Agnello said, he was told the waterway was a protected Category One tributary to Musquapsink Brook, which eventually leads to Oradell Reservoir, a drinking water source for 800,000 Bergen and Passaic county homes and businesses.
Separately, however, a title search authorized by the township did not find an easement on Agnello’s property, though Agnello said his property title does show an easement when he purchased the property in 1981.
Also, an independent engineer from Emerson, Carol Hoernlein, has said using USGS Streamstats data shows that the tributary’s drainage basin encompasses 58.8 acres, which Boswell Engineer Kevin Boswell also agreed with during his recent presentation to council.
However, Boswell said the more precise LIDAR data and a technical manual rule that only requires inclusion of drainage areas served by stormwater pipes that can handle a 100-year storm reduced the drainage area to 48.832 acres.
Hoernlein said Boswell’s exclusion of certain drainage areas due to stormwater pipe size was “based on a technicality.” She added, “But now we know how the incredible shrinking drainage area for this one proposed development occurred and exactly why the method chosen was not based on USGS Streamstats data.”
(See “Pushback on engineer report over waterway status,” Michael Olohan, May 1, 2023, Pascack Press; also “So Close! Drainage Basin near proposed mall said shy of 50-acre threshold,” Michael Olohan, April 24, 2023, Pascack Press; and “Progress flows toward title search touching on mall proposal,” Michael Olohan, April 10, 2023, Pascack Press.)
Agnello had asked the council for an independent study of the tributary’s drainage basin, which was briefly discussed. Boswell Engineering is the consulting engineer for the township and Zoning Board of Adjustment.