Sarah Taddeo

@sjtaddeo

Brighton town officials and residents were able to watch traffic around a Monroe Avenue plaza come to life in an animated model for the first time Tuesday.

Why should you care?

Because one of the biggest issues surrounding the Daniele family’s proposal to develop a Whole Foods grocery store, Starbucks and other retail in a plaza between the Interstate 590 and Clover Street is traffic. Now, documents spanning hundreds of pages were put into moving pictures at a town board meeting Tuesday to show how the project fits into the Monroe Avenue traffic scenario.

Here’s some major takeaways.

A malfunctioning light threw off original studies.

A traffic light at Monroe and Clover wasn’t allowing as many cars to pass through on Monroe Avenue as it was supposed to. That meant backups were artificially inflated in real life and in the original traffic studies for the Whole Foods project, said Passero Associates Vice President Jess Sudol, who presented the simulations.

In fact, that’s part of why a Supplemental Draft Environment Impact Statement, or SDEIS — an additional document on top of those usually submitted to a municipality that detail a project's environment impact — was needed in the first place, said Sudol.

Municipality officials use the information in these documents to help determine whether the project fits the proposed construction area.

The Whole Foods project SDEIS was deemed adequate for public review by the town last month.

That signal has since been corrected with the help of the New York state Department of Transportation — Monroe Avenue is a state road — and traffic models used at Tuesday’s meeting reflected a corrected signal time.

The traffic models are comprehensive and conservative.

Traffic consultants wanted to be sure to accurately depict current traffic conditions of the Monroe Avenue corridor, and what would happen if a Whole Foods store and other businesses were placed there. They looked at a Whole Foods store in a comparable U.S. location to verify that the Brighton development’s traffic model numbers weren’t underestimated, said Sudol.

The model looked at “peak times” for the corridor, such as rush hours — especially evening rush hour — and weekend crowds.

“We want to make sure that this board and other stakeholders in this project are confident in the results and know that we’re not trying to cut any corners,” said Sudol.

Traffic mitigation ideas look promising.

The developers built traffic mitigation measures into their proposal, including a traffic light at one of the plaza’s entrances that’ll also allow an access point for businesses across Monroe Avenue. They’d also like to work with DOT to “coordinate” existing and new lights along Monroe Avenue to allow for the safest and most efficient traffic flow.

There are two proposed entrances and exits in and out of the plaza and both are on Monroe Avenue.

Density of the buildings on the property was considered in traffic discussions. Developers are asking for a larger plaza than what’s allowed on the property — they want about 90,000 square feet, the allowed zoning is around 70,000 — but that extra space doesn’t translate to tons of extra cars because of mitigation measures proposed, said Sudol. The plaza would definitely include a Starbucks, and developers are considering other retail to fill the other storefronts.

What did board members and residents think?

Board members asked for clarification on what would happen with traffic at certain times of the week, and they pointed out intersections or specific scenarios the model didn’t show. They also asked how pedestrians crossing affected roads could throw off the timing of area traffic lights.

A small contingent of residents attended the meeting, and for some, seeing the traffic simulation didn’t answer a lot of questions.

“In fact, it generated more questions (to ask at the public hearing,)” said Chrystine Blackwell, who has lived in the Twelve Corners area of Brighton for 50 years.

A public hearing on the SDEIS is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 10 at Town Hall.

The Danieles hoped board members and the public were able to more easily wrap their arms around the project after seeing the traffic simulations, said Anthony Daniele.

“This is a two-year process, put into pictures,” he said, adding that while there will still be overall traffic on Monroe Avenue, he hopes their traffic plan will increase driver safety in the area.

STADDEO@Gannett.com

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