SNOWMASS VILLAGE — More than just a roundabout, the future strategy for moving people through an improved Base Village will require additional buses and vastly improved pedestrian connections.
Set to be addressed in greater detail after Related Colorado’s application heads for more technical review, discussions about transportation and movement by the Snowmass Village Planning Commission have heretofore taken a back seat to commercial core vibrancy and whether a swimming pool and Ice Age discovery center are adequate benefits to offset developer variances.
Concepts rather than specifics are what commissioners explore at the sketch plan stage, but as the body takes its fourth swipe, on March 4, at examining Related’s proposed changes to the project’s 2004 base area approval, transportation-oriented issues will take their place in the future queue.
Center to the discussion will be how to improve moving people through the key Base Village intersection at Brush Creek and Wood roads, including into the parking garage and up to the Treehouse children’s center.
A main choke point is the children’s center, where use of a traffic control officer is critical to moving cars through the drop-off area. The TCO is seen as a Band-Aid solution.
Just around the corner can be a peak period logjam into the parking structure.
“On busy days the access … backs up to Wood Road even with parking attendants pulling tickets for drivers to help speed up the access into the parking garage,” said David Peckler, transportation director for the town.
Another 125 vehicular movements per hour are anticipated at this intersection once Base Village is finished, according to a transportation analysis by Felsburg, Holt & Ullevig. That represents an approximately 9-10 percent increase over existing traffic, says the report, which was prepared for Related Companies.
It’s also more traffic than was contemplated with the original development.
Jordan Curet/Aspen Daily News
In their memo to the planning commission, Julie Ann Woods, director of the Snowmass community development department and senior planner Jim Wahlstrom wrote, “The intersections in and around the Base Village site need to be safe and efficient considering the unanticipated traffic volume impacts on Lower Carriage Way and the effects upon turning movements after the 2004 approvals that have compromised the safety and convenience of pedestrians and traffic movement in the immediate vicinity, particularly on peak days.”
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