For Transportation Commission Meeting [December 1, 2021]
TO: Honorable Chairperson and Commission
APPROVAL: David Hammer, City Engineer
FROM: Justin Schlaefli, Consultant Engineer, TKE Engineering
Title
Traffic Impact Analysis - Fitzgerald Avenue Warehouse Located at the Northeast Corner of Fitzgerald Avenue and Baseline Road
(ACTION ITEM)
Body
BACKGROUND:
The project proposes the construction of a 45,659 square feet of high-cube warehouse facility at the northeast corner of the intersection of Fitzgerald Avenue and Baseline Road in the City of Rialto with the project opening year of 2023.
Access to the project will be provided via two (2) driveways. The northern driveway on Fitzgerald Avenue will provided full-access ingress/egress to the project. The southern driveway on Baseline Road will provide right-in/right-out access to the project.
Based on the trip generation and trip distribution of the proposed project, and based on discussion with City staff, the report analyzed the following intersections for traffic operations:
1. Fitzgerald Avenue and Driveway 1
2. Fitzgerald Avenue and Baseline Road
3. Driveway 2 and Baseline Road
The first Scoping agreement was submitted in early August 2021 with a second and final scoping agreement submitted in late August 2021. The Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) was submitted in October 2021, and it was reviewed with one comment related to the study. The comment was related to an updated trip generation reference as the ITE standard reference 11th Edition became available. This didn’t result in any changes to the TIA as the new rates were lower than the older rates and a memo to the file documented the change.
Consistent with City of Rialto Traffic Impact Analysis guidelines, study intersections were identified to include freeway interchanges within two (2) miles that were designated to take more than 40% of total traffic from the project & intersections which Project contributed 50 or more peak hour trips. This included the locations listed above. In the case of this project, the trip generation had less than 50 peak hour trips and the TIA was required to evaluate access and the adjacent intersection.
This site appears to comply with zoning on the property.
The site location is shown on Page 2 of the TIA, which is included as Attachment 1, while the site plan with the Truck Turn Templates is shown on Page 3 of the TIA, which is included as Attachment 2.
Trip generation for the project is based on the City’s guidelines for warehouse projects, which uses rates from the Institute of Transportation Engineers' (ITE) Trip Generation Manual (9th Edition). Land Use 150 “Warehousing” was used to develop the project trip generation. The City requires warehouse projects use a minimum truck rate of 40% of the total project traffic. Further, the City requires that the truck mix for warehousing include 70% 4-axle trucks, 28% 3-axle trucks, and 2% 2-axle trucks. The City Guidelines require projects that anticipate the generation of significant truck traffic convert all truck trips into passenger car equivalents (PCEs). The truck trips were converted to PCEs using the City’s conversion rates of 1.5 for 2-axle trucks, 2.0 for 3-axle trucks and 3.0 for 4+ axle trucks. Table A shows the project trip generation. As shown in Table A, the total project is anticipated to generate 14 total trips during the a.m. peak hour, 15 total trips during the p.m. peak hour, and 163 total daily trips. After converting to PCEs, the project is anticipated to generate 24 PCE trips during the a.m. peak hour, 25 PCE trips during the p.m. peak hour, and 274 daily PCE trips.
A comparison to the most current edition of ITE, Trip Generation (11th Edition) was also completed to ensure a conservative analysis. It was found that trip rates for Land Use 150 “Warehousing” have been reduced slightly in the latest edition. Therefore, the information above is considered slightly conservative.
Trips are shown on Page 6, Table A of the TIA, which is included as Attachment 3.
Existing traffic volumes (in PCEs) for the intersection of Fitzgerald Avenue and Baseline Road are based on Rialto Olive Grove Business Park Project, Kimley-Horn, February 2021. Turn movement counts for this study were collected in May 2019 and included vehicle classification. Consistent with the City guidelines, the Kimley-Horn study calculated PCE volumes at these intersections by using a PCE factor of 1.5 for 2-axle trucks, 2.0 for 3-axle trucks, and 3.0 for trucks with 4 or more axles. Traffic volumes for existing plus project conditions were calculated by adding project trips to the volumes developed above. Detailed volume development worksheets are included in Appendix B of the TIA.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION:
The TIA included cumulative impacts when added to other proposed projects in the area at project intersections in addition to the existing conditions described above. When cumulative traffic was added the study intersections were found to operate at an acceptable level of service as shown below:
As no deficiencies were identified in the TIA, no improvements are recommended beyond payment of standard fees and frontage improvements associated with project access and transit service.
Vehicles Miles Traveled (VMT)
A VMT screening analysis is summarized in the TIA. As discussed in the TIA, VMT is a function of travel volumes multiplied by distance. Therefore, provision of needed services in a community may be found to reduce VMT as patrons have a shorter distance to travel. As such, OPR and SBCTA VMT Guidelines identify that Project types falling under the screening criteria includes the following:
• K-12 Schools
• Local-serving retail less than 50,000 square feet
• Local parks
• Day care centers
• Local serving gas stations
• Local serving banks
• Local serving hotels (e.g. non-destination hotels)
• Student housing Projects on or adjacent college campuses
• Local-serving assembly uses, Community Institutions
• Local serving community colleges
• Affordable or supportive housing, Assisted living facilities, Senior housing
• Projects generating less than 110 daily vehicle trips
The proposed project is considered a small project generating less than 110 passenger vehicle trips. Therefore, the project is expected to have a less than significant transportation impact based on VMT criteria. No mitigation measures are proposed.
Conclusion
Intersections studied are projected to operate consistent with City of Rialto guidelines without deficiencies at the three locations as noted in Table D of the TIA.
Based on these conclusions, it is recommended that the applicant pay applicable development impact fees. No fair-share would be required of this project and no additional mitigation related to transportation impacts would be required. In addition, the proposed project would be required to provide frontage and access improvements consistent with City of Rialto standards.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Staff requests that the Transportation Commission:
• Provide recommendations related to approval.
• Recommend payment of applicable DIF fees.
• Recommend approval to the Planning Commission.