• The staff member from the Planning Department informed the Commissioners that the parking garage is set back 20 feet from 24th Street.  It isn't.  The plans show the parking garage built right along the property line.

• The Commissioners were told that truck traffic routes are to be controlled by provisions of tenants' leases.

• The developers' attorney stated that the developers had paid $95,000 for the Traffic Impact Study (TIS), the largest amount ever paid, and that the study "is what it is."

• The Deputy Director of the Department of Transportation stated that the TIS was flawed but "not fatally" flawed.

• Suggesting that community groups have responded positively to the TIS, the Deputy Director stated, "We don't have 100%, but we have consensus."

• Another staff member from the Department of Transportation explained that new lines would be painted on the 2400 block of N. Howard Street so as to avoid "causing the developer to have to put in paving" to create a left-turn lane into the site.

• The developers' attorney noted that there were "Latent pent-up traffic issues in the community" but did not admit that the project would create any issues.

• The attorney stated that the developers would contribute $150,000 to the City to help with the community's pre-existing traffic issues and another $100,000 toward a signal re-timing study, and that the $250,000 total represented a "very substantial commitment by the developer."

• The Department of Transportation staff stated that rush hour parking restrictions on N. Howard Street above the project site would be removed, and that 25th Street east of the site would receive a "lane diet" to narrow street width "so traffic will slow down." 

• Members of a community "task force" convened by the developers indicated that they were happy about the Department of Transportation's plan to reduce Howard Street above the site to one traffic lane in each direction at all times, and that it was not feasible to reduce 25th Street east of the site to one traffic lane in each direction.

The Commissioners didn't seem to be interested in looking at the way the development plan is laid out with respect to traffic impacts.

Neither the Department of Transportation nor the developers are admitting that this project will have any Traffic Impact.

No data was offered to show that reducing the number of traffic lanes on either Howard Street or 25th Street is feasible now, let alone with the increase in traffic that the shopping center will bring.