Township Planners Want Traffic Options for New School

The Upper Southampton Township Planning Commission wants a backup plan.

That was the message it gave at a lively 85-minute session Monday evening in regard to the internal traffic plan for the proposed Region 1 Elementary School along Maple Avenue.

The Centennial School District is expected to seek approval from the planning board for the project later this month. The district wants to open the school in Sept. 2012.

Board Member Franz Kautz was the first to criticize the plans, attacking the provisions for picking up students at the end of their school day.

“I live near the Stackpole (Elementary) School and at 3:15 it's chaos," he said.  "This is going to be worse. You're going to have horrible traffic jams.”

Colleague Lou Ann Hingley pointed out that such a problem would only last a short period of time, which Kautz acknowledged would be about 10-15 minutes.

“It's not like it's going to cause havoc for 12 hours,” she said.

Project consultants agreed there could be such a problem with 15 buses arriving at the same time. But latched on to Hingley's point that it would be short-lived each school day. However, that didn't sway Board Member Stanley Gawel.

“All we need is one youngster to be run over.” he said.

The district plans to consolidate the current six elementary schools into three regional schools, with the Region 1 facility to be located at the site of the former Davis Elementary School, at 475 Maple Ave.

The Region 1 school would have three wings, with two stories each, and include 48 classrooms. There would be a total of 140 parking spots in two areas including one along Maple Avenue. But consultants acknowledged that only 40 to 50 spots would be available for those picking up students.

 The plans, presented by the consultants at Monday's meeting, shows two egresses from Maple Avenue, with two turning lanes added to the roadway. One egress toward the west would be strictly for buses; the other for cars only. The cars would have to wind their way through the parking lot along the front of the school.

Kautz suggested creating an egress at the northeast corner of the 13-acre property, at Lynn Drive. But Project Architect Michael Preston said the topography is too steep, someone has already fenced off the area and neighbors would never go for it. Hingley agreed with the latter point.

“I think those neighbors up there would freak out,” she said.

Kautz suggested traffic backups might be avoided if incoming cars were allowed to use the western entrance and loop around the back of the building.

Project consultants pointed out that the design already includes 34.6 percent impervious land coverage, which is just short of the township's 35 percent maximum. Such a change, they said, would require increasing the paved area behind the school and prompt the need for a township variance.

Board members indicated they didn't think a variance, for as little as 300 extra feet of asphalt, would be a problem for the township.

Board member David George said the district is doubling the size of the former school at the site while increasing parking by only 30-35 percent. That, he said, will not be adequate during special events at the school.

Hingley said that elementary schools don't have that many special events, but George and Kautz disagreed. Regardless, Preston said no school proposal can provide for all scenarios.

“I have five kids and I've been working on schools for 20 years and no school plan does parking to accommodate Grandparents Night,” he said.

Township Traffic Consultant Brian Keaveney agreed that the district will likely get approval from PennDOT for its traffic plan.

Nonetheless, Gawel told the consultants they should provide a backup plan.

“We would like to see plan B ready to go if it turns out this proposal isn't working,” he said.

“It only becomes an issue if you're wrong (with the current plan),” he added.

Having apparently eliminated the Lynn Drive idea, the backup plan would seem to be the loop behind the building, which Preston referred to as a “tremendous mess.”

Nonetheless, project attorney John VanLuvanee told the board that the consultants would do their best to provide an alternative internal traffic plan.

The consultants are expected to seek final approval from the Planning Board for the project Feb. 21., however, that meeting could be delayed if PennDOT doesn't provide comments, mostly on storm water management, by that time.