Board plans for new middle school traffic
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

ALLENTOWN — The Board of Education voted unanimously at its Sept. 21 meeting to commission a traffic study for the new middle school.

The board’s engineers, Van Cleef Engineering Associates, of Robbinsville, will conduct the study for the school on Ellisdale Road, which should open in September 2007.

With regard to managing traffic at the new school, Township Committeeman Stephen Fleischacker, liaison to the board, said the school could have an access driveway off Route 539. However, such a driveway would run through part of the Winchester Estates subdivision that’s alongside the school.

An access driveway off Route 539 would also have to run through a lot that has already been sold, according to board President Jeanette Bressi.

Fleischacker said other possible access points for a driveway off Route 539 are parcels of land that are in the farmland preservation program. Creating access to the school through these properties would require an act on the part of the governor that would allow the transfer of the preserved acreage elsewhere in the township.

The board could also create access through nearby wetlands. Fleischacker said it is possible to put a driveway through the wetlands if a mitigation project is done elsewhere in the township to replace the used wetlands at a 3-to-1 ratio.

Fleischacker said safety is at the heart of the issue. He said no engineer could tell the board one access option is “definitely safer” than another. However, he said an engineer could provide an assessment based on a traffic count.

According to Fleischacker, a traffic count would be based on projections such as the changes that would be made at Ellisdale Road despite whether or not there is an access driveway to Route 539. The count would also take into consideration possible changes in traffic at Winchester Estates, both with and without an access driveway.

“It comes down to common sense,” Fleischacker said. “What you think when the numbers are thrown at you and how traffic will increase in both locations.”

The board looked at an overhead map of the school and surrounding properties. Board member Joseph Stampe said he had been under the impression that the board would have to condemn a piece of property in Winchester Estates for a driveway. However, he said, the map showed that the board could get an easement between the two pieces of property.

Fleischacker called the actual mechanics of what could happen a different issue. He said a driveway would dramatically affect two of the subdivision’s lots.

“The last thing anyone wants to do is take property,” he said. “You want to negotiate.”

Fleischacker said that a traffic study would give taxpayers a number that would influence a decision on where to build a driveway. He said Van Cleef is in the best position to provide that number.

Fleischacker said the traffic study would include information such as when the engineers collected data, as some people may try to pick apart the way the analysis was done.

He said the county has already done a lot of work on Ellisdale Road in terms of data because of its proposed westerly bypass. In addition, he said Orleans Development Corp., the developer of Winchester Estates, may also have traffic data available for that area.

“A tough decision has to be made,” he said.

Fleischacker said the Township Committee and the Board of Education made statements last year supporting school access to Route 539.

“The question is, how do we do it?” he asked.

Bressi was concerned that the school’s future neighbors in Winchester Estates have no voice in the matter.

“We want to provide the best solution for growth in the township to get to the school on Ellisdale Road,” she said.

Bressi asked if the board has considered enhancing Ellisdale Road in order to provide 24/7 access to the new campus. Fleischacker said Ellisdale Road is an environmentally sensitive area. He said that the point of developing a new township master plan is to protect such environmentally sensitive places.

Fleischacker said the direction of the current master plan is to preserve the rural character of the town.

“If you must drive a little longer, that’s the price you pay for living here,” he said.

Fleischacker noted other planned road projects in town, such as the realignment of Sharon Station Road and Route 539, and the roadwork on Sharon Station Road out toward Route 526.

Bressi said the board and the governing body must not “repeat the sins of the past.”

“We have to make sure for posterity that this is the absolute best decision,” she said.

Bressi added that she wanted to make sure people did not use a school driveway on Route 539 as a cut-through, creating a de facto westerly bypass.

Fleischacker noted that from a safety perspective, having more than two exits from a school is always better.

Bressi said that traffic data would be different once the middle school opens, since students from the Grande at Old York and Heritage Green developments may travel directly to school without going through the High and Main streets intersection.

Bressi said that the board would provide a bus to the middle school for every 54 Allentown students who formerly had walked or been driven to school.