2006-01-03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse State and National Register Historic District. Responding to a question from Ms. Hamilton about the Avon Street property, Ms. Scala said it is considered a significant contributing structure. On motion by Mr. Caravati, seconded by Ms. Hamilton, the Ordinance Expanding the Downtown and North Downtown Design Control District was offered and carried over to the next meeting for consideration. ORDINANCE : REDUCING SPEED LIMIT ON MONTICELLO AVENUE BETWEEN BLENHEIM AND DRUID AVENUE TO 30 MPH Mr. Jim Tolbert, Director of Neighborhood Development Services, said that the issue of reducing the speed limit on Monticello Avenue was brought before Council in the fall. He said the area was studied and it was found that 85% of the traffic traveled at 35 mph, which is generally the basis for setting the speed limit. He said staff recommend that the speed limit remain at 35 mph. He said the Police are concerned that 30 mph may be difficult to enforce. He said the Police, with the concurrence of the traffic engineer, think that the current speed is a better transition. He said if the speed limit is changed, he recommends that it only be reduced to 30 mph. Mr. Lynch said this comes up every six months or so. He said there are not that many 35 mph speed limits left in residential area. He said he would support having a policy of 25 mph in all residential neighborhoods, and would support reducing the speed limit to 25 mph. Ms. Hamilton asked that Mr. Tolbert speak to the issue of design speed. Mr. Tolbert said that roads are designed for higher speeds than what is posted. He said there is concern that if a road feels faster than what is posted, reducing the speed limit does not slow people down. He said it could result in lots of tickets. Mr. Lynch noted that neighborhoods in the northern part of town have asked for lower speed limits and have gotten it. Ms. Hamilton said she agrees with Mr. Lynch in some respects. She said that in some ways if we lower speed limits we may not need to do traffic calming. She said she is concerned about getting people to slow down due to the proximity to Interstate 64. She said she would be comfortable supporting changing speed limits all over town, but only after consulting with the Police Department. Mr. Schilling said he agrees. He said the Police are pretty stretched right now, particularly in traffic enforcement. He said we set up the expectation that we will enforce the need speed limit and then we cannot do it. Mr. Schilling made a motion to deny the ordinance reducing the speed limit on Monticello Avenue. Ms. Hamilton seconded the motion to deny. Mr. Caravati said he would much prefer a comprehensive review of all streets that is reviewed on an annual or biennial basis. He said he thinks it is bad policy making changes to individual streets. Mr. Lynch said the number of Police are at the highest level since he has been on Council, and he does not accept that we cannot enforce laws as a reason not to have them. He said he thought there was a consensus to stop advertising radar locations. Ms. Hamilton said this road has been exhaustively studied and we need to figure some way to not have staff do repeated studies with the same results.