2025-02-03 Jim McMahon Testimony

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Application Review with Incorrect Easement Documents The Planning Director's report acknowledges that the incorrect easement documents were included in the permit application. The background report indicated that corrected documents were provided but is showing the incorrect information. However, therefore I was unable to find the corrected application or a separate document showing the correct easement. In any case, given that this error was corrected only recently, it raises the question as to whether or not these corrected documents were provided to all of the reviewers of these documents including the various public agencies and interested members of the public. Indian Tree Road As described in the application.Indian Tree Road is a private road that is mostly paved. However, it is only a single lane road with much of it in deteriorating condition. Other pertinent facts include: • The width of the road is variable but only supports a single lane of traffic. Nor does the road contain any designated turnouts to allow opposing traffic to pass. Thus opposing traffic frequently has to drive off the paved areas causing damage to the pavement edge, the shoulders, surrounding vegetation, and even completely off the easement. • There are no speed signs or speed control devices located along the road. Speed Bumps used to be located on the road but were removed by the applicant's tenant without permission. Therefore much of the traffic travels at unsafe speeds (>40MPH) down the road resulting in serious safety issues to people living along and using the road. This is also a potential liability issue for the individual property owners. • Traffic on the road has increased steadily over the years with ambient traffic volume approaching -90-100 vehicles per day. However, when there are special events on the dominant estates there have been days seeing over 400 vehicles per day. It should be noted that most of the increasing traffic volume is a result of ongoing and increasing unpermitted uses and unpermitted residential construction. • There is no HOA or Road Maintenance Agreement (RMA) in place to share the costs of improving and maintaining the road. The maintenance costs and liability are therefore the burden of the individual property owners and not the actual road users. . • To the best of our knowledge, there have not been any engineering studies to determine if the roadbed can support the volume of traffic as well as type of heavy equipment vehicles which would result from the proposed use. Our house for example is located -30' away from the edge of the easement and is shaken each time large vehicles are passing by. • Additional impacts from the increasing traffic and poorly maintained road include dust and noise. • The road junction with H-19 (Belt Road) is also a serious safety concern. This intersection is located on a 55MPH section of the highway, in a passing zone, unlit, and where there is a limited sighting distance due to both the curvature of the highway, an embankment, and often tall vegetation. Additionally there are no dedicated turn lanes on H-19. Increased traffic volume on Indian Tree Road will thus increase the risk of high