I have many concerns with DelDOT's Traffic Impact Study for the Love Creek RV Resort and Campground. I would like to focus on two points that affect myself and other homeowners of Harts Landing. The first issue is the recommendation that the consultant JMT (Johnson, Mirimirar & Thompson Inc.) made, and I quote from the report :
"The developer should be required to identify routes to and from the proposed development that are well-suited to RV traffic and to encourage their patrons to use these routes when traveling by RV. Directions should be provided through signs, literature, and any website that may be created for the development. For example, traffic to and from the north and south could be directed to use Delaware Route 1, Postal Lane, and Cedar Grove Road. Traffic to and from the west could be directed to use Delaware Route 24, Plantation Road, and Cedar Grove Road"
My concern as a resident of Hart's Landing is with adding RV traffic to the existing traffic during the summer. It is very difficult for myself and other residents to make a left hand turn from Hart's Landing out onto Route 24 going east toward Plantation Road on Saturday and Sunday midday and now JMT is recommending the RV traffic come that way. I wished the person making this recommendation lived in Hart's Landing or better yet his boss lived here and you would see a very different recommendation.
In addition looking at any GPS coming from the south drivers would not come up Route 1 but more likely come up Route 113 to Route 24. Again the recommended directions from the north say to stay on Route 1 to Postal Lane, with the traffic on Route 1 that is not going to happen. Has the JMT consultant ever driven these roads during the summer?
My second major concern is the average delay times per vehicle listed in the TIS report for Route 24 and Mulberry Knoll. I will say I don't have the expertise to challenge the numbers, but common sense for anyone who comes to the beach up Route 24 during the summer can see issues with this report. For example, the report has delay times on Route 24 going east to Mulberry Knoll being less on Saturday midday than weekday evenings and about the same as weekday mornings, which is just wrong. From my personal experience, these delays are understated.
On Saturdays during the summertime I have observed traffic backup from Plantation Road to past the entrance to Hart's Landing, a distance of at least 1.4 miles. This leaves me to believe that the TIS was not done during the summertime which is the main season that this campground will be in operation. I ask the planning and zoning and Sussex County Council to ask when this study was done, and if it was not done during the summertime to throw out the TIS because it does not represent the traffic when the campground is in operation.
James Schneider
Lewes
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