About 4:30 p.m., Dec. 11, I was returning from an appointment in Long Neck. The Route 24 traffic heading toward Long Neck was backed up. I moved into the turn lane in order to make a left onto Mulberry Knoll Road. The light was green, but the turn signal light was not. I was surprised to see the traffic on the opposite side of the road at a complete stop, therefore, the vehicles ahead of me continued to make the left-hand turn. As I followed those cars, I looked to see why they were stopped. I could see the line of vehicles went all the way to the Plantation Road red light. There wasn’t anywhere for the cars to go, so they were letting us turn, even though they had a green light. This gridlock occurred right in front of where the proposed Atlantic Fields shopping center is to be built.
This traffic jam made me think about the ramifications of a major shopping center being located in this area and the negative traffic flow impact, since we already have congested roads. I have a number of questions that, in my opinion, need to be addressed. They are:
• What will happen if the Atlantic Fields shopping center is allowed to be built without any immediate plans for the roads to be improved to handle the approximately 26,000 additional cars that are expected to be traveling on Route 24 every day?
• Why would a major shopping center be built before the two-lane Love Creek Bridge is expanded?
• What will happen when the summer season significantly increases the amount of traffic on all of our roads and the shopping center will be a magnet for tourists to come to buy their necessities for their vacation?
• Does it make sense to add three roundabouts to Mulberry Knoll road since it is less than a mile long?
The infrastructure is not in place, nor is it planned to be in place, prior to the projected opening of this shopping center. Therefore, Sussex County Council should reject the Atlantic Fields shopping center proposal.
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