Palmer traffic study underway

PALMER -- As residents and business owners continue to worry about how Fred Meyer will fit into their town, the city of Palmer is double-checking the company's traffic numbers.

Last week, Fred Meyer announced it is beginning construction of a 66,000-square-foot grocery store on Cobb Street near the Palmer Post Office. In order to deal with the estimated 1,000 vehicles the store is expected to attract during peak hours each day, the company is proposing to change Evergreen Avenue into two out-of-town lanes, with an added third lane for left turns, and one lane into town. At the same time, the company would punch in a new road next to Burger King.

This, according to the company's consultants, will be enough to prevent a traffic headache even if the Alaska Department of Transportation doesn't grant a new Glenn Highway access.

Many Palmer residents disagree, however, and last week the Palmer City Council authorized the city to spend as much $10,000 on a traffic study to put side by side with Fred Meyer's.

"This is sort of a matter of due diligence," City Manager Tom Healy told the council. He said the separate study will allow the city to double-check Fred Meyer's numbers and assumptions and, if the two studies differ, allow the city to plan accordingly.

Council members seemed to agree that it is Palmer's duty to perform its own traffic study, and unanimously approved the plan.

A group of concerned citizens who attended the council meeting are already predicting the outcome of the traffic analysis, however.

"We're just setting ourselves up for a lot of fender-benders and a bottleneck," Bob Woolsey, the owner of the Subway building on Evergreen, said at last week's Palmer City Council meeting. Woolsey said Fred Meyer's traffic plan could make it difficult for customers to get to other businesses along Evergreen and while that may not necessarily be Fred Meyer's intentions, it could end up benefiting the new grocery store.

Woolsey was among about a dozen people who testified before the council, reiterating the same concerns brought up during a town meeting with Fred Meyer representatives the week before. The speakers say they want a more aesthetically pleasing building, pedestrian friendly access, well maintained landscaping and lighting that doesn't illuminate the whole city and night sky. But the increased traffic the store will generate on already congested streets appears to be the primary concern.

"The traffic is going to be a nightmare," said Charlotte Sartor, who said she lives in the Butte but works and shops in Palmer.

The city's traffic study will set out to determine which prediction is more accurate -- that of Fred Meyer traffic consultants or that of Palmer residents who drive the streets every day.

Hattenburg Dilly & Linnell, engineering consultants, will review the site, observe existing traffic patterns, review the assumptions in Fred Meyer's traffic analysis and simulate existing and proposed conditions.

At the same time, the consultants will use hoses to count the number of vehicles that use Evergreen, Cobb and the nearby section of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Intersection counts at the Glenn Highway and Cobb Street will be done in afternoon peak hours to determine which way cars are turning and how many are going through the intersection.

The consultants planned to begin the traffic counts last week and to present their findings to the city by the end of the month.

The information will also be forwarded to DOT, as the city of Palmer continues to aggressively pursue a new Glenn Highway access. Fred Meyer's street plans include an extension of Dogwood Avenue, running between the post office and the new grocery store and intersecting with the Glenn Highway with a stoplight. Fred Meyer representatives said this part of the plan would be beneficial but is not critical to their development.