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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMP-24-02 - Supplemental - 0200 da Vinci Drive (6) 426 Industrial Avenue, Suite 164 • Williston, VT 05495 Phone: (585) 905-0970 • Fax: (585) 905-0882 www.mjinc.com March 11, 2024 (Updated 4/10/2024) Larry B. Lackey Director of Planning, Engineering and Sustainability Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport 1200 Airport Drive, #1 South Burlington, VT 05403 RE: Burlington Aviation Tech Center – 200 DaVinci Drive, South Burlington, VT Traffic Generation Memo Dear Mr. Lackey, McFarland Johnson, Inc. (MJ) has reviewed existing and future traffic generation associated with the renovation of the existing hangar building to become the Burlington School District’s Aviation Tech Center. The property is within the Burlington Internation Airport property parcel located in the City of South Burlington under the property Tax ID 2000-00000 (600-188-10911). The intent of this letter is to define the traffic operations of the proposed Burling School District Aviation Technical Center, which is the intended use for the building renovations. Existing Conditions For some time, the building has been leased by an aviation repair company that serviced airplanes. This operation consisted of roughly 2-8 employees accessing the building on a daily basis and utilizing the existing 10 parking spaces in front of the building. General Aviation (GA) hangars and the Vermont Flight Academy are located adjacent to the project site to the west and utilize the existing/proposed parking lot area adjacent to DaVinci Drive for their operations. Within one of these Hangar buildings is the home of the BSD’s adult aviation tech program which will be relocated into the proposed building renovation. In 2023, the Beta Technologies Assembly building was constructed immediately east of the subject building and included loading docks and shipping areas immediately in front of the subject building. This project also included the construction of DaVinci Drive as well as other roadway improvements to accommodate the Beta traffic. Detailed information regarding their traffic analysis and proposed improvements can be found in their BETA Campus Master Plan Traffic Study completed by VHB dated January 12, 2022. Proposed Conditions The Burlington International Airport in conjunction with Burlington School District (BSD) is proposing to renovate the existing hanger building to house the BSD Aviation Technical Center. Components of the project include demolition of the current interior spaces, new classrooms, new shop spaces for teaching, new entrance foyer with an exterior canopy, new restrooms, new offices, expansion to the parking area and addition of a bus loading area. The existing airport hangar door and adjacent 12,000 SF of the existing building will remain airplane hangar space. BSD - Traffic Generation Memo - 2 - March 11, 2024 (Updated 4/10/24) There will be no noticeable impacts on the existing traffic circulation or roadway geometry to accommodate the renovations; however, the new bus loading area will provide a secondary access point to the existing parking lot currently serving the Vermont Flight Academy and the GA Hangars. Exterior improvements to the building have been limited to save on costs that are not directly related to the school’s programming needs, but improvements do include the installation of 8 covered bike parking spaces, a new bus loading area and expansion to the parking lot. Interior to the building are 2 proposed bike lockers as well. Trip Generation The BSD’s aviation technical programing consists of full day and half day student options. In a typical day there will be 4-8 instructors in the building and the front 12 parking spaces will be reserved for visitors and instructors, which includes two accessible spaces and two EV charging spaces. Students are bused to the tech center from various schools within the BSD resulting in as many as 6 buses being utilized to drop off and pick up students. The school and busing schedule typically results in 2 buses loading/unloading students at one time; however, the proposed bus staging area created as part of the adjacent parking lot expansion has capacity for 6 buses without impacting the adjacent parking movements. In addition to the buses, some students elect to drive to the tech center. The adjacent parking lot currently utilized by the Vermont Flight Academy and the GA Hangars is proposed to be reconfigured to create better circulation and staging/drop off areas for the buses. This reconfiguration also results in an additional 26 parking spaces which can be utilized by the driving students. The BSD’s technical vocational school program has various locations and buildings in addition to this proposed location. No BSD vehicles are anticipated to be stored on-site at this facility. The school schedule runs Monday through Friday at typical school hours of 7:00am to roughly 3:00pm with some adult aviation programs running until roughly 5:00pm. No nighttime classes or operations are anticipated at this time based on their current BSD programs. One existing and two proposed overhead doors will be utilized for access into the technical shop spaces. These doors are utilized regularly for air circulation in the warm months as well as infrequent equipment and material deliveries. These deliveries typically occur on average once a month by a standard box truck. The BSD’s operations within this building do not require any regular shipping and receiving to the site. Based on the operations of the buildings, there is not an applicable ITE Land Use code and data to use to approximate the trips from national resources. Below is the trip generation table based on current operations of the BSD programs that will be relocated into this facility: Enter Exit Total Enter Exit Total 33 33 80%20%100%20%80%100% 26 7 33 7 26 33 *Trips estimated based on 6 buses, 15 students driving personal vehicles and 6 instructors. * Average Rate = Type of Land Use Independent Variable (IV) Weekday Morning Arrival Weekday Evening Dismissal Vocational School 60 Students * Average Rate = BSD - Traffic Generation Memo - 3 - March 11, 2024 (Updated 4/10/24) Conclusion The proposed use of the building will result in a minor amount of additional traffic to the site. A portion of the proposed aviation tech center traffic is already accounted for today as the BSD’s Technical Aviation Adult program is currently located within the adjacent hangar. The surrounding roadway network including the recently constructed DaVinci Drive and other adjacent roadway infrastructure constructed as part of the Beta Technologies projects, will be able to serve the minor increase in traffic generated by the proposed BSD’s operations. Please do not hesitate to call should you require additional information or have any questions. Sincerely yours, McFARLAND-JOHNSON, INC. Adam J. Frosino, PE, PTOE Project Manager