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Extra Turn Proposed For Hudson Wal-Mart
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Published: May 20, 2008
HUDSON - Traffic dramatically increased on Beacon Woods Drive shortly after the Wal-Mart Supercenter opened, so Pasco County officials are considering an additional left-turn lane into a parking lot entrance for the store.
Not so fast, says Bob Ryan, president of the Beacon Woods Civic Association board. He wants to wait for results from a third traffic count. Ryan wants to know what the traffic volume is once seasonal residents head home.
With the road alignment as it is now, drivers must use the retail complex's entrance on U.S. 19 to get into the Wal-Mart parking lot.
One of the compromises demanded by Beacon Woods residents when the county was reviewing plans for the store was a right-turn-only exit from the parking lot onto Beacon Woods Drive. There is no secondary entrance from Beacon Woods Drive into Wal-Mart, unlike the Kmart property on the other side of Beacon Woods Drive.
The Pasco County traffic operations division counted the number of cars on five area streets before and after the March 7 opening of the Hudson Wal-Mart.
The counts showed 2,773 more cars on an average day on Beacon Woods Drive west of Cobblestone Drive, according to numbers from Robert Reck, the county's traffic operations manager.
Total traffic eastbound and westbound came to a daily average of 2,521 vehicles between Feb. 11 and Feb. 17.
Total traffic went up to a daily average of 5,294 vehicles by the second count, conducted April 1 to 6.
Clayton Boulevard, Majestic Boulevard and Woodbine Drive, which are in the vicinity of the store, had only modest gains in traffic. Traffic went down on Cobblestone Drive.
The extra left-turn lane on Beacon Woods Drive might be in the works, according to county development review records. An April 9 listing on a county spreadsheet shows the turn lane change would have to go before the county's Development Review Committee.
No date, however, has been set for a review committee hearing on the additional lane, according to Cindy Jolly, the county's development director.
Ryan wants to slow down and examine the traffic results after a third count is done.
"Our grave concern here is cut-through traffic," Ryan said.
Some residents have been concerned Wal-Mart shoppers drivers might take shortcuts to the store through the subdivision to bypass the intersection of U.S. 19 and State Road 52.
In the past, Ryan had been among those floating the idea of converting the subdivision into a gated community by either putting up gates on Beacon Woods Drive east of the store or by converting the street into a dead-end cul-de-sac a bit past Wal-Mart.
After he was elevated to the civic association presidency in February, Ryan sounded a more conciliatory tone about Wal-Mart.
Ryan said the results of the first two traffic counts "suggest there is not a lot of cut-through traffic," because the four other side streets didn't show a huge jump in traffic. Ryan theorizes the increase in traffic on Beacon Woods Drive might be the result of subdivision residents heading to Wal-Mart.
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