Planning Commission discusses proposed access road

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

The Missouri Department of Transportation is looking at adding a new access road on East Austin Boulevard that will impact traffic flow in the area.

Darin Hamelink, MoDOT's area engineer, told the Nevada Planning Commission Tuesday that they are looking at a change that will allow eastbound traffic to turn right, or south, at a new entrance point located about halfway between Burger King and the newly remodeled Pilot Travel Center.

As part of the project, Hamelink said, they will install a 4-foot wide concrete median from Barrett to the Pilot Travel Center to prevent westbound traffic from making left turns in that area.

"We want to only allow right in, right out," he said.

"There will be no change in that area on the north side of Austin since they already have an access road," Hamelink said, adding that it will not change the current access to the Pilot Travel Center.

Several years ago, MoDOT told the city that the only way a new entrance point would be allowed is if existing entrance were closed.

Since then, Barry Clark had purchased am entrance point farther west and closed it, making it possible to add a new one at this location, Hamelink said.

"We purchased an entrance farther west," Karen Clark told the planning commission.

JD Kehrman, city manager, told the commission they should anticipate receiving a plat proposal in the future from the Clark Trust related to this entrance.

When the planning commission receives a plat proposal they will have an opportunity to weigh in on the issue.

Kehrman said that MoDOT usually does this kind of project without involving a planning commission since local governments do not have much influence where an entrance is located.

Hamelink said "MoDOT usually tries to have entrances 600 feet from existing signals and this is about that."

"We're doing this to limit congestion at Barrett," he said.

If this project received the needed approvals from MoDOT this could happen this year, Hamelink said.

"We have an overlay scheduled on Austin this year and it would be nice to tie this into the overlay project," he said.

"We think this will work pretty smoothly," he said.

Last fall Nevada Mayor Bryan Leonard challenged the planning commission to rework the city's zoning regulations and Tuesday the planning commissioners were given a copy of the city's zoning regulations and told to take it home and read it and study it.

"You have to understand that what you change in one area of the code can effect another area of the code," Kehrman said.

Planning commissioner Jeff Tweten suggested that they could look at some other towns that have reworked their zoning regulations rather than start from scratch.

Kehrman said that he likes the zoning regulations in Independence and Battlefield and they are available online.

Much of Independence's zoning regulations have been tested in court, he said.