The 650-foot extension, which would include a traffic light at the new intersection, can go forward as long as “other calming measures are completed on Vienna Parkway as part of and in conjunction with the installation of the completion of Vienna Parkway,” according to the commission’s recommendation.
That caveat appears to side with some Vienna Park neighborhood residents and conflict with earlier stated plans by other township officials. Excluding the new signal at Ohio 741 at Cox Arboretum, they have said traffic upgrades on the road would be addressed once the extension is completed.
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A study has suggested a variety of improvement options, including installing mini-roundabouts or stop signs. Neighborhood resident Mike Madges said completing Vienna Parkway before making traffic changes to the road doesn’t make sense to him.
“I’m a layman. But I kind of scratch my head,” Madges told zoning commissioners last week. “Once you build the roadway, traffic will come.
“If you’re going to build any roundabouts – if that’s what you decide to do – I’m really confused if this goes through that those (traffic) calming actions don’t occur in anticipation of the roadway being” extended, he added.
Vienna Parkway now begins at Mad River Road and dead ends with a gravel road separating it from Ohio 741.
The township’s Community Improvement Corp. is seeking to extend the road, an issue set to go before township trustees tonight.
The plan is part of the Vienna Center development, which includes a 90,000 square foot senior living facility on 8.8 acres, records show. The final development plan for the two-story, 119-bed Trilogy Health Services’ site was approved by trustees last month.
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CIC President John Morris, vice president of the township’s board of trustees, declined to comment about the zoning commission’s recommendation on Vienna Parkway traffic upgrades in conjunction with the road’s extension.
But he said one reason the road extension was proposed before addressing improvements on Vienna Parkway is a traffic study showed a “wide range of possibilities” that the completion could bring with no clear conclusion.
Another reason, Morris said, was there was no consensus from residents on which upgrades they favored.
“If there was a clear (traffic) impact….and a clear consensus” on traffic calming measures, the township would address on Vienna Parkway upgrades before extending the road, he said.
“We are not prepared to spend dollars to resolve a problem that may not be realized,” Morris said.
The roadway completion plan includes two westbound lanes - including a turn lane - and an eastbound one, records show. The west and eastbound lanes near the intersection includes a median.
That lane configuration could change, township officials said, depending on a traffic study by the Ohio Department of Transportation.
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EXTENSION CONDITIONS
Here are three stipulations the Miami Twp. Zoning Commission established in recommending approval of extending Vienna Parkway to Ohio 741:
•Can’t open until Mad River Road is open to Alex Bell Road.
•Other calming measures must be completed on Vienna Parkway as part of and in conjunction with the installation of the completion of Vienna Parkway.
•The township must evaluate methods to restrict commercial truck traffic that might use Vienna Parkway as a through roadway.
SOURCE: Miami Twp.
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