(8/16) With a 50 percent increase in traffic expected to come through
downtown Emmitsburg from Pennsylvania, the Emmitsburg Planning and Zoning
Commission is looking for a way to divert traffic around town.
Sarah Franklin with Jakubiak and Associates told the
commission, “It hinders downtown revitalization to have these large trucks
going through town.”
Jakubiak and Associates has been drafting the update to the
town’s master plan under the direction of the planning commission.
The town already deals with an average of 8,000 vehicles a day
going through downtown, but with proposed development in Pennsylvania, that
number could jump to 12,000 vehicles a day. In addition, the draft
comprehensive plan update would allow for 915 new homes in town and the traffic
they would bring.
“Another thing these drivers do is tend to use alleyways to
bypass, which causes safety concerns,” Franklin said.
Jakubiak’s suggestion is to build a north-south bypass around
the town that diverts traffic from Route 140 west of town and brings it out on
South Seton Avenue near the intersection with Route 15. It would consist of
phased in improvements to the roads.
The first stage would be a new road that moves south from near
the intersection of Route 140 and Timbermill Run, turns east across Emmitsburg
Community Park near Toms Creeks and intersects South Seton Avenue across from
National Emergency Training Center.
The second phase would be improvements to Annandale Road to the
point where a new road breaks off to the southeast and connects with the
previously built new road.
The third phase would be a new road that moves south from the
intersection of Route 140 and Tract Road and then turns east to connect to the
previously built new road.
Additional improvements would be made from the Tract Road /
Route 140 intersection north to the MD/PA line and south from the bypass
intersection with South Seton Avenue along South Seton to the intersection with
Route 15.
When Commission Chairman Larry Little suggested that trucks
would still drive through town to get to points east, Franklin said that the
bypass would divert trucks if an interchange was built at South Seton and Route
15.
The present comprehensive plan calls for an east-west bypass
north of town, but Franklin said Jakubiak and Associates wasn’t supporting this
alignment because a lot of the land in that area was deed restricted for
agriculture preservation.
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