By Tom Slade | Sun City West
The 1977 master plan document for Sun City West states “No schools are planned for the new community because of the age composition of its population.” Sun City West was designed to be a self-contained community and the intent of the developer was clearly indicated in the master plan document. There is a change of occupancy permit currently under review to allow the Victory Autism Academy to occupy 13950 W. Meeker Blvd.
I consulted an attorney specializing in 55+ communities who confirmed that there is no prohibition for placement of schools in 55+ communities in the federal legislation.
There will be significant traffic issues regarding use of this building for this K-12 school.
This site has two commercial length curb cuts onto Meeker Boulevard. The east side of the building has ingress and egress to a large parking lot. The west side of the building has access that narrows to a width that barely provides room for 2 cars to pass next to the building. This narrow access has parking on the west side, which will interfere with traffic flow in either direction when cars are parking or leaving.
Poor site access will cause significant backups on Meeker as school vans and parents in automobiles rush to get children to or from school. The internal circulation for most of the onsite traffic will be clockwise around the main parking lot on the east side of the building. This will cause traffic exiting onto Meeker to cross in front of traffic entering from Meeker creating backups in both directions on Meeker and within the main parking lot.
The west side of the property can be used for access but is so narrow most would not opt to do so. Egress from the site on the west side requires two hard 90 degree turns in opposite directions in a short distance. The extent of congestion on Meeker and the site is unknown as there has been no public disclosure about numbers of staff and students at this location.
I have 20 years of experience in site planning and traffic mitigation planning; this is one of the worst designs for access to an office building I have ever seen. I am certain there will be a significant number of vehicle accidents on Meeker and the parcel itself particularly during morning and afternoon peak hour.
My opinion is that Victory Autism Academy demonstrated an egregious lack of intelligence and forward thinking in selecting this site for a school. The problems identified are real and will impact not only Sun City West residents, but there will be complaints from parents beginning day one of operation. Just because a use is permitted in a location does not mean it should be there.
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