COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Town of Irmo has adopted a new traffic ordinance that requires more frequent traffic studies as the town continues to grow and develop.
"This is an opportunity for the town to be more involved in the traffic impact analysis portion of development," said Assistant Town Administrator Doug Polen.
During the Aug. 20 town council meeting, members voted unanimously to pass the ordinance, which lowers the threshold for conducting a traffic study. Previously, a study was required if a development was expected to generate 100 trips per hour on town-owned roads. The new ordinance lowers that number to 50.
“Our ordinance in Irmo is now 50 trips at peak hour, so we will have more studies more often. A smaller development, now, will still trigger that requirement to do the study,” Polen said.
The ordinance also shifts the dynamics of traffic studies by ensuring the town has input in what was previously a conversation between private developers and the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT). Polen said he believes this change will benefit Irmo in the long term.
“This new ordinance puts the town in the middle of that conversation and helps us guide the mitigation from the newly created traffic,” he said.
While Polen is confident that giving the town a stronger voice will help mitigate traffic concerns, Henry Martin, a frequent council meeting attendee, questioned the town's expertise in traffic matters.
“They want to have a say in the development process and the ability to do traffic studies rather than waiting for DOT to do it," Martin said. "But then DOT reviews it and has the developer pay for it, so I don't really have any big problem with that. I don't know if they have any expertise in that—it's not their expertise, anyway. The DOT is going to review it; what they're going to do is implement it and charge the developer for it, and that will speed up the process."
However, according to Polen, implementing the ordinance had been in the works for some time—long enough for the town to apply it to a significant, multi-million dollar mixed-use development that could bring thousands of new residents to Irmo.
“In our negotiation with Water Walk, we told them, ‘Hey, this traffic impact analysis ordinance may not be in place yet by the time your development is moving through, but this is something we want to hold you to as part of our development agreement,’" Polen said. "And they agreed to that because they also recognize that traffic is a major issue on Highway 6 in Irmo.”
Martin agreed that the new traffic ordinance is a step in the right direction but believes it should have been implemented sooner.
“We have got to do something, and it's something that needs to happen differently," Martin said. "You know, I've been told to work with the process. Well, the process is too slow.”