A lengthy hearing into whether a 646,000-square-foot shopping complex will be built in Manheim Township across from Long's Park continued Monday, with the project's opponents going on the offensive.
Attorney William J. Cluck — representing a group of residents calling themselves Lancaster For Smart Growth — tried to show a traffic study conducted by Traffic Planning and Design, a traffic-engineering company, regarding The Crossings at Conestoga Creek does not adequately address the effects the proposed shopping center would have on surrounding roads.
That oversight he blames on Manheim Township, whose traffic engineer at the time was John Schick of Rettew Associates. Rettew, Cluck said, also was employed by High Real Estate Group, developer of The Crossings.
"The traffic-impact study submitted by the applicant has a fundamental defect in that the township's traffic engineer at the time they approved the scope of the traffic study, his firm was also employed by High Real Estate," Cluck said. "That's a conflict of interest."
Because of that relationship, Cluck said, "the township did not require High Real Estate to do the appropriate analysis of the intersections in East Hempfield Township."
The plan calls for $27.5 million in traffic improvements, mostly to reconfigure the intersection of Route 30 and Harrisburg Pike. Most of the other intersections in both Manheim and East Hempfield townships would see little or no improvements other than retimed traffic signals or lengthened turn lanes.
Cluck's witness at the hearing, John A. Nawn of GAI Consultants' Philadelphia office, submitted a report highlighting 28 problems with the traffic study. Most showed where the plan either does not comply with the township's ordinances regarding improving intersections or where the plan cites improvements but not the background information to verify the data.
In one example, he said the traffic study was conducted in the month of August, which does not take into account school trips or reduced traffic because of vacations.
He also said many of the off-site improvements the plan calls for would require additional right of way, which the developer does not have access to at present.
Nawn said the developer's plan would make things worse.
He summed up his report, saying, "The off-site improvements proposed will not adequately address the adverse traffic impact resulting from this project" and that the plan "fails to document that the planned improvements will avoid traffic congestion and delays associated with other types of commercial development."
Benjamin H. Bamford, senior development manager for High Real Estate Group, said the study was carried out fairly and it sufficiently deals with traffic needs on surrounding roads.
"What's happening here is they are taking a very complex plan and boiling it down to some elementary issues, and in that I think we're losing the comprehensive nature of what we're planning to do," Bamford said.
The hearing was continued and will resume at 5 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Manheim Township building.
If built, The Crossings would consist of retail stores ranging from 500 to 135,000 square feet and a 51,000-square-foot theater.
A "Main Street" with angled parking and a 22-foot-wide driving lane would course through the middle of the shopping center, which would feature colored concrete pavers for sidewalks and crosswalks and have small parks for social events as well as benches and lighting throughout.
The $100 million center would be surrounded by 2,420 parking spaces and possibly as many as two two-level parking structures with an additional 487 spaces.
E-mail: lalexander@lnpnews.com