The Sumner City Council determined Cavalry Community Church could expand to the extent of the project’s firs phase, but not the other phase due to conflict with the city plan and an error in one of the studies of the project’s impact.
“The council felt that the project was not consistent with the comprehensive plan and that the traffic impact analysis was flawed,” Sumner’s city attorney Brett Vinson said.
Council determined the full project’s size, scope and scale was incompatible with neighboring uses in a low-density residential and the hearing examiner’s decision was not correct.
“It was determined it was in error,” Vinson said.
A manual used by traffic engineers called the Trip Generation Manual is used to determine the number of trips at a certain type of facility.
“It’s the industry standard,” he said.
The manual designates a certain number of trips generated by a specific use and the number of square feet at a facility. To determine the number of trips to and from a building, traffic engineers use a formula which takes into account the square footage and use type.
The traffic impact analysis (TIA) for the church was determined by council to be incorrect and inconclusive because the study was based on church use only and did not include the use of other structures at the grounds, among them an education center.
The analysis for traffic from the church was calculated using the total square footage of all the buildings in the project, but considered the entire space as a church use, not taking other uses into account.
Vinson said there were not enough specifics on the education center’s uses to accurately estimate the number of trips generated.
The error in the calculation for the TIA meant efforts to mitigate traffic, including street widening and a traffic light, became irrelevant.
“Because of that you could not determine whether the mitigation that the hearing examiner’s decision required was going to be sufficient,” Vinson said.
Mitigation was applied to church uses, but did not account for the use of the education center.
Council approved phase one of the project because the TIA more than accounts for the church portion of the expansion.
“There’d be no way that the council could determine the traffic impact analysis was flawed,” Vinson said.
