The Algood Planning Commission took no action Thursday night on a site plan for a restaurant and retail space for West Main Street.
City Administrator Keith Morrison said the restaurant is a Starbucks, while the retail space is yet to be determined. Building Inspector Bob Lane said the site plan is still in the study phase as it has major traffic concerns for West Main Street and Big Mac Drive. Lane said the area is already close to being gridlocked and that more businesses could make the traffic issues even worse.
“They think they have got to come out Big Mac Drive to go to Algood,” Lane said. “And they will sit there and they will back the traffic up till it’s clear past the Waffle House trying to turn left and maybe that’s something we need to address. I don’t know. I am really afraid when Starbucks gets down there we are gonna be in a real mess down there.”
Lane said a traffic study is currently being conducted. Lane said the city could possibly put a traffic light on Big Mac Drive to mitigate some of the traffic issues.
“I think we need to give this some real hard thinking about what could be done down there,” Lane said. “Maybe a traffic light put at Big Mac Drive. Maybe consolidate Baskin-Robbins and this place’s egress and let them pour out there in one spot. There’s plenty of distance between the Walmart and that light, the light at Hwy 111. There’s still quite a bit of distance on the Burton Branch light. I don’t know. TDOT would probably have a say on that one.”
The commission questioned how difficult it would be to synchronize a new traffic light with the existing traffic lights. Lane said synchronizing the lights would not be difficult.
“That’s the easy part of it if that light is down there,” Lane said. “Cookeville does all our traffic controls anyway. That would be an easy fix to synchronize some lights.”
The commission also discussed implementing a traffic circle instead of a traffic light. Lane said there is not enough room to convert the section into a traffic circle. Morrison said the developer is hoping to have the traffic study completed by March’s planning commission meeting.
“One thing they are gonna do is set up cameras and try to get traffic impacts during the day and see if there’s windows of time where it’s worse or better or how it looks,” Morrison said.
Morrison said he also reached out about the study to see if the city could pay for an extension of the study to look at improving the Walmart intersection. Morrison said the extension request is still in the works.
In other business, the commission approved the final plat for a subdivision located on Mirandy Road and East Main Street. The subdivision will be breaking down an estimated six acres into three lots.
The commission also discussed updating the Putnam County Transportation Priority List. UCDD Deputy Director Tommy Lee said he wanted the commission to think about what projects need to be prioritized in Algood. The commission will work to put together an updated list which will eventually be presented to T-DOT.
