City Knew of TND Traffic Concerns

City Zoning Expert’s Email to Mayor Shelton Cited Negative Traffic Impact on City

Investigative Report by Dave Freneaux
    A November public records request has revealed an April 24, 2015, email (see image at right) in which Central’s zoning attorney Mark Balkin advised Mayor Junior Shelton that the traffic generated by the proposed Shoe Creek TND was “not going to serve the people living in the development or the traffic already on Sullivan” and suggested that “before final plan approval is granted for any part of the development” the Council should resolve the extension of Wax Road to Hooper Road. Instead, Central’s City council eventually approved the TND with entrances routing all traffic onto Sullivan Road.
    In the email, Balkin, whom Mayor Shelton and city council members refer to as the City of Central’s “expert” in zoning matters, tells Mayor Shelton and Planning and Zoning Director Woodrow Muhammad: “It doesn’t require a traffic engineer to know that one entrance onto Sullivan and one to Sagebrush is not adequate. Similarly, sending virtually all traffic to Sullivan (whether directly or from Wax Rd. a few hundred yards away) is not going to serve the people living in the development or the traffic already on Sullivan.”
    In their recommendation to the council, the planning commission staff does not mention the email and zoning attorney Mark Balkin’s expert opinion that if the TND’s only entrances routed traffic onto Sullivan Road and through Morgan Place subdivision, the added traffic would be a problem.  As approved by the council, the Morgan Place entrance has been eliminated, and the TND’s only entrances will empty onto Sullivan Road. 
    Balkin’s email was obtained as part of a public records request initiated on November 9. After the city had failed to respond to the public records request for over a month, a public records lawsuit was heard and Judge Don Johnson instructed the city to release the documents.  The documents, including Balkin’s email, were finally released in late December. There is no indication that city council members were made aware of this email and important opinion from the city’s own expert prior to their vote to approve the TND.     

    This newly-discovered opinion re-opens questions about the approval of the traffic impact study used by the city to support approval of the Shoe Creek development.  For any development to proceed, its traffic impact study must be approved by East Baton Rouge Traffic Engineering, as well as the Central City Council.  There is no evidence that either of these groups were made aware of Balkin’s expert opinions expressed in his email to Mayor Shelton. 
    On July 20, 2015, EBR Traffic Engineering declared the traffic impact study for the Shoe Creek TND “invalid,” in part because the Sagebrush Avenue traffic connection to Morgan Place subdivision had been eliminated by the Central City Council, leaving only the entrances on Sullivan.  Central’s Planning and Zoning Director, Woodrow Muhammad, testified in October that he sent an email response later that same day, at the direction of Mayor Shelton, assuring that the connection to Sagebrush Avenue “has not been eliminated.”  In fact, the Central City Council voted on May 26, 2015, not to allow the dedication of the Sagebrush Avenue connection as a public street.
    The council ordinance instead left the street private, allowing bollards to be placed on the street to limit it to foot traffic.  However, as a direct result of assurances by the City of Central, EBR Engineers withdrew their objection to the use of the traffic impact study, clearing the way for the council’s approval of the Shoe Creek TND.