Man, do we hate traffic. Especially in this corner of the Northeast, where folks seldom agree on anything, we can at least agree that traffic stinks.
Traffic makes us late. Traffic raises our blood pressure more than any healthy jog, all while sitting perfectly (dreadfully) still. Traffic encourages us to hate our neighbor, to covet his idling spot right in front of our own.
But when you take a second to consider the alternative, well, a little traffic doesn’t look so bad.
Earlier this month, Lexington Town Meeting voters overwhelmingly approved a proposal from The Beal Cos. to expand its existing Ledgemont Research Park in the town with a third, 150,000-square-foot building on campus. The project still must be approved by several town boards, but the message sent by voters, in a 139-35 vote, was clear: we’re willing to put up with a little more traffic on our roads in exchange for some much-needed tax revenue.
Opposition to the project was mostly centered on fears it would overwhelm the intersection of Spring Street and Hayden Avenue, where the park is located. Currently, the park generates 3,180 car trips at peak hours, and the expansion would add 1,219 trips at full build-out, according to our friends at the Lexington Minuteman.
Increasing traffic flow at any one intersection by more than a third is nothing to scoff at, and certainly the increased noise and congestion will affect the lives of neighboring residents. But growth inevitably leads to growing pains, and in this case, it’s a pain that hurts so good.
Like we said, consider the alternatives. The Beal Cos. is ready to expand its park, to invest approximately $45 million in total construction costs, according to a fiscal impact analysis submitted to the town as part of the Ledgemont proposal. A development company like Beal doesn’t take rejection lightly, we imagine. So instead of investing that $45 million in Lexington, it seems feasible it may go somewhere else, to a neighboring town perhaps.
If that happened, Lexington’s roads may not be clogged with 1,219 additional car trips per day from workers going to and from Ledgemont, but instead choked with commuters passing through Lexington on their way to wherever Beal decides to invest that $45 million. Or worse, the roads go unused, or only sparsely travelled. So the town, which pays to maintain said roads anyway, gets none of the benefits of the traffic, and all of the cost.
And the benefits are numerous.
According to the same fiscal impact report, the Ledgemont expansion will bring in approximately $609,000 in additional tax revenue every year, for an average cost on town services, including traffic mitigation and road upkeep, of $137,000, for a conservative cost-to-revenue ratio of .22. Put simply, that means for every dollar the development generates, at least $.78 is pure “profit” which can be used in any number of useful ways by the town. And those numbers don’t include one-time construction and permitting fees estimated at $300,000.
Nor does it include $800,000 in mitigation payments Beal is offering the town, including $265,000 to help bring Lexpress service, the town’s commuter system, to the site.
The South Lexington Civic Association voted against the proposal, citing in part the lack of a completed traffic impact plan and the fact that Beal has no committed tenants for the yet-to-even-be-approved, let alone marketed, project.
At Banker & Tradesman, despite some occasionally deserved criticism and grumblings to the contrary, we like to think of ourselves as optimists. We think, upon approval, this project will find tenants, and yes, with tenants will come traffic.
But in this case, we think the pros outweigh the cons, that the risk is worth the reward.
Because when we see traffic, we see people going somewhere. And when the people in a town are going somewhere, we think its only logical to assume the town itself must be going somewhere too.
Think of that next time you’re stewing at a too-long traffic light. It may help lower your blood pressure.
