Diamond Centre access could close

Council considers ordinance over traffic concerns

Mentor City Council this week will weigh a decision that could affect thousands of motorists.

Council on March 5 will consider an ordinance ordering closure of Diamond Centre Drive at the Mentor-Painesville border.

The legislation is an emergency measure, which would allow action following the vote. However, it requires a supermajority, or a 5-2 vote, to take effect as an emergency.

If approved, the city would post signs along the route for five days to notify traffic of the impending

closure, according to the ordinance.

After that, the city administration would be authorized to place a blockade at the corporation limit, east of Home Depot.

The proposal comes a year after the city expressed no confidence in developer Shamrock Business Center Ltd. to fulfill a 2008 agreement to cover the cost of adding a third westbound lane on Diamond Centre at Heisley Road.

Since 2015, the city has sought to enforce the decree. However, Shamrock and Painesville City attorneys last year filed a revised proposal asking the city to pay for most of it.

Shamrock, which has built 600 residential units on the Painesville side, maintains that the development isn’t as profitable as anticipated and it can no longer afford the expense of the road, a Mentor official said previously.

In 2003, Mentor reached an agreement with the parties in Lake County Common Pleas Court to conditionally accept a connection with Diamond Centre Drive for limited vehicle access to the Shamrock property, which, at the time, had no other means of access.

Diamond Centre was originally designed and constructed in the 1990s as a two-lane road and could accommodate peak vehicular trips of up to 15,000 vehicles per day at full buildout while providing, at a minimum, a “D” level of service.

The 2003 agreement contemplated that additional roads would be constructed so that Diamond Centre wouldn’t be the main access to Shamrock, and that a future road and overpass from Jackson Street to Brookstone Boulevard would be built.

Substantial changes to the 2003 agreement were made in a 2008 amendment, but the agreement maintained that “Shamrock Boulevard in Painesville would always be the main access to Shamrock Business Center with secondary access through Mentor via Diamond Centre Drive …”

As an express condition of further residential development in Shamrock, it was agreed that Diamond Centre would be improved via the widening of the roadway at Heisley by two additional turn lanes.

“Mentor was not required to incur any expense of any nature related to the widening of Diamond Centre nor to do anything other than cooperate and provide approvals for the widening

The proposal comes a year after the city expressed no confidence in developer Shamrock Business Center Ltd. to fulfill a 2008 agreement to cover the cost of adding a third westbound lane on Diamond Centre at Heisley Road.

project,” the legislation reads.

“In the years since, Shamrock Boulevard and the overpass have been constructed, significant development occurred in the Shamrock Business Center, and Heisley Road in Mentor has been widened. Despite repeated demands, there have been no affirmative steps taken by any of the responsible parties to construct the required improvements to Diamond Centre Drive.”

In addition, the city contends that the city of Painesville approved construction in Shamrock Business Center of a skilled nursing facility “contrary to the express limitations agreed to by Painesville in the 2008 amendment to the 2003 agreement” and further degrading service.

The latest traffic counts, from 2016, indicate that Shamrock Boulevard carries 3,500 vehicles per day, while Diamond Centre at the Painesville corporate line carries 5,000 per day on weekdays and 5,100 on Saturdays, “evidencing the fact that Diamond Centre Drive is being utilized as the primary access road to Shamrock,” the city says.

Diamond Centre at Heisley has a 24-hour weekday traffic volume of about 19,500 vehicles a day and roughly 21,400 on Saturdays, which places this segment of Diamond Centre at its design capacity, officials say. An estimated 25 percent of the total traffic on Diamond Centre originates from Painesville, they say.

Add to that the Menard’s store under construction on Diamond Centre and outparcels on the 70 acre site available for smaller commercial development.

A 2014 Traffic Impact Study authored by KS Associates Inc. confirmed the design capacity of Diamond Centre was sufficient to continue at a “C” level of service even with Menard’s, provided that a right-turn lane into the Menard’s site was constructed as well as an extension of Diamond Centre’s westbound right turn lane at Heisley Road, both of which are under construction. However, the traffic study was completed before the opening of the Shamrock Boulevard overpass and further development within Shamrock.

In December, the Mentor law director issued another demand that the required improvements to Diamond Centre Drive be built. Shamrock did not respond to the letter and the city of Painesville only inquired of Mentor’s intentions, the ordinance says.

“Given the positions, actions and omissions of Shamrock Business Center Ltd. and the city of Painesville … there exists no reasonable probability that they will ever honor the conditions upon which Mentor agreed to the extraterritorial connection of Diamond Centre Drive,” it reads.

“The degradation of Mentor’s road network via the continued introduction of traffic from the city of Painesville will reduce peak service levels to ‘F’ on Diamond Centre Drive, representing a failure of the street network. The citizens of Mentor may be compelled under the abovestated facts to pay for the Diamond Centre Drive dual turn lanes contrary to the express terms under which Diamond Centre Drive was permitted to be extended.”

As of a year ago, the estimated cost of the turn lane was $393,000, and the cost of moving utilities may add another $400,000, officials say.

Failure of the roadway represents a threat to public health, safety and welfare as it will create traffic queue lengths hundreds of feet longer, increase delays and reduce efficiency, create congested conditions extending over a longer distance and lead to fewer gaps in the traffic stream for turning vehicles, all resulting in reduced safety and adversely affecting the desirability of this area for current and future businesses, the legislation says.

“The elimination of traffic at the Diamond Centre/Brookstone connection will ensure adequate (level of service) and prevent the degradation of the (level of service) to that of a failure of the system. … Shamrock Boulevard has sufficient design capacity to serve all current traffic, as well as traffic from the future build-out, of the Shamrock Business Center,” it says.

Attempts to reach attorneys for the city of Painesville and Shamrock were unsuccessful.