Brockway Road Can’t Support Additional Development

Most people that live in Sierra Meadows or nearby neighborhoods, it’s already too crowded on Brockway Road far too often. There’s days where it can take ten minutes just to drive the one mile length of the road. Brockway Road serves as the primary link from Highway 267 to the downtown Truckee area. It’s also a primary link from downtown, and points west, to get to Highway 267, the Truckee Bike Park and sports fields, the Soaring Way shopping center and businesses surrounding the airport.

At peak commute times, the traffic just slows down to a crawl, making it difficult to enter the flow at the Martis Valley Road roundabout, or to cross the street as a pedestrian or cyclist. Then let’s talk about the special events, where the problem just escalates exponentially. Here’s the primary examples:

• Every Tuesday morning during the Farmers Market season, the lack of available parking means people are parking all long the road, often slowing to look for any space that might open. During these times, the bike lanes fill with parked vehicles.

• Every Wednesday during the summer Music In The Park we see the same results as too many people try to make their way to this popular events.

• Every Thursday evening during the summer, traffic crawls down as visitors from North Tahoe come from Highway 267 to make their way downtown.

• This summer, the Truckee Rodeo weekend traffic led to complete gridlock on Brockway Road.

• Anytime the traffic backs up on 267 all of the to the freeway as visitors cram onto North Tahoe beaches, the navigational apps will all suggest tha people exit the freeway earlier and take the West River St and Brockway Road route to avoid a portion of the backup. We see the same thing happen on busy ski weekends.

The Brockway Collective Is Not The Only Potential Problem

It’s a fallacy to look at these potential developments one at a time and proclaim that everything will be okay. With 115 units total, it’s reasonable to expect that somewhere around 200, or more, cars will be using Brockway Road on a daily basis. Yes there will be some mitigation if people choose to walk or ride bicycles, but those are rare occurrences in the colder months. Without better infrastructure to accommodate bus traffic, they will only further snarl traffic.

But it turns out that are several other proposed housing developments on the Brokway corridor. Here’s a quick map:

Yes, that is a lot of potential development for new housing units that would utilize the Brockway Road corridor. The numbers aren’t totally clear as these developments are in various stages of development. But a friends estimated it at over 600 new housing units within the next decade.

It’s Not Just The Housing Developments

The new Truckee Regional Library is currently in the development phases with a location at the Truckee Regional Park. As of now, the proposal would add another 37 parking places to accommodate visitors. Nearby, ground has already been broken on a permanent home for the Kid Zone museum and activity center. This will also bring more vehicles to Brockway Road. There’s empty retail space at The Rock and other parts of the area that will eventually fill and attract more vehicles.

Where Will We Be In The Event Of a Wildfire?

This is an easy answer. We will be stuck in our vehicles, fighting our way to get onto Brockway Road to access Highway 267. More and more, developers and cooperative city planners are pushing the idea of “sheltering in place”. Maybe that makes sense where you have a large parking lot, such as Palisades Tahoe or at Truckee High School. What is available in our neighborhood? Yeah, it is a scary thought.

The Expansion Of Brockway Road Is Laughable At Best

Surely we can expand Brockway Road to four lanes to accommodate the traffic, yes? This is where we note that Highway 89, aka River Road, is the only four lane road in the town of Truckee. They are not a fan. Along Brockway Road, there just is not room for such an expansion. It would mean the sacrifice of several businesses, a large portion of the 9th hole at Ponderosa Golf Course, and some carefully conserved wetlands near the Rodeo Grounds. From Palisades Drive onward toward downtown it would be a billion dollar project.

We can’t just keep building stuff along the Brockway Road corridor.