Amador County – The Administrative Committee discussed on Monday the best scenario through which to apply traffic mitigation fees for a Carl’s Jr. fast-food restaurant proposed for construction in the Martell shopping center. Frank Oley of Oley & Associates was present to represent the interests of the restaurant. In a letter previously submitted to the Public Works department, Oley said “the existing method of determining traffic mitigation fees for a fast food restaurant is not consistent with actual traffic mitigation.” He said “this will place a heavy burden on all but the largest fast food traffic generators.” Roger Stuart of the Public Works Agency said Oley & Associates originally approached his agency with the restaurant proposal last summer when the traffic mitigation fees were around $144,000 per year. Since that time the fee has increased to approximately $266,000, or what Stuart called “a huge jump.” He said the fee determination is based on numbers from the Institute of Traffic Engineers trip generation manual. Oley said these numbers are inaccurate because they are based on fast-food restaurants with more frequent traffic in large metropolitan areas. The current traffic mitigation fees for fast food restaurants with a drive thru are $554 per trip. In his letter, Oley said “the current fee matrix does not differentiate between restaurants with low, moderate or high sales volumes.” He said there are a “number of reasons” traffic mitigation fees should be applied differently to Carl’s Jr. He said the business “won’t serve as many because the cost of the product is a little bit higher” and the business’ location within the shopping center means it would not have “immediate and direct access to a public roadway.” Oley said that under current standards, “it will take several years of non-profit just to pay the traffic impact fees.” He said he is “not asking for forgiveness of the fees, only that the county revisit these fees.” Supervisors Ted Novelli and Brian Oneto, who represent to Board of Supervisors on the committee, said Oley’s request to revisit the fee structure was reasonable. The committee instructed Stuart to add another category to the traffic mitigation fee structure for fast-food restaurant developments with lesser trips. The item will be added to the December 8th Board of Supervisors agenda for approval. Story by Alex Lane This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it