Sun Prairie Daily Traffic Counts

See below for:
Traffic Counts
Retail Size Comparisons
Retail SIze Limits


Traffic congestion will be one of the biggest impacts on our neighborhoods should large-scale, Big Box development enter Sun Prairie. Below are comparisons which indicate the excessive traffic that just one Big Box retailer could generate compared to existing traffic counts in Sun Prairie.

Location
Current Main Street:		 Daily Car Trips
Hwy. 151 to Clarmar Dr. (Wal-Mart) 19,100
Clarmar to Ruby Lane 17,500
Ruby Lane to Bird St. (Main St. Shopping Ctr.) 16,100


Projected Westside Neighborhood:
Hwy. C between Hwy. 151 and Hwy. 19 38,000 – 50,000
Woodman’s 7,000* – 14,000**
300,000 sq. ft. shopping center next to Woodman’s ? (Traffic counts unknown, but they will be in the thousands)
*Estimated by Woodman’s based on traffic counts in Green Bay and Rockford stores.
**Estimated by engineer working for Woodman’s as reported to the City Planners office.

Source: Master Plan, City Planners Office, Trip Generation Manual 6th Edition – this planning tool estimates traffic counts for a Discount Supermarket to be as high as 19,000 car trips per day. According to A.C. Nielsen, there is higher shopping volume on the weekends and after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays.



Retail size comparisions

For comparison, below are retails sizes of some of Sun Prairie’s largest retail areas:

Kwik Trip 6,200 sq. ft.
Former Kohl’s 28,000
Sentry 35,000
Prairie Square 36,000
Pick N’ Save 45,000
Wal-Mart 66,000

Source: Approximate size: City Planner’s Office, Sun Prairie



Big Box Retail is Massive

Either of Sun Prairie's grocery stores could fit into the proposed 210,000 sq. ft. store FIVE Times
 Area Inset

Additional Size Comparisons

Budweiser 143,876 sq. ft.
Village Hearth Bakery 162,850
Famous Footwear Warehouse 419,244

Source: Approximate size: City Planner’s Office, Sun Prairie



Retail Size Limits

The use of retail size limits has been one of the most effective ways communities have preserved their character and quality of life. Below are examples from around the country:

City Retails Size Limit Population
Brookside Neighborhood, Kansas City, MO 10,000 sq. ft.
25,000 for grocery stores		  
Boxborough, MA 25,000 sq. ft. 3,343
Hailey, ID 36,000 3,687
North Elba, NY 40,000 7,870
Ashland, OR 45,000 23,162
Skaneateles, NY 45,000 7,526
County of Hood River, OR 50,000 16,903
Walpole, NH 52,000 3,210
Warwick, NY 60,000 27,193
Westford, MA 60,000 16,392
Easton, MD 65,000 9,372
Naples, FL 65,000 19,505
Rockville, MD 65,000 44,835
Coconino County, AZ 70,000 96,591
Gaithersburg, MD 80,000 footprint 39,542
Taos, NM 80,000 4,065
Northhampton, MA 90,000 30,000

Source: www.newrules.org, others.


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