Special Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting November 2, 2009

0:00:01good evening I'd like to convene um this special concurrent city council and Redevelopment agency meeting for Monday November 2nd 2009 and welcome you to the Elsa city council chambers we'll have a roll call please council member Chang here council member Jones here mayor protim ablon

0:00:23here mayor Potter here and council member Lyman is absent please join me in the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all are there any staff Communications Council

0:00:58Communications oh I just did want to thank the elero police department um many of you know that the elero police department has been involved in the trial of Edward woff who has now been um convicted of first-degree murder for the murders of juli and Paul Rogers very important family in the city

0:01:24of elero who were murdered in 2006 and the elero police department has behaved very professionally during that trial and we're very um proud of the work that they've done it's been emotionally trying time for the officers involved um on a happier note I also wanted to acknowledge y ELO Police

0:01:45Department on Friday there was a 8-year-old child missing from Harding School and many of you got the phone call and that child was found later in that evening safe in the city of Albany and at that same time the alrita police department um were looking actually for

0:02:00three missing persons at a time they were all recovered safely so I wanted to acknowledge um our Police Department for their excellent work and their continued service to our community all right if there are no other announcements um we can move on to item three oral Communications from the

0:02:20public um the we have one speaker Al Miller and for those of you who are not familiar with our speaker timer we have a lighting system up at the front when the light turns green you can begin your speech you you'll have three minutes when it turns yellow you'll have 1

0:02:35minute to conclude and when the light turns red you'll know that your time is up and it's ready for the next speaker thank you good evening Madame mayor and city council members uh Al Miller [address removed] I wanted to take this opportunity to remind everybody that tomorrow is an

0:02:54election day uh it's a very important election day for city of ill Sero because we have a choice to elect a representative in congressional district 10 to replace representative taler uh that office has been vacant for several months now ever since she was appointed

0:03:14to the Obama Administration uh there's not many other important things going on but it's important that everybody get out and vote or mail in their Vote or if it's I guess it's too late to mail it in now deliver their MO uh ballot to their local election office the other thing I

0:03:34wanted to mention is that uh I had the opportunity to take part in the El High School homecoming parade uh last week and uh saw the mayor out there taking pictures of us but anyway the important thing is that is another item that went off safe and organized because of the

0:03:55participation and the coordination of the elero police department starting with our school resource officer officer Caputo but uh starting in front of the high school going to uh Fairmont past Harding School down to Richmond up Richmond to Stockton up Stockton to

0:04:13Ashbury and back to the high school every intersection we went through was blocked off and patrolled by the elero police department from the traffic div uh division uh guy that issues the tickets to people that aren't very careful where they're parking uh the bicycle Patrol the uh patrol cars uh

0:04:34they were all out there keeping us safe so thank you thank you Mr Miller and thank you for the reminder everyone to get out and vote tomorrow appreciate it any other comments no okay we have no presentations tonight so we'll move on to item five adoption of the consent calendar tonight we'll be

0:04:56considering items 5 a through 5D I'd like to move adoption of the consent calendar items 5 a through 5D that's the minutes of the meeting uh the national family caregivers month um Proclamation the um a resolution regarding the Energy Efficiency and conservation Block Grant

0:05:22application which authorizes us to apply and enter into an agreement for a grant of 12 $3,000 and also um item D for the purchase of the replacement type 1 engine for fire station number 72 second it's been moved and seconded all in favor I I opposed motion carries

0:05:48unanimously with those present um there are no public hearings tonight uh but we will consider the next item seven policy matters and neighborhood traffic Management on Rockway Avenue I'm pleased to have the staff make a presentation regarding this important item good evening council

0:06:16members my name is IET Ortiz engineering manager with the public works department tonight staff is requesting that Council authorize the city engineer to implement a six-month trial of a Half street closure on ashbery Avenue the Half street closure would prohibit entry

0:06:36onto eastbound Rockway Avenue from ashbery Avenue we are also asking um Council to appropriate $88,000 from the unrestricted fund balance to cover the cost of the implementation I have prepared a presentation to facilitate the discussion tonight just to briefly go over the agenda I'll

0:07:15give you some background as to how we got um to today's recommendation um discuss the neighborhood traffic management process that we used um also discuss the guidance provided To Us by the general plan uh discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Half street closure as well as the analyses

0:07:37that we conducted to um determine the level of impact and evaluate concerns expressed by the public and final finally I just summarize staff's recommendation so first this is a a map of the area um the area that you see circled is Rockway it's it's basically a one block neighborhood that's formed by

0:08:02elero High School on the North and um the upper Fairmont business district on the south it provides direct access to 32 homes on that block the back in 20062 2007 when the upper Fon streetcap master plan was being developed we um held Community meetings and residents from this large area

0:08:31attended and we heard from residents of various local streets that they were concerned about traffic cutting through the local streets to bypass Fairmont Avenue so um staff at that point did collect traffic volumes on the local streets and found that of the local

0:08:49streets that parallel and intersect Fairmont between kaloa and ashbery Rockway Avenue carried the most uh vehicles uh approximately 2,000 vehicles per day on a weekday again this was more than any of the other local streets that were measured at that time in October 2007 staff received a

0:09:11neighborhood petition um from the Rockway neighbors that was signed by 28 of the 32 homes on that block The Neighbors at that time requested the construction of a traffic barrier to close off the street because of their concerns uh of the high traffic volumes and Associated

0:09:31speeds um in late in 2007 in response to the petition staff outlined a neighborhood traffic management process to evaluate the valid validity of the request um and we tried to develop an objective process um that was um based on Pro similar processes that have been

0:09:50used by other jurisdictions throughout the barrier and the count and the country so here to the right you'll see a typical um type of process um and it's iterative with in terms of evaluation and uh uh when we also solicit comments back from the public um the details of that process

0:10:10are outlined in your or are described in your your agenda bill again we it tried to develop an objective process to determine if traffic calming is needed on Rockway and traffic calming we defined this for you back in July of 2009 when we presented a development of a Citywide neighborhood

0:10:29traffic Management program uh traffic common is defined as measures to reduce the negative effects of vehicles um alter driver behavior and improve conditions for all users of a street including pedestrians and bicyclist the key lessons learned from other jurisdictions are that you should

0:10:47use the least restrictive measure that will address the neighbors concerns that we should collaborate with Public Safety um Public Safety agencies like police and fire we should obtain measurable consensus from the neighborhood about the preferred solution and that we

0:11:02should also test physical measures before they become permanent so summarizing what today's situation is on Rockway Rockway Avenue is a local Street as designated in the general plan it's about 35 it's 35 ft wide which is wider than most of our res local residential streets uh typical

0:11:26local streets are about 30 ft wide so this wider um Dimension can lead to speeding on a street and you can see that there has been a speed bump installed on Rockway and it was installed back in 99 1999 to address breeds on that street however um when we measured

0:11:45traffic volumes again in 2006 we found that weekend traffic volumes are are pretty high they're still at 1500 vehicles per day and weekday traffic volumes go up to 2,000 vehicles per day a typical local Street like this with 30 plus homes would generate 300 to 400

0:12:04vehicles per day and just some additional facts over the entire day eastbound traffic is about 100 vehic 100 um vehicles per hour not per hour per day more than westbound however during the peak morning period when the school drop off and commute times overlap westbound is significantly

0:12:25higher than eastbound we also measured speed and found that they're within the acceptable range 93% of the vehicles travel at or below 25 mph so the speed bump is doing its job in terms of reducing the prevailing speeds however it hasn't seemed to um do anything in terms of

0:12:44traffic volumes we looked at our general plan um and our general plan designates A Street hierarchy um a street hierarchy that provides um greatest Mobility to lowest Mobility for through traffic arterial street is a street that provides the greatest Mobility for

0:13:06through traffic it carries um traffic from uh areas to Regional routes and freeways collector streets provide medium Mobility by connecting um local streets to arterial streets so not only do they provide Mobility but they also provide access to abiding properties

0:13:25local streets are classified to provide access to um to abiding land uses our general plan um has specific goals and policies regarding our transportation and circulation specifically go t uh T3 calls for a transportation system that maintains and improves the livability of the city

0:13:51specific policies includes recognizing streets as public places not only as vehicle routes but places where people live residents meet and businesses exist um the general plan also calls for us to recognize residential streets and discourage cut through traffic by m by

0:14:09maintaining Arial and collectors and it also asks us to keep streets open unless there's a safety or cut through traffic problem and we have and there are no acceptable Alternatives so looking looking at Rockway Avenue we found that um there there is EV evidence of high a high

0:14:31level of traffic um that cuts through the street 80% of the traffic is through traffic it's traffic that's coming from east of kaloa destined towards major destinations west of Richmond Street um and it Rockway also carries uh significantly higher traffic than all

0:14:50the other streets in the area it carries 500 to 1,800 vehicles per day more than the streets in the area that we measured um which is basically east of ashberry um bounded by ashberry yua C View and Lind Street also many jurisdictions um consider a street to qualify for some

0:15:14type of traffic calming if traffic volumes exceed 1, to 1500 vehicles per day and Rockwood definitely carries more than that so based on our general plan staff found that it is appropriate to restrict u local this local Street to low traffic volumes to improve its

0:15:32livability so we we we found that Rockway is a candidate for neighborhood traffic management staff looked at different alternatives to reducing uh traffic volumes on Rockway and we presented these alternatives to to the residents of Rockway Avenue back in J January of

0:15:542008 the least restrictive measure is in uh implementation of peak period left turn prohibitions this is done by installation of of signs uh that restrict left turns during peak hours usually um but this would only result in a a reduction in traffic about 15 to

0:16:1520% and requires enforcement because they are just signs we also looked at additional speed bumps although speed bumps are designed to just reduce speeds they also have a secondary effect of diverting traffic and they've been found to reduce traffic volumes by 15 to 20% as well they are

0:16:34self enforcing however they do have impact on Emergency Response times another option is all day left turn prohibitions again this well this would reduce traffic by 30% but because it is only in um implemented using signs it requires enforcement two similar alternatives are

0:16:55one-way Street which we have several of in the city and a Half street closure this would reduce traffic by 50% um the problem with oneway streets is that uh you kind of end up with a pretty wide oneway street so it can end up uh increasing traffic speeds finally the most restrictive

0:17:17measure is a full closure um it has the greatest impact in terms of Mobility uh for trucks not only utility and street sweeping but waste and recycling tricks as well and it it can affect emergency response times as well we presented these alternatives to the residents of Rockway and they

0:17:39selected the Half street closure as their preferred alternative a Half street closure would be implemented um at an entrance to Rockway to restrict movement into the street the residents considered other less restrictive measures um such as the left turn prohibitions as unacceptable

0:17:56because they would still leave pretty high traffic volumes that would range between 1300 to 1700 vehicles per day the Half street closer was supported by 66% of the households on Rockway or 20 actually 25 of the 32 homes responded so 84% of those who voted dis supported the uh h street closure would

0:18:21be similar in implementation to um a one-way street that we installed a few years ago at Pera Drive in average Street and would look something like um like this it would be installed with signs and some type of striping and pavement markings on the pav on the p on

0:18:37the street itself excuse me and this is just a an aerial view of what that would look like and it's basically uh no left turn and right turn signs and do not enter signs right on um Rockway at its entrance at at Ashbury Avenue the typical advantages of a Half street

0:19:01closure is that it makes cut through traffic take more appropriate routes such as collector or arterial streets however it maintains the two-way travel within the street uh um reducing the speeding effect and it also reduces feeders who could who may cut through

0:19:18it's self- enforcing because it's an actual physical measure provides an opportunity for Street scaping um because it's a physical U restriction at an intersection it also reduces pedestrian exposures to vehicles and generally it it improves the walking and cycling comfort in the

0:19:40area typical disadvantages include impact to emergency vehicles it creates longer and more securest routes it has a potential to increase congestion on collector and arterials also a potential to sip problems to other neighboring streets and um it can reduce on street

0:19:58parking right next to the physical installation and it can make uh on street parking more difficult within the street because people have to make a threo turn within the street to park in the um the correct direction of traffic and overall it'll increased the maintenance cost in terms of signing and

0:20:16striping staff evaluated um these typical disadvantages uh for this specific case we discussed The Proposal with Police and Fire And they support the proposal um emergency vehicle access an emergency vehicle access would be maintained fire um found that the oneway conversion or

0:20:37additional speed humps would be less desirable because they would have a greater impact on Emergency Response times a big concern to the public and Al um is the loss of a convenient route Rockway is historically a convenient route um for residents that are live

0:20:55east of kaloa Avenue and Kensington again it's a route that provides um access uh to Major destinations um including Richmond Street some Pablo Bart and I80 it bypasses delays at the traffic signals on Fairmont and is slightly shorter about 400 ft our analysis has

0:21:16found that if we close the eastbound direction of traffic um those uh motorists that would divert to font would Experience One to to two minutes of additional delay when they travel on Fairmont overall we found that the travel time and an increased fuel consumption and and cost associated with

0:21:37this additional travel time would be minimal this graphic just illustrates the existing route the cut through route that is used um by residents east of kaloa uh they'll travel and we're focusing on the eastbound Direction they'll travel eastbound on Central make

0:21:57a right on ashbery a left on Rockway and then you know travel in different directions on kaloa heading towards um Kensington or um this elero neighborhood east of Kusa with the eastbound closure we expect most traffic to divert um to Fairmont so they'll travel Southbound on

0:22:21ashbery to Fairmont and make a left and then travel to their destinations so this the pass through two more signals using this route so most of the 1,000 vehicles that would be taken off of Rockway again are expected to use Fairmont because of its Pro proximity it's less than 250 ft away

0:22:46from Rockway we were concerned of what these 1,000 Vehicles would do to Fairmont so we did hire a traffic consultant to look at the levels of service at the two key inter sections of Fairmont and Kusa and Fairmont and ashberry the analysis found that acceptable levels of delay would be

0:23:05maintained at those two intersections and that even if you add those 1,000 vehicles to Fairmont the vehic the traffic volumes on Fair amont would be just over 10,000 10,000 vehicles per day which is an acceptable volume for a two-lane Urban arterial and it represents a 10% fluctuation which is

0:23:27within a daily um daily fluctuation for traffic volumes on arterial streets and just to repeat that this this new route um that traffic would use consists solely of collector and arterial streets which is in conformance with the general [Music] plan of course we had some concerns that

0:23:51there may be traffic that's redirected to other local streets however all the other local streets in the area carry less traffic than Rockway the next highest traffic volumes are on Eureka on that segment just adjacent to elero high school between kaloa and ashbery that

0:24:12segment of Eureka carries about 1400 vehicles per day the the other Street uh that has high traffic volumes is Lyn Avenue and that's um South a few blocks south of Fairmont but Lynn had traffic circles in inst back in 2000 um mostly to address speeding but it also helps you know

0:24:32traffic um volumes if traffic were diverted to Lo uh some local streets these would be the two streets just because they provide direct access between kaloa and Richmond however they're um much farther uh from Rockway than Fairmont is and also neither of them provides like

0:24:55direct access to S Pablo or or the freeway um so there're still they're also secur this routes I just wanted to illustrate here what um if traffic were to divert to Eureka what they would end up doing they would have to make um a left at ashberry and then a ride on Eureka and find their

0:25:16way through the neighborhood overall uh staff believes that the traffic diversion to Eureka and Lynn will be minimal home and if the Half street closure is implemented we aim to measure the traffic volumes zica and and would expect that the traffic volumes would

0:25:39stay at 1500 vehicles per day plus or minus 10% for fluctuations we would also measure um impacts on other residential streets other big concern that we heard from the public was what are the impacts to Fairmont and ashberry um we um in the past have been concerned about this

0:26:01intersection as well again a recent analysis that we conducted in September of this year found the inter the intersection would operate acceptably with the diverted traffic however we would more than double the left turns from southbound ashbery to eastbound Fairmont and in the past this left turn

0:26:21movement has been found to be awkward because of the misalignment of the north and south leges of ASP we did sec Ure a safety Grant um that will fix this misalignment misalignment and we expect that project to um be completed in 2010 so in the interim if the Half

0:26:39street closure is implemented uh we staff is recommending that the traffic signal and Fairmont be modified on an interm basis to separate the Northbound and southbound movements at Fairmont and ashberry these are just some traffic volumes of the the current left turns

0:26:59from ashbery to Fairmont are 65 in the morning and 64 in the afternoon with the diverted traffic uh from Rockway we would add another 65 in the morning and 81 in the afternoon again more than doubling those left turns while separating the Northbound and southbound signal phases will result

0:27:24in less efficient operations for the signal in the interm once the overall intersection is reconfigured with the safety Grant the the um operations are expected to be um more efficient we also found that um diverting traffic would extend the cues on southbound ashberry but we could

0:27:46address this by installing keep clear pavement Legends we heard from the public why did we choose eastbound versus westbound there's a um we had several concerns about closing traffic in the westbound Direction um one was eliminating the right turn circulation around the high school the right turn

0:28:05circulation is just it's um it's intuitive for students that drive around it and so we wanted to keep that right turn circulation uh eliminating the westbound direction would increase vehicle cues on southbound kaloa at Fairmont and the storage length there is pretty short

0:28:24it's about three vehicles on kaloa between Fairmont and cew um there was also concerns about frustrated Motors possibly traveling wrong way through the fat Outpost parking lot and most importantly though the westbound closure would add more traffic to phont ashberry during the key

0:28:42morning period when the school drop off and uh commute periods overlap the concern with the closure in the eastbound direction is that it removes the right turn circulation for patrons of the up upper Fairmont business district districts that look that are looking for on street parking

0:28:59and if they don't find it on Fairmont they go around the block and um look for you know make another pass at it another uh concern that that the public is expressed as why Rockway many streets in that area have traffic um cut through traffic that's coming from Kensington we measured the traffic

0:29:23volumes um like I said earlier and Rockway carries the most um by a significant amount however consistent with their classification as collector Street c view Eureka east of CW and Kalisa carry more traffic than any of the local streets they carry more than 2,000

0:29:40vehicles per day and you can see here the traffic volumes on like Village bar Bonnie Arrow are all about 300 vehicles per day um the traffic that stands out again is Eureka and um Rockway is having the higher volumes in the area just to summarize then what staff

0:30:08found um Rockway has high traffic volumes as compared to other local streets in the area and commonly accepted thresholds per the general plan local streets are not intended to carry high level of through traffic and it is appropriate to restrict traffic in order

0:30:25to improve their livability the Half street closure will create the inconvenience of longer travel times however traffic on Fairmont will continue to operate with an accept with acceptable levels of delay and traffic diversion to other local streets is expected to be minimal and we will

0:30:43measure that to confirm it during a trial period in summary staff recommendation tonight is um for Council to approve the installation of an eastbound closure on Rock Rockway at ashbery that um we separate the signal phases for Northbound and southbound ashbery at Fairmont that we install keep

0:31:06clear pavement Legends as necessary to address vehicle cues that we highlight bicycle access on eastbound Rockway as a convenient alternative to font and we create a pedestrian Refuge area right at the intersection of ashberry and Rockway that concludes my presentation I

0:31:26am a aable to answer any questions you may have thank you questions um yeah let's just start with okay thank you bet um my first question is just about the neighborhood management uh neighborhood traffic management plan just what is so you're saying we've started initiated

0:31:48the process what is the timeline for all the neighborhoods in line that want to probably get bedded through that system you mean the Citywide neighborhood traffic Management program we still still haven't developed the program okay I we we have to host a couple of

0:32:01community meetings and then come back to you with with the program so we envisioned that you know later this year sometime this year in December okay and um the second question I guess How likely is the the reconfiguration of of the Ashby and Fairmont intersection is is that definit

0:32:25that's we got the we secur a safety Grant um to do the complete reconfiguration which includes closing off the pork chop Island adding The Pedestrian crosswalk on the North Lake of Fairmont we're in the design stages right now um so we should be hosting a community meeting in the next month to

0:32:44just get input back about the some of the design details but the schedule for construction uh is Summer of 2010 okay and then if and you're talking about reconfiguring ing the traffic signals would that that would be needed to accommodate the street closure correct that's right on on an basis and

0:33:05then once that intersection the pork Chop's gone and it's properly aligned with the signals would be reconfigured again to we would leave the phasing as is but this the intersection would operate more efficiently because we would reduce the distance pedestrians

0:33:23have to cross on the um on theth leg of that intersection the South well it's the yeah the South leg of ashberry right now there's three different crossings that they uh need to go through but by eliminating the pork chop we'll reduce that distance so some of the green time

0:33:42that's allocated to Fairmont can be allocated to ashberry and so on an interarm basis the in uh intersection would operate less efficiently but once we get the full configuration we think that it'll operate um so I guess my question is do you have to re uh configure the signals

0:34:01twice if we do it if we go forward now we'd have to reconfigure it for for one time and then again when the physical I guess the but the this interim reconfiguration would be very minor it's U switching a couple of signal heads and um some wiring um so but yes the complete Rec

0:34:26reconfiguration with the safety Grant is we'll be switching out all the poles all the signal heads All The Pedestrian heads push buttons it's just like a completely new signal okay I guess I'm wondering is that what we're doing now a step towards what we have to do anyway

0:34:41if once that all of that gets redone we no we basically have to redo um I see redo it because we're going to add new poles uh with new heads in in the future okay and any um so my other questions have to do with um the consideration once so once traffic so is diverted to Fairmont all the eastbound

0:35:04traffic so there's going to be more so and I just I'll just disclose that I live at cew in village and I walk all of that every day um for the last eight years I take BART and um or bike commute and um and I so I see this at a very intimate scale and I and I I really

0:35:22understand this intersection I'm worried that um as there's going to be more more traffic going eastbound up Fairmont and then left on Kusa and then right up C viw MH what is can is there was there any consideration of additional side or crosswalk leg added there for the

0:35:39southbound of that right now there's only two intersection or two uh crosswalks right now you mean at the intersection of C View and Kusa we wouldn't add a crosswalk um on the South Lake of Kusa CV only because it's so close close to the traffic signal um yeah and I and I

0:36:00recognize that but I guess is there if is that a huge cost to because I do that every day and I know a lot of folks anybody who is walking to Bart from that neighbor anybody Upstream from that intersection their natural inclination is to go that way and and in in light of

0:36:17trying to make just reducing vehicle traffic overall um strategies that could encourage more people to walk coming downhill I think that as well as potentially um reducing the curb radi like bumping bulbing out those those curbs right there because right now as

0:36:36the way people coming down from SE view 3,000 cars a day um all of those who are turning right can slip through because the the curb radi are so wide and it effectively acts as like a three lanes at the very point of that intersection um I think we could consider some kind of you know bulbing

0:36:55out or tightening of the curb radius there I'd I'd be hesitant to Mark another crosswalk only because there's a safer Crossing at the traffic signal less than 100 ft away and so if you are um as a pedestrian want to go down Fairmont then the safest route is to take the crosswalk at the traffic signal

0:37:15however if you want to take Rockway um just as part of the first phase of the upper font streetcape we enhanced the St the signing on the North Lake of kaloa that c you there wasn't uh signs there before for the crosswalk and we added School crosswalk signs there we could um

0:37:36consider um enhancing that crosswalk again to just make that safer okay and I guess I really would just the this the curb rate ey tightening that up I think would be a really huge amenity and I think because there's so much going on at that intersection and there are more and more

0:37:56people who who do you know I I'm within a 12 minute walk from the BART station I know people even further Upstream are are willing to walk they know it's it's part of a healthier lifestyle to do so but if we can remove those safety barriers such as curb radi that would be

0:38:12great and the second thing is um in light of encouraging bicycles so more getting more people uphill coming down from bikes you know when you come down the hill you don't have any effort to come down you just roll down on your bike and if those traffic signals could

0:38:28include bike detector Loops M and I know that's included in our bicycle pedestrian circulation plan um it identifies Fairmont as a um as a place to potentially use them and I'm wondering if that's something we can ex you know pilot I don't think we have them in our city at this point and I

0:38:44know that I'm always stuck I I always get bypassed by those traffic signals if there's no cars behind me I have to wait through this intersection or have to go off to the side and push the buttons and or yeah so we will be installing our first bike Loops as part of the S Pablo

0:39:00Street skate project so okay but we do have to reach out to those interior intersections off of s Pablo so and there are some grant opportunities for bike Loops so we'll pursue those excellent thank you Jes thank you uh thank you for the efforts on the report um I just had I actually have

0:39:23more than a few questions here but we'll start in um um you gave us some traffic counts and I appreciate that but could you tell me if if Rockway has experienced a disproportional increase in traffic over other areas of the city or in that area during a the same given time period I I

0:39:45couldn't tell you because we haven't really um I don't have historical traffic volumes on other streets in that area um Rockway has probably carried a high volume of traffic for many years and we have heard from the residents for many years about the high traffic volumes but

0:40:03I couldn't tell you if it's disproportionately higher increase than other streets in the area Yeah well yeah I've heard from a lot of people too in different areas of town so it's not really that unique but I was just wondering I think all all areas of elero of experience increases in in volume uh

0:40:23over the years and I was just wondering if there was a disproportion increase so you wouldn't have any feeling on that not no I'm sorry okay um in several places in the report you seem to single out Kensington for some reason and you know traffic is traffic is there any

0:40:43reason why you singled out Kensington only because um when we did Outreach the larger um Community um east of Kusa we heard from them that they received a a large amount of cut through traffic from Kensington as well so um and if you look at the traffic volumes on

0:41:05Eureka east of seew those traffic volumes are um pretty high let me get back to that diagram it's it's here um right at the city limit of between Eureka and kington there's about 2500 vehicles per day traveling on that street um so so most of that traffic turns on to C View and goes down the

0:41:31hill um if you look at the volumes of traffic from just uh elito streets um again they're about 300 vehicles per day so the book of that traffic is coming east of the city limits okay but is there any reason why that is a particular significance I mean Kensington has to go someplace right

0:41:54they don't have a straight shot to the freeway or or no I think the only significance is that these streets provide access to Kensington so they and the sensed Cemetery blocks there's because the sensed cemetery is in that area there's no other direct route for

0:42:10them to take okay um I want a clarification here your report and you said it again tonight your report indicates that 80% of the traffic is considered cut through M and 20% your report says 20% uh is attributed to local Street meaning Rockway itself that means every every vehicle

0:42:36except for those that belong on Rockway is considered a cut through that that's one of the definitions for cut through um especially for a local Street um again it's not does it's not intended to carry through traffic but they do carry additional you know they do carry other

0:42:57traffic most streets do and so when when you compare it to other streets um it still carries higher traffic yeah but I don't understand if every vehicle is considered a cut through then what isn't cut through I mean we can say that almost about any residential street you know if it isn't

0:43:17if it isn't local then it's going somewhere so we're saying every other every every vehicle other than the local is a cut through considered a cut through or you could consider it a through vehicle it's a through vehicle that's going through on that street to access Regional

0:43:36destinations okay um there was a consultant on did did the consultant uh write a report the consultant did not write they wrote a traffic analysis uh memorandum as part of the upper Fairmont Street skate project so that's available in terms of the level of a service analysis

0:43:59that was done uh at the two key intersections they just gave us tables and uh diagrams they just did what I'm sorry they provided us a level a table showing us the delay and levels of service at those intersections okay and but you didn't include that with our your report no I did not but I could

0:44:18provide that information to you okay and did they actually come out and on site and view or did they just did they just do this analysis through information and tables and definitions they um they used the traffic information that they collected as part of the upper Fairman Street

0:44:39skate project and they did come out uh and observe traffic conditions during during that effort uh EV that wasn't here during the Fairmont upper Fairmont streetscape work so I can uh give you some background on that uh tjkm was a consultant we were using throughout that and Christopher T

0:44:56was the senior engineer on the project he spent actually quite a bit of time out here uh uh viewing the traffic and came to the community meetings as well to hear firsthand what was going on so he did actually come out and see the various conditions we were dealing with

0:45:13here okay uh appreciate that and let me see here um we don't the uh the analysis that was done on Rockway was not considered a neighborhood traffic management study full full-blown right you you indicated earlier that we you haven't begun to put together that program is that correct for the Citywide

0:45:41neighborhood traffic I'm sorry are you asking about the program for the Citywide neighborhood traffic management we haven't done that program yet the study we did for this specific h stre closure was pretty detailed um we did like I said I said collected um looked

0:46:01at the intersection levels of service at those two key intersections and collected traffic volumes on various roadways in the area okay so why aren't we waiting for the Citywide traffic study uh to tackle this problem well just just to back up what the work we did on this is virtually the

0:46:25same as we would do had we had an overall guiding policy in place um depending on exactly where that lands but this follows the the typical protocol for developing a traffic calming or a neighborhood this is just a small neighborhood but we did virtually the the same scope of work that we would

0:46:45do after the management plan is in place so this becomes actually the prototype for what we would apply to other neighborhoods if we Implement uh Citywide criteria and plan and then go forward with other traffic problems in the future also I would uh the count when

0:47:03the council gave Direction last time we were here it was to not wait for the plan it was to come back with Rockway separately so that's what that's what step's doing okay so what do we well okay that's fine um the plans you had several options up there and some of them called for

0:47:23enforcement or would require enforcement this being one of them uh what is I don't see the chief here or anything I'm assuming there isn't going to be any additional enforcement at that particular Corner when this plan goes into effect correct or as the chief indicated more

0:47:43enforcement um no I think this is considered more or less self- enforcing now on the day we implement it and the first few days getting used to it uh I would imagine we would have some additional attention provided by the Traffic Unit but on an ongoing basis If

0:48:01This Were to become permanent uh I I wouldn't foresee a significant increase in enforcement and do you feel the residents understand that yeah I'll let you address we'll be hearing from that that the residents understand that enforcement will be required no that there won't be an

0:48:21additional enforcement enforcing this particular well the street closure is actually self- enforcing because it's a physical installation the options that are not self-enforcing are the ones that just consist of um like left turn prohibition signs here we would actually

0:48:37install payment markings and delineators to uh implement the Half street closure so there'd be physical a physical installation on the street itself so it is self- enforcing yeah there are a number of residents I see here that probably have signed up to speak so we can hear firsthand from them

0:48:57their I have project thank you and then I have uh one more question here you indicated that our Consultants considered that if there is 25% increase in the amount of traffic on a street that that's acceptable uh that the excuse me that the people on that street wouldn't

0:49:18notice a difference and then I'm I'm assuming that means it's acceptable uh that wasn't our Consultants um the index or the uh traffic infusion on residential streets is a commonly accepted measure of determining impacts on residential streets and um that uh that common um threshold for a

0:49:39significant impact is if the traffic volumes are increased by more than 25% if the traffic volumes are increased by less than 25% residents will not be able to notice the difference so it's acceptable and that's a threshold you could could use as as acceptable yes

0:49:58okay thank you very much okay I just have a few uh questions because I'd like to hear what the residents have to say um one of them has to do with uh the signal that would be put in at um Fairmont I go through that intersection a lot I live a little ways from there but um I live south of there

0:50:21so I just mostly observe what's happening there um as I go through often without crossing the street at all but the um the the things there a couple things that I noticed one of which I think hasn't been mentioned here tonight and that is the uh students from St

0:50:39Jerome's um there's a whole school up the hills a little Way St Jerome's and what I've observed is that a number of those students walk to Bart or somewhere the bus I don't know where they go but they walk along Fairmont um going from the school on the south side of Fairmont

0:51:01uh somewhere through that intersection and um what I'm wondering about is if you re if you change the signals at that intersection so that there isn't as much time for them to cross even even though there's less of a distance if that's going to have any negative impact on

0:51:20their movement through the intersection that's my first question so with the this inner modification where where we would split the Northbound and southbound um ashbery we wouldn't change The Pedestrian timing we would only change The Pedestrian timing when we do the complete

0:51:38reconfiguration of the intersection and when we eliminate the park chop so on an interim basis they would not receive less time to cross the street what about on a long-term basis on a long-term basis it's it's they would not need as much um clearance time so the time when

0:51:55when the the red uh the red hand is flashing um and we would still provide the same time um for the U The Walking Man time which is the time for a pedestrian to react to the signal and get off um the curb usually that range is it's about 7 Seconds of a time well

0:52:15what I used to notice at that intersection if I'm correct is that you didn't have to start walking at the beginning of the signal turning green you could walk a little bit later and get across which is really good CU there are too many people that cross there for

0:52:32everybody to start out in the first moment that it turns green yes um and so my concern really is that um maybe the first people who start walking when it turns green can get I'm really talking from going from east to west or west to E Yeah east to west or west to east um

0:52:53that they can make it across but the kids who are waiting right behind them don't have that much time because of the people in front of them um already being there so can you address that so we we we don't propose to change that time that time it's it's called the um the

0:53:11the walk time we wouldn't change that time um and that gives the time that's necessary for groups of pedestrians to be able to get off the curb um the only time that we would change is the the time when the hand is flat ing where the the the time that um you're warned that

0:53:29you need to cross finish crossing the street where it starts during the countdown exactly okay thank you and then um the um next question I have is about the way in the interim basis you would actually signalize it if I'm saying that correctly would for example if you're

0:53:48headed southbound and you're looking at the signal and it's your turn to to do a movement would it have a a green as in go forward a green as in go forward plus a green as go left or what would it look like so we right now you have a three section head which is a three circular

0:54:05balls um the modification would change it to a four-section head which would include the the red the yellow and the green ball as well as a a right turn green arrow I mean a left turn green arrow so the person uh headed say Southbound on Ashbury intending to turn

0:54:24left onto Fair Marmont would see that the Northbound person on Ashbury in fact can't go yes because they would have a a Green Arrow and so that they would be encouraged to go uh left bound immediately and um that would reduce clogging on in the southbound direction

0:54:47if I'm saying that correctly yes okay and um then another thing I'm wondering about is is the uh traffic movements created by Schools starting um at elero high school that would impact this area with the change so um I assume that a certain and maybe I'm right or maybe I'm wrong I don't know

0:55:14that a certain number of students and their parents as they bring their students to Elso High School um go through the um are are doing those cut-throughs in the morning and and they'll still be able to go Westbound and that's why we didn't close the westbound Direction

0:55:34they can still travel down the hill in the westbound direction to drop off um their students at Elsa okay I guess I said that wrong I'm assuming that they do it the other way that they come down I I think I got my directions wrong there they let's say they live on um cvu

0:55:53for example and they're taking their uh student to elero high school so they come um so they cut through on Rockway currently and they go then by elero High School drop off their student and then they want to head back home so they go up Eureka Kusa seie or let's say they're

0:56:14from Kensington they would do the same thing so they can yeah they can still okay so I'm wondering um what's what you would predict would happen happen to those students and you know those cars um with this change that's being proposed well they would still be able

0:56:36to uh drive around the block in in the um in the direction that you just described they can travel westbound on Rockway down the hill drop their students off um in front of the high school on Ashbury make a right turn on yureka and then a right turn on kaoa back up the hill so in the um somehow

0:56:59I'm missing a direction would seem like some one of the directions they're going to be not they're going to be running into the problem of the half closure so the eastbound direction would be closed so for those parents right now that say that drop off their students at the high

0:57:15school on ashberry and then make some a a U-turn or a turn around in the onsite drop off area that and come back up the hill um I mean come Southbound on ashbery and would normally turn left onto Rockway up the hill they can't do that they'd have to go so what do you

0:57:33think you're going to do is I guess my question I think if if you live in that area uh you you probably do the right turn circulation I think I said it correct I may have halfway said it correctly before I these are the people who drop if I can explain it a different

0:57:50way these are the people who Dro their kids off on the west side of Ashbury I think okay okay so they're going to run into the half closure right mhm okay what do you think that they're going to do I envisioned that they would go to Fairmont so they travel the 200 ft um

0:58:12South to Fairmont and make the left turn on onto that street and then go back up the hill um okay um and let's see if I had a question still um I think that may answer have answered my questions actually thank you okay I have one question okay I was wondering um what you would measure and

0:58:39how often and what your criteria would be during the six months when you were making the decision whether retaining the Half street closure or not well I envisioned taking counts once um probably um 30 30 days after it was implemented and seeing what what the count showed um but actually I'd count

0:59:01before i' count right before it was implemented and right after it was implemented so we take a new Baseline because traffic volumes have decreased recently in the area so would you be taking any um information on safety statistics or um having to check in with the neighbors or

0:59:22any other we can definitely do that we I would talk to our Police Department um and just um touch base with them because they're out there regularly um we could hold a Comm another community meeting get get feedback but I also intend to be out there um looking at the intersection

0:59:39operations um at Fairmont and ashbery and Fairmont andoa so I guess one followup point is um the way that that decision is going to be made because tonight we're being asked to consider this as one possible alternative ative as a way to address this problem and

0:59:57we're asking to make this decision for six months so would this come back to the council at the time um of that checkin that's correct after the six months um we might do some tweaking in terms of signing and striping uh we'd come back to council report um our observations in terms of traffic

1:00:16congestion um diversion to local streets and um either recommend that additional measures be taken to uh to address some of the impacts of the closure or um report back in saying that the some of the impacts are significant and can't be um mitigated um ultimately this will we

1:00:37will need to um file an environmental document a squa document um you making findings about the impacts of the Half street closure so um we would we would do that and present that to council um okay well I think we can open it now up to public comment I don't know how many speakers

1:01:00we have but we have six speakers okay excellent and please keep your comments to three minutes or less and if others have already expressed the idea that you have you can summarize and reiterate your support so let's go ahead andar from the community Carolyn Haida short here mayor Potter council

1:01:23members I'm carollyn ha [address removed] please vote Yes on this Rockway proposal when we were here in July at the console meeting there was a question that came from one of you that said um the 2,000 cars is it for 24 hours and the answer is yes but you have to look

1:01:42at the 2,000 cars in a different kind of way um if you look Monday through Friday from 7: a.m. to 8:00 P.M the traffic volume averages 131 cars per hour with the exception of one hour which is 84 Vehicles the volumes range from 92 to 192 vehicles per hour that's basically

1:02:0413 hours a day with an average volume of 17 thou 171 so it makes you look at the perspective of the 2000 a little bit differ differently because that majority of time is within of cars is within that 13-hour block I hope you agree that this is too much traffic for our little Street one

1:02:26block street we're not asking other people to do anything that we're not willing to do I mean it's an inconvenience a little bit for us because we'll be taking the the stop lights coming down Rockway and half of us will be making u-turns to park in front of our house

1:02:43but we're willing to do that to improve the safety on our street uh lastly I'd like to thank IET we've been working with her since uh October and she's uh put a lot of effort into this and she's kept the lines of communication open for us for two years so we really appreciate

1:03:02the effort of that so please vote Yes on this Rockway proposal thank you Margaret breeding hi Margaret breeding [address removed] please vote Yes on the Rockway proposal for neighborhood safety Rockway is a one block long residential street based on the 32 residential homes on

1:03:33Rockway Avenue we should carry between 3 to 400 cars per day according to a city traffic study completed in 2007 Rockway services in excess of 2,000 cars per day this is over five times greater than the acceptable standard the extra volume of cars on our our cars on our street makes

1:03:57it unsafe Rockway has 17 children 15 pets and several elderly mixing young children pets and Senior residents with this kind of traffic volume is a recipe for disaster my son and I cross Rockway Avenue every morning and afternoon as he attends Harding our local elementary

1:04:20school crossing Rockway is not safe sometimes it takes several minutes just to cross the street often times we will start out having looked left and right only to be brushed back to the sidewalk because a car has turned the corner and is coming quickly and not paying

1:04:40attention the volume of cars that travel on Rockway makes crossing our street a safety hazard approving a Half street closure would decrease the volume of cars by one half thus making our street much safer and the potential for a deadly accident to be cut in half during

1:04:58the summer months the children on our block gather outside to play in the evening this promotes a sense of community and is a deterrent for Crime on our street but due to the high traffic volumes it is very difficult it is unsafe to back out of a driveway on Rockway cross the street and get in and

1:05:16out of a parked car as too many cars travel up and down our street two years ago a resident on our street was was hit by a car getting into her vehicle a police report was filed nothing came of it it's just a matter of time before a fatal accident will occur why should

1:05:33families on Rockway suffer and be consistently exposed to safety hazards because other cars are in a hurry and want to avoid traffic lights by cutting through our street you cannot justify convenience laziness or being in a hurry for reasons to compromise safety several

1:05:51years ago our neighborhood tried to address safety by having a a speed bump in installed it did not improve safety the next logical step for safety is a Half street closer closure please vote Yes on the Rockway proposal thank you thank you Rachel tan good evening my name is Rachel T and

1:06:21I'm a resident at [address removed] and I'm here to ask you to vote Yes on the Rockway proposal I'm concerned about the eminent danger for my 2 and a half-year-old daughter due to the high amount of traffic on her street as a presentation showed a 500% increase over expected

1:06:40traffic volume is just not acceptable for our small block our quality of life has already been impacted by the tear down in building of the new elero high school as well as the delinquent activities that come with living near students I'm weary of the possibility of

1:06:55Porta Middle School temporarily moving to the high school campus and quite tired of not being able to back out of my driveway for anywhere from 5 to 7 Minutes due to the high volume of traffic on our street we constantly hear the rumbling of cars and trucks at all

1:07:10hours throughout the day Ed night and are looking for a simple elegant solution to the traffic problem as elected officials we look to you to make decisions that ensure the safety of the residents of Els Sero we have been working working diligently with the city for a number of years to

1:07:26come to to come up with a mutually agreeable solution to this problem and believe it has been found in making Rockway a Half street a half closed street we have more we have been more than accommodating and patient while moving through the arduous process of getting this issue in front of you

1:07:43please consider the continuing danger that you will be putting the citizens of Rockway Avenue in if you do not vote in favor of this proposal there are many accidents that are just waiting to happen Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said life's most persistent and Urgent

1:07:58question is what are you doing for others I humbly ask that you please do something positive to help my daughter myself and the residents of Rockway Avenue safe by voting yes on the Rockway proposal thank you for your consideration Thank you Lisa motoyama good evening council members my name is

1:08:29Lisa motoyama I I live at [address removed] I won't repeat all the concerns about safety um but my my daughter didn't make a sign she would like to be safe no I requesting that you support the staff's recommendation for the Half street closure of Rockway Avenue the staff has done a very good

1:08:51job of going through all the different considerations and doing the analysis and we hope I hope that you support it our street closure is also in keeping with the general plan and in keeping with a livable Street for us in elero we I do everything as a parent to

1:09:05keep my children safe and I hope that you will do the same for my children as well please make Rockway safe please don't wait for something terrible to happen before you act thank you very much thank you Thomas van Fleet hi I'm uh Tom van f I live at [address removed] and I ask you to please vote Yes

1:09:27on the Half street closure um one point I wanted to mention that wasn't included in the discussion of the uh the issues at hand is uh there's been a recent Paving of the street that has reduced the height of the speed bump and uh thereby enabling faster traffic um I do

1:09:45brain injury re Rehabilitation research at the VA Hospital Martinez and um I've recently been home writing research grants to help help fund uh research to help help folks coming back from Iraq and I've noticed an inordinate amount of traffic coming down the street and also

1:10:01the speed at which they're traveling is quite appalling and hearing the numbers of uh of cars that come by is just uh an indication of the likelihood of of an imminent um uh catastrophe or injury um so I just encourage you again to consider the facts in the data and vote

1:10:18Yes on the Half street closure thank you Alysa good evening I'm Alisa cretti I live at [address removed] um first of all I wanted to thank IET for all of the hard work in preparing the report we all really appreciate it on Rockway um I'm here to ask you to vote Yes on the proposal for

1:10:48the Half street closure I'm one of the residents who's been making phone calls and writing letters since we moved on to the Block in 2002 um I did send copies of a letter that I addressed to um Janet ableson back in 2002 I sent a copy to all of you um I just want to add a few things um I

1:11:10want to um uh just support what Margaret reading said about it taking several minutes sometimes to cross the street and as a parent of a 10-year-old and a six-year-old who were here earlier I can say that my stress level anytime I'm out on the sidewalk with my children is way

1:11:29up um I've difficulty pulling out of my driveway and parking it can take several minutes to pull out of the driveway it's very stressful I'm the person that was hit entering my car on the driver's side a couple of years ago um and then I just wanted to say um in answer to some of the questions

1:11:50earlier yes we clearly understand The Proposal we understand that there won't be any enforcement um and my understanding is that um while many local streets have cut through traffic we have a proportionately higher amount than other local streets um so finally I

1:12:11just again want to ask you to vote Yes on the proposal and um in doing so you would be sending a message that you're valuing safety and community over the convenience of drivers thank you thank you Wy Osborne hello I'm Wy Osborne I live on cie uh I also Advocate that you vote Yes

1:12:40on it and I did just want to mention again that uh currently when the cars use that street is a cut through and if they're going up to Kensington to taking C viw for example they take a right and then they take a left and the left usually there's a fair amount of traffic

1:12:55that buffers the speed by which they can make that turn so for people crossing the street um on the uh kza going from one side of going along Kusa Crossing SE view it's not much of an issue it's it's there although the street is wide there you can cross it safely and you can see

1:13:18the cars most of the cars that are coming there because they're coming from the left it seems like when I walked majority this is going to change that most of the cars now are going to be coming from they're going to be making right hand turns up CBU coming up through the collector of fermont making

1:13:34a ride on CV that turn right there is a very wide one and it's curved and I see cars all the time just zip around it and it's going to make that crossing a little more it's going to make it hazardous potentially so I just want to Advocate that that's looked at and

1:13:52studied at during this six-month period and that that's a a consideration that that intersection isn't made uh hazardous because of the number of cars that are now taking uh right-hand turns around the curve thank you thanks no other speakers okay um I did want to thank everyone for coming

1:14:14out tonight and um I'd like to hear a little bit more about the paving and the speed hump but I did want to read from the staff report uh regarding the speed hump being installed in 1999 so those of you who may have come to the neighborhood after that may not have a perspective on the

1:14:31impact that speed hump has had but surveys conducted in February 2008 revealed that the speed hump has reduced the prevailing speed to acceptable levels with 85% of vehicles traveling at or below 24 mil an hour and 93% of vehicles traveling below the speed limit

1:14:49of 25 miles an hour so I just wanted to let you know that that is what the surveys indicate I don't know if we have any more recent data but I am interested to hear the impact that the street Paving which is very recent might have had on the height of the speed

1:15:08bump the street surfacing we put there is about a half inch to 5/8 of an inch thick typically and it may have bunched up a little bit up against the foot of that speed hump um typically we don't um try to redo the speed humps with only that fairly thin layer of pavement

1:15:29although the speed humps are only 4 in or so high so uh 5/8 of an inch does reduce it a little bit and shorten it as well as lower the height we typically haven't um as part of the paving program contemplated re uh redoing speed umps as we would with a an overlay where we're

1:15:49adding an inch or two to the street uh we could certainly take a look at that at least fold it into the measurements we're doing here I was sitting here thinking if there was some sort of coding treatment we could apply to the speed hump to bring the whole thing up

1:16:05but that that's kind of problematic to uh as far as just doing that payment treatment for such a small area like that so coming into the meeting I had no plans to to alter the speed HP beyond what we've done with the paving but we could certainly take a look at that and

1:16:21see if that maybe has an effect on the speeds at the same time we're checking the volumes great thanks um so having heard comments i' like to bring it back for discussion of the item and a decision so you okay um I just like to start out with a question about that

1:16:39wide turn that was mentioned by a couple of people and I'm not familiar with the turn but I wonder if you have a comment on it I mean I'm familiar with the term but I'm not familiar with the details of the wideness okay um so I think council member Chang elel was concerned about that right turn

1:17:00earlier um but it's if we're coming from Fairmont you make a left on Kusa um within a couple hundred feet you have to make a right turn onto C View and it's that uh Southeast Corner that is the concern so we could look at the radius of that um corner and U see if there's

1:17:19any room for improvement or tightening the radius or other enhancements um okay that that's the main thing um I think pretty much everybody here tonight is in favor that's spoken has been in favor of um this project I did get a couple of comments from people who

1:17:42were Upstream who had other uh who were not in favor of this but it would seem to me that um the six-month test is a good way to find out what happened happens um and give us an opportunity to look at it without uh investing an enormous amount of money or time um in

1:18:03researching that and um given what I understand about um our our general plan and the different uh criteria for the different types of Street designations um you know ranging from neighborhoods serving streets to arterials um that would this uh what's being proposed would in fact fit very

1:18:26well within what the intention of our general plan is and I like that uh and I like that you brought it back to the general plan and your report is too um so I find that um I like this suggestion and um I also want to express my um uh appreciation of the patience of that

1:18:49neighborhood in um in um hanging in there with a pro with a process that took quite a long time um I also appreciate the uh detail work that staff did because I think it's really important in stuff like this to get it right so I think when you take that extra time to get things done right uh

1:19:10that it does make a difference I think we're looking at a project that I think just got finished on the Bay Bridge where they um kind of went the other way um and got it done really fast and then there was a problem so we don't want really want that to happen here so I'm

1:19:25um very pleased at the time you've taken and the very thorough job you've done of presenting the data um in this report and I'm really glad we have our own traffic engineer that thank you for being part of our team um with that that concludes my comments um I did have a quick follow-up

1:19:46question about the ash um Ashbury and Fairmont intersection in putting in those protected left turn um signal heads is there going to be a pedestrian lead time for I guess it would be the Ashbury legs of those in like the the Ashbury crosswalks going across um Fairmont because if you're creating pest

1:20:11protected left turns from Ashbury southbound going um uphill are you basically going to allow pedestrians to go first well there is no um crosswalk on that North Lake ofont now nothing now but there is one on the South Lake but those crosswalks um so the crosswalk on

1:20:35the South Lake of fermont would go when the the southbound left turn and through movements are going so there wouldn't be a conflict with that left turn movement um and it it would not it would be stopped when the Northbound um left turns get the green arrow so it'll it'll

1:20:52SE separate the pedestrians from the left turns okay I'm just I can't yeah articulating but as long as there's pedestrian lead time in all of those cases anytime there's a protected left turn that the pedestrians get the first I guess um get to go before okay we'll

1:21:10definitely take that um and I I guess I also Echo support for the community and um get gaining this halfway closure I think it makes a lot lot of sense um the fact that we've significantly improved the safety I believe a Fairmont Avenue I think then merits and it's also creating

1:21:32essentially deterrence from people using Fairmont as much so we have to make a commensurate traffic calming on Rockway so that people go back to using Fairmont and the fact that there's raised crosswalks I think they work really well they really lift up The Pedestrian

1:21:47visibility along Fairmont I think we've the department has done a great job to kind of prep and get us ready for for doing this move um and and I definitely don't believe that you know saving one to two minutes on maybe even if it's a thousand people's cars um if there's a

1:22:09safety hazard I think our city um the more that we can adopt a no fatality no injury policy the better and it's um it's rigorous processes like this that will get us there and I think you've done a echoing what uh council member abon has said you've created a template

1:22:28for setting up the the data and um observation and community outreach and um I look forward to seeing you know rolling this out to other neighborhoods because I I know that there's other communities that um are have these concerns and I would just ask that all the other communities everybody is a

1:22:50safer driver and understands none of us are are you know completely Carree and when we do Drive we're we are respectful of all the other neighborhoods that we go through um and I guess I would like to make a motion to adopt this resolution or should we wait until we get comments

1:23:11first okay let me hear from Mr Jones thanks okay um yes I'd like to again thank staff uh for carrying out a a a procedure of public Outreach and input as well as the residents participating in that I think it was a um good exercise uh I just wanted to point out a

1:23:35a few things here on this because um I had a little bit of trouble with this uh uh with this issue not so much the issue but uh the report and um the analysis of of that and I'm not necessarily talking about staff uh recommendations as much as the criteria and the uh definitions used uh

1:24:04that are that are standards uh you know standards in the industry um I I really think the overriding issue uh in this is there there are basically there's too many vehicles in town no matter where we go for comfortable and efficient TR travel and we see it here but we also see it

1:24:25throughout town uh and I won't go through the list of 15 streets I did last time indicating that um while I've been here in office people on those streets have come up and expressed different um types of concerns about their neighborhood and their streets um so I think that is is one

1:24:47thing and elero is not unique you go to any other city they're having trouble with with uh uh managing traffic also so the way I look at it is we've got more too many vehicles in town to begin with uh when I was looking at this I tried to look at four areas um the

1:25:06historical use of the road which hasn't really come up that uh at all tonight the relationship between Rockway and the adjacent streets and areas uh fundamental changes affecting the situation and traffic on Rockway and what I was hoping and looking for in this was a good and justifiable reasons

1:25:24to improve the situation on Rockway with minimal traffic uh effect on streets and adjacent areas um the historical use of the of the road really hasn't changed and hasn't really changed in 40 50 years that I'm aware of and that is it has been a connector Street to go to uh to go to

1:25:51other places in town or the freeway uh the plaza has been there for 50 years elero high school has been there for over 50 years Harding and St Jerome schools Fairmont business and homes kaloa Ashbury they've all been there including the cemetery there really hasn't been a

1:26:11change a historical change in the use of that road uh the there has been increased traffic no doubt about it there's been increased traffic in a lot of a lot of areas in town there has been in the um and I don't know exactly when this took place it's the late 70s early 80s I

1:26:32believe the gates at elero high school at Kusa and uh uh on ashberry up to that time had been open uh for events all kinds of events there and therefore there was a lot of parking on that side of town the schools closed it and I don't know if it was at the urging of residents or or the city but

1:26:55anyway they closed those two and so uh for those events anyway tra the neighborhood Rockway in particular but also Ashbury and and all around there um had a little bit of improvement during events at ELO High School what's interesting is Rockway is a white Street uh by definition and

1:27:22reported in the report 35 feet it's actually 5 feet wider than SE uh C View and C view takes on um much more traffic on a daily basis than than Rockway I think one of the problems with Rockway that I've observed and I've been looking at this since it was first brought up

1:27:41before the council and before that when I knew it was going to be an issue uh observed and what I've observed is uh many times when I've looked at that walk walk the street Street drove the street looked it up whenever I'd go by is the amount of vehicles parked on each side

1:27:58of the road there is a tremendous amount of vehicles up and down that street uh on either side I think I I'm pretty sure that the main reason is is because a lot of the houses are single single garage and in this day and age families average two or more cars um per household so they have

1:28:20to park somewhere um so even though we have a wide 35 foot Street um it's it's narrowed down because of the uh par vehicles on both sides where I have problems with and where I'm I'm really uneasy with this um is what looks to me it appears to me GL almost glossing over the fact that we

1:28:46will be putting uh traffic into other areas I I find it I I I do not agree first of all I don't agree with the definition that Rockway is a residential street it's a connector always has been even families growing up I had several friends that uh lived on that street and U there were there have been

1:29:09families over the years of growing there and the streets use hasn't hasn't stopped uh can we make it safer sure we can make any Straight Street safer but what uh I'll just give you an example what I uh about um standards and trying to apply them to the Practical uh uh

1:29:31situation we had testimony tonight by the consultant um that they saw no problem in Fairmont absorbing up to a thousand cars a day on Fairmont it's going from 9,000 to 10,000 the report report says that it can handle it if you've ever been there in midday towards the end of the day on

1:29:59Fairmont when you have cars you have delivery trucks you have buses you have uh uh vehicles of any type you see that that's a busy street particularly upper Fairmont and lower Fairmont then we have the school uh the two schools that are adjacent one's right on Fairmont ones adjacent to

1:30:25Fairmont to say that that street can absorb a th000 cars no problem uh I can't accept we talk about Rockway uh residents talk about the fear of somebody getting hit and I that that's always a fear I'm not diminishing that but we're also increasing the chance of

1:30:46somebody getting clobbered on Fairmont and if you talk to the business people there they can tell tell you of uh incidences or they they've seen either people hit or or nearly missed that's why I do like the raised crosswalks at at Fairmont it raises the people up so

1:31:03you can see them a little bit better above the cars and it makes it a little bit safer for him as well as slowing down traffic um so when we get into definitions of streets and and then try to apply textbook standards to those uh definition I try to I sometimes I can't accept them

1:31:26and in this case uh I don't accept I don't accept that and I think during our test if if we do it looks like that's the way we're going um I would like us to take a look at not only Rockway but the other other streets although we say that the uh Rockway local Street handles

1:31:45more more traffic than other local streets the fact remains no matter what classification the rule the the streets are C viw is carrying much more traffic Kusa is carrying much more traffic fairmont's car carrying much more traffic and ashberry is and that does we

1:32:04haven't even mentioned uh Central so uh I understand the local I understand Rockway and and the residents on there but let's not kid ourselves there there are other streets carrying much more traffic and now we're going to throw more traffic on to them so it's I think

1:32:22it's imperative during the study that we take a look at that and make sure that we're not creating more problems that than we uh were're trying to solve I think without a doubt there will be uh more delay at the intersections especially the lighted ones uh than than

1:32:42ever before and right in the in the report it said well because of its classification that's okay people can expect to wait wait longer and it'll be busier but because of its classification it's okay and and I don't think it is okay so those are the types of things

1:33:00I'd like to look at um we have the we have the we have the duty to U evaluate professional and public input information facts and options and apply them to Everyday practical realities and it's not easy um but I think when we go forward and do the testing that that after the

1:33:22six-month period that's going to be the real point of whether we go forward or not that's going to be the real uh test in this and we have to have the guts to either say yes or no after that six six week uh six Monon period so anyway that's my comments thank you thanks um I

1:33:44have a quick secret question before we consider a motion um I was a little bit confused by the discussion of the S compliance in the staff report and I could see where this project might be exempt as a minor project but then I got confused about the suggestion we would

1:34:02then later do a SQL evaluation before we made it permanent and then I was wondering like when would we do that because it's a process that takes several months and if this is a six-month trial so I was hoping the City attorney might be able to clarify that um I can add a little bit I think I

1:34:20might need to hear from from Jerry about what his plan is cuz he and I haven't completely discussed that but I I believe it would be exempt as either a minor project or temporary because it's there is an an additional SQL exemption for temporary facilities that um that

1:34:35may or not be installed and then in terms of the timing um I I assumed that the study that's necessary would be done during the test and then if uh if the decision was made to make it permanent then that would that document would be brought forward as necessary for the

1:34:49council um prior to finalizing and giving approval to make it a permanent Improvement then my question would be the um 8,000 that we're allocating for the installation of this temporary structure does not include the cost of that SQL valuation that I'm assuming is

1:35:05going to be some kind of an initial study and and would roll the traffic counts in so we could really look at these impacts that are spilling out and I just would like to hear a little bit more about the cost related to that well the environmental document would be primarily uh evaluation of

1:35:25traffic I mean that that's really what we're talking about here so it it's going to be a a more concise version of what we've already done it just won't be spread over two years like like what got us to this point but we'll take counts before we Implement take counts just

1:35:41after we Implement and at the end of six months we'll take probably more counts and see where we're at at that point and do an analysis of the um the volumes the levels of service and some of the other um hard to measure things like pedestrian safety and and so forth um at

1:36:01that point we'll we'll use whatever criteria we have available to us to to make a determination whether it's uh any of any significance um what I haven't entirely looked into now is whether there's still an exemption for this project if there really is no impacts of any significance

1:36:19whether we can still claim an exemption for this as a minor alteration of existing facilities or whether we need to go through the public hearing um elements so it it's going to kind of depend I mean any ex project that can claim an exemption can lose that exemption if there's uh impacts of any

1:36:39significance um so we're going to have to find see what the the results are of the analysis to determine which way we need to go on the sqa document I guess my comment is that seems a little uh backwards if we have to do the analysis to find out that there aren't any

1:36:54impacts then it sounds like that's an analysis that needs circulation to the public well it's actually a a these kinds of projects are I find are some of the most difficult to to figure out how to program at the same time that you do SQL because um for example really as Jerry said most

1:37:16of the analysis is going to be U um traffic impacts and in fact if if once the the test is implemented it's determined that um while there are alterations in traffic patterns there really isn't any significant impact on um on the physical environment um under squl standards then it may well qualify

1:37:36for an exemption in which case there'd be no need to do anything more than what was already done there'd be no need for um circulation um of a document to the public for review and comment or or really anything we just file a notice of exemption at the time that we move

1:37:50forward with um making the project permanent if we find that there are impacts then at that point we'd have to re-evaluate um what the proper form of document is how we'd proceed and and and how we would um time that in terms of um a decision about whether or not to make

1:38:08the the half closure permanent okay I appreciate that input um I wanted to make a comment about Mr Jones's comments which is that um I believe that the designation of principal arterial minor arterial collector and local access roads are in our circulation element in

1:38:28our general plan is that correct so it is true that because of those designations we would expect to see higher volumes of traffic as we go up to the most heavily traveled streets which in this case is the principal alterior which is fair amount so I know what you're saying about the disproportionate

1:38:49amount of traffic volumes but I think it's consistent with the planning documents that are at the foundation of the way that we make decisions here so I want to acknowledge that okay and I'd like to acknowledge that uh you don't always have to agree with that and I

1:39:05don't so okay because uh but but the followup to that is it might be time if we do consider a general plan amendment to look again at those designations and make sure that they reflect accurately the use of the street and that everyone's comfortable with it but um um

1:39:22I I would like to also look at the resolution at the SQL finding and this resolution and if you might be able to direct me or if we might be able to craft language that clearly states that this decision tonight we're using the temporary project exemption can I response some some of

1:39:51this discussion sure um so I guess I would I just want to respond to uh council member Jones um assumption that there has been no change in traffic patterns and I think there definitely has over the years particular and this is not unique to elero but schools the

1:40:12way kids get to school I grew up walking to school and 10 years 15 years ago um you know 60% of students were walking to school P for elementary to high school and that number is down those number is way down and and much of our neighborhood traffic comes from parents

1:40:35who don't feel comfortable letting their kids walk to school and that's one thing I would love to see us explore I know we got some safe routes to school funding to do education to do enhancements around schools so that parents do feel safer um but that's it's a it's a

1:40:51societal problem I think as we we've gotten more anxious about you know about stranger danger and increased vehicle volumes and it kind of begets itself and I think much of our traffic comes from the kid drop off situation and I don't think that existed as much in the past

1:41:10um and I would also like to bring up the whole issue of level of service and what that means and essentially I think we're at the at the Crux of this definition changing level of service has traditionally uh focused on um defining the impact to the the environment as

1:41:30impact to the vehicle environment and prioritizing the the convenience and speed of letting cars move through and as we've adopted um climate change legislations to stop to to put a cap on on vehicle miles travel because of the climate change impacts or carbon emissions um this definition is on the

1:41:54books as being as going away as a standard because we recognize that the more we allow cars to move quickly through our communities the the the more convenient it is for cars to move through we have more missions we have more collisions we have all these detriment to our communities and and I

1:42:13think it's important to realize that although it's um it's harder for cars to get around what we're doing is is creating a really nice way to walk or bike along Rockway and I wanted to just echo or or just mention that I really appreciate that you've included the

1:42:29bicycle access allowing bikes to go East up uphill from on Rockway um and um so so those are two my two issues I think uh it all goes back to what are we doing as a city to reduce vehicle volumes what are we doing to encourage people to bike and walk and I've personally seen

1:42:51just every every day as goes by there's more and more people biking and walking and the more that our community can support uh the bicycle pedestrian master plan that was adopted um and resourcing those improvements throughout the city um the more we can start to get at this

1:43:09problem and it's not it's no longer an issue of Shifting traffic from one Community to another it's saying we're all going to encourage each other to be healthier and and use Alternatives when we can to get around right thank you so um just before we attempt to uh make a motion I'm

1:43:27wondering if there could be a draft whereas clause for the squa yeah I was actually going to propose to include it as an additional um uh part of the the resolved section so it would be um after so now therefore be resolved leave that paragraph intact be it further resolved leave that the

1:43:48same and then um add a another be it further resolved there to say be it further resolved that this project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality act under guidelines section 15303 okay thank you so I think we're ready for the motion um I do I did want

1:44:07to add a a an amendment to the resolution um so should I is it a different one in addition to this yes acknowledge the first one and then read yours into the record okay okay um so I I would acknowledge the first one and also include whereas reducing traffic will result in uh

1:44:27diverting reducing traffic will result in diverting traffic to Fairmont um the council recognizes that is important to consider measures that will encourage more residents living um uphill of the SE view Kusa and Rockway intersections to walk or bike to reduce traffic overall uh many residents

1:44:50already walk and bike every day to Bart buses or the plaza and more might be willing to walk or bike reducing the total vehicles per day by implementing the following measures um installing bicycle actuated signal Loops at the traffic signals along Fairmont Avenue and reducing curb

1:45:10radius of the corners at Fairmont and clusa with bul bouts just wondering if we could have a friendly Amendment there sure um that uh another Clause that would um say that it would also make it more um safer for pedestrians to cross Rockway um at at Ashbury because they'll only have to

1:45:35cross half a street that's correct am I I have that right right to cross as where there's the half closure markings the student that you wouldn't have to worry about cars as a pedestrian correct um so yeah you would not in that where the markings are not for half the street

1:46:01that's yeah that's my point so you only have to cross half a street as a pedestrian not a whole street can I make a suggestion that um perhaps that we may give direction to staff to pursue these um not necessarily include them in the resolution we haven't done any cost

1:46:17estimating on them and we have an agenda item for this amount of expenditure on this item I I'm confident that we can get to the same end point but I think um it just might be a little more streamlined if we give that Direction with the approval of this item that's we've discussed tonight I

1:46:39agree I'm a little confused your your comment was sort of on top of mine which was not a cost item well we're talking now about crafting changes in the resolution ition asso the earlier comments would be associated with uh okay but I'm I'm wondering about what happened to my comment well I my

1:46:58suggestion was that we give staff direction to consider safety at that intersection which no no my point is that it it it isn't a matter it will it will cut in half the amount of um space where a pedestrian has to to worry about a car being being hit by a car it's it's already there they don't

1:47:20have to do anything okay so I'm just pointing out that it this project if if approved will in fact make it safer for a pedestrian to cross that intersection they don't have to do anything you're saying Crossing Rockway yes not Crossing Ashbury okay um I thought we were having

1:47:42a friendly amendment to a motion on the floor which involved changes to the resolution so right so and I was talking about the one that wouldn't um so I was just wanting a response to what I said so you're saying to in you're echoing that this Pro you want to somewhere in here yes whereas to support

1:48:03that this project supports safer Crossing of Rockway at Ashbury right okay which is not additional infrastructure but the ones I am proposing would be and um well and but you made an overall emotion right I'm this is your overall em motion yes with that input could you please

1:48:23restate your motion okay so um I make a motion to adopt the resolution of the city of elero city council authorizing the city engineer Public Works director to implement a trial of a Half street closure prohibiting entry onto eastbound Rockway Avenue from Ashbury Avenue and

1:48:43authorizing the appropriation of $8,000 uh dollars from the unrestricted fund balance to cover the cost of its implementation um I guess I can my whereas as I would accept your input that it's um mayor Potter that we instead of saying that we AB that we're doing this that that the the

1:49:06installation of bicycle actuated signal loops and reducing the curb radius of those Corners that they are not absolutely required but that we're giving direction to staff to explore as mitigations to additional um traffic coming from alternate routes okay wait a minute is that part

1:49:26of the is that part of the um is that part of the it's not currently that's why I'm adding it it's it's it grows out of the discussion tonight direction to further explore these um safety features as part of either this project or the um realignment of the Fairmont Ashbury

1:49:45intersection so we have to vote on the amendment before we the friendly the addition before before we vote on the total Amendment or the total resolution well this is the motion now on the floor based on the friendly Amendment and we it hasn't been seconded so I'm waiting

1:50:00to hear if there's a second don't we have to vote on the on the friendly Amendment itself before we vote on the the total resolution I'm going to say that that um council member Chang's um uh Mo restatement of the U motion um took out the new the additional recital and turned it instead into um

1:50:24proposed direction to staff and I'm not sure at that point whether or not um council member ablon is still proposing a friendly amendment to to the motion at this point since it's no longer an additional whereas to the resolution but instead um simply direction to staff to look at

1:50:42those two um additional safety features are you comfortable with this I think it's a different I think it's it's something different um it's a I think if I understand I maybe I have need to look at the arrow here but the I'm sorry but just to be clear at this point council member Chang is is

1:51:05not modifying the resolution anymore there's a motion on the floor okay approve the I was just suggesting I I was responding to the comment um and thinking about future uh change that will make it even more so that people will be Crossing uh Rockway for example to get to school um to get

1:51:28to Elso High School um and the additional tra uh pedestrian traffic will be created when we do that other project by the fact that we'll put in the fourth leg of the intersection so there will be um students will be more likely to be Crossing Rockway to get to school at

1:51:48elero high school or um portal if it's still or in the neighborhood so to speak um and that putting in that half closure there um will in fact um create a shorter distance for the student to have to travel across traffic that's say it's just sort of a statement of that it's creating a safer

1:52:13Pro it's part of the whereas not Okay we okay with that sure okay there there is no more whereas yeah I think I think it's understood that the project would have that a consequence council member Chang in restating her motion took out the additional whereas that she had previously proposed that

1:52:38you were proposing a friendly amendment to I she was making a motion to begin with I was actually proposing it to the original motion not to the okay other one okay so where are we at becoming a little complicated before we vote we so we have the resolution as stated

1:52:59with the squa language and correct that's it and Direction the direction direction to staff to to review those additional safety features is there a second on that motion second okay it's been moved and seconded the resolution with the amendment regarding the SQL finding and direction to staff

1:53:22regarding the bicycle um signal and the re-examining the bull bout and a recognition that there is a safer Crossing at the um Half street closure all in favor I I opposed motion carries unanimously with those present thanks everybody for your effort on this project and for your

1:53:46patience the next item is item eight the council assigned assignment Le on reports and we'll start with Miss saon um okay um first I'd like to announce that um um for the league of California cities I've been appointed chair of the community services policy committee and

1:54:14we be attending a um what's called a league leaders training uh later this month um in that capacity and what community services covers it covers um parks and recck it uh cover covers Social Services it covers um prisons covers a whole wide variety of topics that impact our cities

1:54:39and um then I also attended um as our delegate um The Association of Bay Area governments uh General assembly meeting we actually didn't vote on anything um but we did hear some speakers uh including um Ron Sims who's the deputy secretary of the Department of Housing

1:55:02and Urban Development and he was formerly the um county executive of King County Washington which is where Seattle is located and um they've been very um um key I guess you could say in the climate protection issue and um they talked about the um you know planning

1:55:29and development that we can do during economic downturns and working uh together with different groups uh encompassing more groups to try to build new Partnerships so that when things get better we'll be able to move forward um that was the primary topic of that

1:55:49that and I think that's all I want to talk about thank you had U on the uh joint Powers agreement for the Gilman Street Sports Fields uh council member ailson had a question about parking and I've been keeping uh Miss ailson uh because as Leia is on she had questions from the Park and Recreation

1:56:16Commission I've been uh keeping her uh current on that information we are work the jpa is working with East Bay Regional there seems to be some movement on it at least towards temporary parking at I to the as of today though I don't have a date or a time or if that has

1:56:35been finally approved so um work is being done on it and as soon as something happens I'll let I'll let people know okay and I just if I might like to thank council member Jones for that update then you have been giving us a good update and I got some feedback from the parks and rck commission at our

1:56:52last meeting that they appreciate your feedback and and communication so thank you sure um I attended the uh October 7th meeting of the design review board where we discussed at length the design guidelines of the S Pablo Avenue specific plan until 11:30 at night and

1:57:14uh due to our very diligent uh thoughtful design review board members we went through and really tightened up the language and really made sure that what's included in those design guidelines are going to get us the the vision that we intended of a a livable um walkable safer um and more uh

1:57:38activated s PA Avenue quarter uh excuse me could I ask yeah uh your leaz on so what what role did you play uh in um I uh observed and I think I gave some comment but mostly it was um the the design review board members going through very detailed chapter by chapter on what or I

1:58:07guess section by section within the design guidelines and I have redlined my copy of it if you want to see what what suggestions they made great thank you in the second uh meeting of the design review board October 14 was focused on the Hatland Center and now that it's

1:58:23moving forward it's they took another they did provided conceptual review and now um a more detailed review and the project is looking really good it's um interfacing very well with the olone greenway and um appears to just it'll really add to the the corridor and our

1:58:43standard of architecture in the the community um they also did a signage uh sign review for the IHOP um in north end of town and um and a fence review at the Rose Street or the condos um be behind Rose Park Rose Park yeah Rose Park thank you that's it thanks for

1:59:10the report um I want to let you all know that I have been throughout the year attending the West County mayor's breakfast meeting and um we have have heard a number of presentations and items but a particular interest in the last few months and into the next couple

1:59:26months and Miss abson especially will want to follow this um we've been working with the five cities for the area that is in what the lafco the local agent agency formation commission um refers to as the West County Fire Protection area and we've been working with uh Contra Costa consol fire

1:59:49Richmond fire department ELO Kensington fire department on um the sort of master plan for that so we should expect the work to continue on that and to be reported out probably in January February of 2010 um I also want to mention that the contracosta mayor's conference will be

2:00:09held in Moraga on Thursday so um we're trying to coordinate car pooling let me know if you're planning on attending I ask uh they came come up in the mayor's conference did I read that uh is it Brentwood and Oakley are pulling out of the fire district did that come up by any chance

2:00:32that did not come up and our focus on the fire protection has been exclusively on West County so I didn't hear that okay I do know that the mayor's conference are recruiting for a replacement to represent Contra County on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District you might have seen that

2:00:52great okay so um with that I was just want to take a moment during our adjournment we'll adjourn this meeting tonight in memory of Nina osinski um community development director Mitch oshinsky wife Nina was a city planner for Antioch and she passed away on October 29th

2:01:12after very long struggle with cancer and her funeral was this afternoon and I just want to say that the city Council and all of the elero staff of which Nina and Mitch are an important part of our extended family our hearts go out to you in your time of loss and we're very sad

2:01:29so we adjourn this meeting in n's memory and we'll have a minute of Silence than