HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-06-13 Rail Summary MinutesCITY COUNCIL RAIL COMMITTEE
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Special Meeting
June 13, 2018
Chairperson Wolbach called the meeting to order at 8:09 A.M. in the Council
Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California.
Present: Fine, Kou, Scharff, Wolbach (Chair)
Absent:
Oral Communications
Kathleen Judge lived on the corner of Emerson Avenue and Churchill
Avenue. She stated that she supported the guiding principles but wanted no
eminent domain to happen. She recommended removing the full and hybrid
lowered grade separation options.
Nadia Naik disclosed that the money from Measure B was being proposed to
be divided evenly across all the grade separations. She stated that there
could be funding from the state that could potentially help fund grade
separations along with Measure B funds.
Jason Matlof voiced that the Old Palo Alto community was proposing to have
a trench City-wide but if that cannot happen then their proposal was to close
Churchill Avenue and fix the east/west connections on Embarcadero Road.
He stated that there was a miscommunication to the Council in that there
would be less traffic going through Professorville if Churchill Avenue was
closed.
David Shen stated that he lived on Churchill Avenue. He reiterated what a
previous speaker stated in that he wished to see the regular and reverse
hybrid option be eliminated from the Churchill Avenue crossing.
Tom Shannon, 256 Kellogg Avenue, urged the City Council Rail Committee
(Committee) to look at Tyson’s Corner in Virginia to see what not to do in
terms of a viaduct.
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Barbara Hazlett announced that she lived on Emerson Street. She opposed
any proposal of widening Embarcadero Road underpass because of safety
concerns and the impacts it could have on increasing more traffic.
Agenda Items
1. Introduction of Eileen Goodwin of Apex Strategies (AECOM Team), to
Discuss Community Engagement for Grade Separation Alternatives.
James Keene, City Manager announced that City Council (Council) was
meeting on June 19, 2018, to discuss any rail grade separation options.
Rob de Geus, Deputy City Manager announced that Staff was working with
Apex Strategies on the community engagement process, along with the
AECOM team. He gave a brief description of Eileen Goodwin’s background
around community engagement.
Eileen Goodwin, Apex Strategies explained that Palo Alto (City) was the lead
for any public engagement. The Joint Powers Board (JPB) owned and operated the rail lines. Some goals that the Apex Team wished to
accomplish were an understanding from the community of what the problem
was and how to solve it, building trust between Apex Strategies and the
community, that the process be transparent, and several others. She
announced that the team has come up with a draft plan that included a
variety of different types of community meetings. The Community Advisory
Panel (CAP) was suggested to be around 12 people and would meet up to six
times before the City Council makes its final decision in December. Each
member’s job was to act as a conduit for information to the community that
they represented. Stakeholder meetings would gather comments about the
project ideas, including right-of-way issues and constraints. There were
three proposed community meetings; August 23, 2018, from 6:00-8:00
P.M.; one in October of 2018 from 6:00-8:00 P.M.; one in November 2018
from 6:00-8:00 P.M. The August meeting would include items about how
the Council has narrowed down the options and how each of those options
works for specific grade crossings. Additional outreach tools included a
project fact sheet, meeting notices, City event e-blast, press releases,
community meeting sign-in sheets and comment cards, a web page,
surveys, project mailings, a database of contact information, and a hotline to the project team.
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Cedric de La Beaujardiere encouraged the Committee to keep the 10 existing
grade separation alternatives alive until the August community meeting so
that the community can have input on those 10 alternatives. He suggested
doing a broader outreach to the community in terms of mailers and surveys.
Stephen Rosenblum recommended that the ultimate solution that the City
decided on must provide equity for all parts of Palo Alto. He suggested that
the CAP include members from the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
Rob Levitsky suggested to leave Churchill Avenue open and move the bikes
and pedestrian crossing underground, install an overpass or underpass at
Palo Alto High School, remove one of the traffic signals, and work on signal
timing on the rest of the traffic lights.
Nadia Naik noted that the community did not have a chance to review and
respond to the new Apex Strategies team’s process for community
engagement.
Ms. Goodwin declared that she thought that having the TAC involved was a
good idea and that it was possible to include them in the community
engagement process.
Chair Wolbach asked Staff to clarify where the CAP and the stakeholder
groups overlap and supplement each other.
Ms. Goodwin explained that without knowing who was on those groups she
could not determine where the overlaps were. The stakeholder group was
envisioned to include property owners, real estate agents or business groups
that would not normally attend late night meetings. The stakeholder
meetings were aimed to attract business groups on a one-time basis.
Chair Wolbach recommended having morning or late evening meetings for
the CAP instead of the proposed 3:00 to 5:30 P.M.
Mr. Keene declared that the Committee needed to advance all thoughts and
proposals towards the solutions instead of criticizing what was not
happening. Also, that the decision-making processes needed to go at a pace
that if people were disappointed, then they could absorb that and move
forward.
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Chair Wolbach agreed with Mr. Keene.
Council Member Scharff reiterated that the CAP and stakeholder groups were
advisory Committees to Staff and had no way of slowing down the timeline.
He did not agree on including the TAC with the community groups and if the
community groups needed technical questions answered then he suggested
to bring in an outside person who could answer those questions. He wanted
the CAP to start meeting in July and he did not agree with slowing down the
process.
Council Member Fine stated that he agreed with Council Member Scharff that
the TAC and community groups are independent of each other and to move
forward on having the CAP meet in July. He suggested focusing the
community meetings around specific issues such as financing or bike
crossings. He reiterated that he did not want to keep restarting the process
and that they needed to stick with the time schedule that had already been laid out.
Mr. Keene commented that the Committee and Council was making a tough
decision and that those decisions were made with the best intentions to
support what was the best solution to the problem at that time.
Chair Wolbach stated that the true question was how much of the process
does the Council want to start before the Council went on summer break.
He wanted Staff to make sure that the consultants were ready to start
recruiting for the stakeholder and CAP groups.
MOTION: Council Member Scharff moved, seconded by Council Member
Fine to recommend the City Council move forward with the community
engagement plan as developed by Staff and AECOM including the creation of
a Community Advisory Panel.
Council Member Fine wanted Staff to characterize a cost list and timeline if
Staff or the consultants felt that they needed more time to pull everything
together.
Mr. de La Beaujardiere urged the consultant to work the community
engagement meetings so that everyone was heard, not just the loudest
voices.
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Adina Levin advised that at one community meeting should focus on
financing for the grade separations and letting the community members
know what the different options were for paying for the grade separations.
Monica Tan Brown announced that she was a member of the North Old Palo
Alto Community Group. She wanted the Committee to know that the
reverse and traditional hybrid was not a good option for Churchill Avenue
and those options were not irreversible if constructed. She agreed with
Council Member Scharff that decisions needed to be made and that the
process should not slow down.
Ms. Naik recommended to the consultant that the community engagement
meetings needed to have a focal point and that there needed to be
consensus among the community members at the end of the community
meeting.
Mr. Peon voiced that the community needed more data on where the traffic
bottlenecks were, how many cars used which intersections and so forth.
That way the community could make an educated guess on which option
they would prefer for specific grade crossing.
MOTION PASSED: 3-0 Kou not participating
The Committee took a break from 9:36 A.M. to 9:44 P.M.
2. Discussion and Potential Recommendations to Further Narrow Possible
Grade Separation Alternatives.
Josh Mello, Chief Transportation Official articulated that since the May 29,
2018 City Council meeting there were ten alternative options on the table.
Three out of the ten alternatives were chosen for a preliminary analysis by
AECOM.
Etty Mercurio, AECOM explained the three alternatives chosen were the
hybrid for Churchill Avenue where the road was lowered and the rail was
elevated, the Churchill Avenue reverse hybrid which was were the road was
elevated and the rail was lowered, and the third was at the Palo Alto
crossing where the road was lowered below an elevated track.
Chair Wolbach wanted to know why those three options where chosen.
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Mr. Mello answered that Staff wanted to have a better idea of how many
properties would have been taking for those three options.
Ms. Mercurio stated that when reviewing the three-options AECOM looked at
the Caltrain criteria that were based on the design speed for the trains,
Caltrans Roadway Design and American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials (AASHTO) roadway criteria. One constraint of the
Churchill Avenue traditional hybrid was the California Avenue station in that
there should be no reconstruction of that platform. The other constraint was
that when construction was occurring that it did not impact the Caltrain
commuter trains. The traditional hybrid was proposed to be at a 1 percent
grade per Caltrain’s criteria and once the train track hit Churchill Avenue it
was about 10-feet high in the air. Caltrain’s criteria allowed for a 22-foot
clearance from the top of rail to the top of the roadway structure which
means that any excavation at Churchill Avenue was 15-feet down. After Churchill Avenue, the railroad would decrease at a 6 percent grade before
Embarcadero Road. The traditional hybrid would impact 14 to 22 residential
properties including visual impacts. For a reverse hybrid for Churchill
Avenue, the rail was depressed 6-feet and the vertical clearance for rail
under a roadway structure was significantly more with the roadway being
elevated at 22-feet in the air. The rail would then ascend at a half percent
grade to reach the California Avenue platform. For the reverse hybrid, there
was a potential for 40 plus residential properties to be impacted. In terms of
the Palo Alto hybrid, there were more constraints than the Churchill Avenue
hybrids. Those constraints included that there was no interruption to
Caltrain’s commuter trains, there was a heritage tree in the El Palo Alto Park
that would have been impacted, and there was a reservoir located to the
west of the tracks. No residential properties were impacted with a hybrid at
Palo Alto Street but there were commercial impacts. At Palo Alto Avenue the
rail was elevated 7-feet in the air and that would mean there needed to be
15-feet of excavation below the rail for the roadway.
Mr. Mello advised the City Council Rail Committee (Committee) not to move
forward with the two-hybrid options on Churchill Avenue but felt comfortable
moving forward the Palo Alto hybrid.
James Keene, City Manager reminded the Committee that a full analysis
would cost around $200,000 to $300,000 per option. He advised the
Committee to move a recommendation forward to Council to remove two or
three options from the existing 10 that were on the table.
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Council Member Scharff wanted to know about the impact for the Palo Alto
hybrid option.
Mr. Mello stated that one commercial property could be impacted and that
could potentially just be a driveway modification.
Council Member Scharff asked for clarification on the Palo Alto hybrid and
the El Palo Alto Park.
Ms. Mercurio explained that the Palo Alto hybrid would come close to the
heritage tree located at El Palo Alto Park, and the hybrid would extend into
Menlo Park.
Council Member Scharff wanted clarification on where Menlo Park stood on
working with Palo Alto (City) for the hybrid option at Palo Alto Avenue.
Mr. Mello reported that he did not see there being any issues unless the City
propose major impacts to the City of Menlo Park.
Council Member Scharff asked if the viaduct was superior to the Palo Alto hybrid.
Ms. Mercurio questioned if Council Member Scharff meant a completely
elevated viaduct.
Council Member Scharff stated that Palo Alto Avenue should not be closed.
He wanted to understand which option was better for Palo Alto Avenue, the
hybrid, or the viaduct.
Mr. Mello voiced that both options carried the same footprint.
Council Member Scharff agreed with the idea of removing both hybrid
options for Churchill Avenue. Full closure and partial closure of Churchill
Avenue were two other options that could be looked at.
Mr. Keene asked Council Member Scharff if full or partial closure included
pedestrian connections.
Council Member Scharff answered yes.
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Council Member Fine inquired about the Stanford train station and if it was
included in any of the Churchill Avenue options.
Mr. Mello articulated that the Stanford station would either be removed,
relocated or reconstruction below or above grade with any hybrid option.
Council Member Fine declared that was significate news.
Mr. Mello noted that the station could be moved north.
Cedric de La Beaujardiere agreed with Council Member Scharff that the Palo
Alto viaduct should be an independent option from the hybrid. He suggested
the Committee explore if a viaduct could be constructed without having to
build a temporary track. He wanted to see viaducts as an option for
Churchill Avenue and would like to see financing papers done on the cost for
viaducts.
Martin Bernstein agreed that viaducts should be explored more. He showed
an air rights agreement between the City and a private developer to show how value capture of land could work.
Roberto Peon announced that he would like the hybrid options for Churchill
Avenue to be removed but he wanted more exploration on options for
Churchill Avenue that did not require eminent domain.
Barbara Hazlett announced she lived on Emerson Street. She wanted
clarification on what the impacts and possible eminent domain was to
Professorville if Churchill Avenue were to be closed and Embarcadero Road
were widened.
Nadia Naik reported that the City could use a 2 percent grade which would
allow for the road to be raised at a minimum height for the Churchill
Avenue’s reverse hybrid.
Roland Lebrun asked for confirmation from Ms. Mercurio that Caltrain
required 22 ½-feet clearance and High Speed Rail (HSR) required 27 ½-feet
clearance.
Chair Wolbach declared that Staff would respond to questions after public
comments.
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Mr. Lebrun articulated that the consultants were not giving out the right
information and that knowing the wrong information would result in
eliminating grade separation options that did not need to be eliminated.
Yoriko Kishimoto agreed with the idea of removing the hybrid options for
Churchill Avenue but she also wanted the widening of Embarcadero Road
removed as well.
Jason Matlof stated agreement with Council Member Scharff to remove the
hybrid options for Churchill Avenue.
Richard Purkey encouraged the elimination of the hybrid options for Churchill
Avenue. He also wanted Staff to investigate bicycle and pedestrian paths at
Embarcadero Road and Churchill Avenue.
Chair Wolbach noted that bicycle and pedestrian crossings were already
being considered at all the crossings.
Adina Levin announced that closing Palo Alto Avenue was problematic and that she would not be supporting that option. She also noted that Menlo
Park’s City Council had voiced that they would like to work with Palo Alto on
a hybrid option for Palo Alto Avenue. She wanted the City to remember that
fencing would also be part of visual impacts and she asked the City to look
at secondary streets options that would not require widening the roadways.
Rob Levitsky commented about the removal of the hybrid options for
Churchill Avenue. He wanted to keep the option of keeping Churchill Avenue
open.
Ms. Mercurio clarified that the analysis criteria used a 24 ½-foot vertical
clearance and that was Caltrain’s current criteria. Vertical roadway
clearance per Caltrans was 15 ½-feet and HSR required vertical clearance of
27 ½ feet.
Council Member Scharff explained that the Town and Country back up was
the real problem for Embarcadero Road and traffic through that area. He
suggested taking out the language of widening the bridge at Embarcadero
Road.
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MOTION: Council Member Scharff moved, seconded by Chair Wolbach to
recommend the City Council:
A. Eliminate Churchill Avenue Hybrid (CAH) idea from consideration;
B. Eliminate Churchill Avenue Reverse Hybrid (CAR) idea from
consideration;
C. Break out Churchill Avenue closure option into full closure and partial
closure;
D. Remove the language regarding widening Embarcadero Road
underpass from description of Churchill Avenue crossing closed (CAX) idea; and
E. Add to Churchill Avenue crossing closed (CAX) idea, “study additional
options for addressing traffic in the Embarcadero Road underpass
area.”
Mr. Keene disclosed that once there was a preferred alternative chosen then
the next step was to do an Environmental Impact Review (EIR) which would
expose all potential impacts to the City.
Mr. Mello interjected that the bridges on Embarcadero Road were roughly
100-years old and that they needed to be replaced in the future.
Council Member Scharff announced that the bridges on Embarcadero Road
were a separate discussion from grade separations. He wanted to separate
out the options of closing and partially closing Churchill Avenue.
Mr. Mello announced that the list of impacts that was in the Staff report did
not limit the impacts that were looked at. He reiterated that the motion was
to remove the language regarding widening the Embarcadero Road under
crossing from the description of idea CAX.
Ed Shikada, Assistant City Manager asked for clarification on what a partial
closure for a grade separation meant.
Council Member Scharff answered that it meant closing it at certain parts of
the day.
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Chair Wolbach interjected that it meant not grade separating it.
Council Member Kou commented that she did not support taking out the
language of widening Embarcadero Road. She reiterated that she did not
want the Embarcadero Road traffic study to exclude the bridges or
neighboring streets because the language was removed from that
alternative.
Mr. Shikada clarified that an EIR traffic study would still look at all options
and impacts even if the language was excluded from the CAX option.
Removing the language would make it so that it was no longer part of the project description and that would impact how the scope of the project and
cost estimation were defined.
Council Member Kou declared that she still had concerns about removing
that language.
Council Member Fine clarified that the building that was impacted by the
Palo Alto hybrid was actually an apartment building. He asked Staff if any
changes to the Palo Alto hybrid effected the station at University or any
future stations.
Mr. Mello announced that station platforms would not be impacted and
would not intervene with any station upgrades in the future.
Council Member Fine wanted clarification if Alma was assumed to have a
speed of 25 miles per hour.
Ms. Mercurio clarified that it was assumed for a speed of 35 miles per hour.
She stated that Churchill Avenue and Mariposa Avenue were analyzed with
the assumption of 25 miles per hour speed limit.
Council Member Fine asked if having a one-lane underpass was feasible at
Churchill Avenue.
Mr. Mello restated a public speaker’s suggestion that an underpass would
begin before Alma, pass underneath Alma, and then come up on the
Southgate side. Parking would need to be removed on Churchill Avenue to
accommodate this concept but that idea had not been explored yet.
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Council Member Fine asked if a bike underpass at Churchill Avenue could
result in eminent domain.
Mr. Mello answered that there has been no analysis on bicycle underpasses
at that time.
Council Member Fine suggested that further analysis needed to be done on
bike underpasses at Churchill Avenue. He wanted to know what other types
of partial closures were there in terms of Churchill Avenue.
Mr. Mello articulated that it could be one-way, closed to cars, a part-time
closure, and several other versions.
Council Member Fine advised to flush out all options for a partial closure. He
inquired about how many homes could potentially be taken if there were a
grade of 1.5, 1.75 or 2 percent.
Ms. Mercurio articulated that it was not a linear reduction but possibly a 20
percent reduction of eminent domain at a 2 percent grade.
Mr. Keene asked Ms. Mercurio if those numbers could be obtained before the
next Council meeting.
Ms. Mercurio stated that she could do that.
Council Member Fine asked his colleagues for more input on if the language
should be removed or not for widening Embarcadero Road.
Chair Wolbach reiterated that the motion was intended to exclude, as part of
the grade separation planning, the widening of Embarcadero Road.
Council Member Kou suggested separating the widening of Embarcadero
Road from the motion so that there could be more discussion at Council
about it.
Council Member Fine asked Staff how the grade separations were chosen for
the grade separation project.
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Mr. Mello answered that those grade separations were chosen because of the
expected train traffic increase and safety concern increases.
Council Member Fine stated that Embarcadero Road was already grade
separated and should not be discussed in terms of the grade separation
project.
Mr. Mello suggested to change the language under the CAX option to
mitigations will be identified through a discussion of a traffic impact analysis.
Council Member Fine voiced agreement with Mr. Mello’s suggestion. He
asked for clarification on if the Committee was thinking of keeping the Embarcadero Road grade separation in the planning process or removing it.
Chair Wolbach reported that the Motion captures everyone’s concerns about
Embarcadero Road. The Motion was stating that the intention was not to
shift the traffic from Churchill Avenue to Embarcadero Road.
Mr. Lebrun emphasized that if Churchill Avenue was closed first then the
Committee must consider how construction work was going to happen on
Embarcadero Road in the future. He recommended that AECOM put their
top experts on the problems of vertical clearance to help mitigate the cost.
Mr. Peon wanted more information about raising or lowering the platforms at
California Avenue and what the design constraints were if there were no
home takings at Churchill Avenue.
Ms. Naik stated that she would forward to the Committee a letter on design exemptions from HSR on the height of the catenaries. She announced that
the traffic study from Mott McDonald was the driver behind the discussion on
how to handle Embarcadero Road if Churchill Avenue were to be closed. She
suggested moving the school district bus hub to East Palo Alto to help
circulation. She agreed with Mr. Lebrun that there were other future
construction impacts to other crossings if an existing crossing were shut
down.
Parag Patkar asked when a discussion would happen about the south Palo
Alto intersections and he wanted to know how south Palo Alto could appoint
a community member on the Community Advisory Panel (CAP). South Palo
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Alto did not want any raised alternatives in their area and no eminent
domain.
Ms. Levin appreciated the change in the language about Embarcadero Road
in the project scope.
Chair Wolbach announced that south Palo Alto will be discussed later and to
connect with City Staff if anyone was interested in nominating someone from
their area to be on the CAP.
Council Member Kou asked if detailed information was included in the Packet
for the City Council on eminent domain for all three options that were preliminary analyzed.
Mr. Mello concurred that a narrative was included in the Packet.
MOTION PASSED: 3-1 Kou no
Information Items
3. VTA Measure B Grade Separation Funding Plan - Recommend Council
Approval.
James Keene, City Manager announced that Mr. Shikada would update the
City Council Rail Committee (Committee) on information that had been
discussed at the City Manager level.
Ed Shikada, Assistant City Manager reported that Council Member Scharff
and Council Member Fine were on the Local Policy Maker Group. He noted
that there was no alignment in how the funding allocation would proceed so
there were more ongoing detailed discussions about the funding allocation.
He suggested that the City Council Rail Committee (Committee) ask Council
to identify a representative from the Council to participate among other
elected official from surrounding Cities.
Council Member Scharff asked for clarification on how funding was allocated
because a previous speaker had mentioned that funding was allocated
evenly among the grade separations.
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Mr. Shikada disclosed that Sunnyvale was not in alignment with Mountain
View and Palo Alto and that Measure B funds could be taken away from the
City because of that.
Mr. Keene suggested that at the elected level someone had to be appointed
and speak up for Palo Alto to work that issue out.
Council Member Kou added that Staff convey the message to Council
Member McAlister her appreciation on securing Palo Alto 50 percent of VTA
funds for grade separations.
Chair Wolbach asked Staff what they wanted the Committee to do for this
item.
Mr. Shikada clarified that it would be helpful if the Committee recommended
to the Mayor to appoint a Council Member to participate in the discussions.
Chair Wolbach inquired if the Mayor could do that.
Mr. Keene answered that the Mayor was able to make that appointment. He explained that Council Member McAlister was the rep from Mountain View
and he was the VTA rep for the North County Consortium Subcommittee.
Chair Wolbach noted that north county included Palo Alto, Mountain View,
Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills.
Nadia Naik advised the Committee that there needs to be lobbying for
funding. She recommended bringing this topic to the next City Council
meeting. She voiced that it was important to understand why Sunnyvale
was objecting and holding up VTA’s decision making process.
Mr. Keene stated that the Mayor could handle appointing someone and that
it would not be added to the next City Council’s meeting Packet.
Chair Wolbach recommended that the intergovernmental update topic that
was supposed to be reoccurring at each Rail Committee meeting be returned
onto future agendas.
4. Caltrain Business Plan - Discussion/Potentially Recommend Council
Position.
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Ed Shikada, Assistant City Manager announced that there was no further
report.
Council Member Kou asked how the Local Policy Maker Group was
established and what they do.
Mr. Shikada explained that Caltrain had asked for a single representative
from each City along the Caltrain corridor. They alternated their monthly
meetings between High Speed Rail (HSR) and Caltrain Modernization
(CalMod) but soon will be moving to a regular monthly meeting that would
focus on the business plan.
Adina Levin reported that the Caltrain Business Plan was fully funded and
there was expected to be a community process to be starting up that was
focused on post electrification service. She recommended that Palo Alto pay
close attention to Caltrain’s Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy and
TOD tool kit.
Roland Lebrun stated that at some point Caltrans would have to start doing
counter capacity planning. He suggested that the City focus on baby bullets,
baby bullet stations, and have double length platforms in the stations. He
noted that if the City decided to move the Stanford station north then there
could be an opportunity to combined two stations into one.
Next Steps and Future Agendas
Ed Shikada, Assistant City Manager commented that Staff would bring
something back to the City Council Rail Committee when they knew the
schedule in the upcoming week.
ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 11:35 A.M.