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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-06-09 City Council (7)TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: PLANNING DATE:JUNE 9, 2003 CMR:310:03 SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR COUNCIL DIRECTION ON CHARLESTON ROAD/ARASTRADERO ROAD CORRIDOR PLAN LAND USE ASSUMPTIONS RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that Council review and provide direction to staff on assumptions regarding future land development and re-development, to be used in traffic analysis during preparation of the Charleston/Arastradero Road Corridor Plan. BACKGROUND At its April 14, 2003 meeting, Council directed staffto prepare a plan of transportation and urban design/landscape improvements for the Charleston/Arastradero Road Corridor (CMR:237:03). Attachment A displays a corridor map. Council also directed staffto return with a report on land use assumptions to be included in projecting future traffic conditions on the corridor before such predictions were undertaken. One of the primary objectives of the Charleston/Arastradero corridor plan is to provide meaningfu! mitigation for traffic impacts from new and existing development. The plan will focus on outcomes such as attractive and safe routes to schools, well-landscaped medians where possible, and pedestrian, bicycle, and bus transit improvements all along the corridor. Other primary objectives of the plan will be to provide safer traffic flow along the corridor and reduce the incidence of vehicle speeding, without reducing vehicle trave! times or causing diversion of through traffic to other streets. Future land development and re-development is likely to change traffic conditions on the Charleston/Arastradero Corridor. Some of the impacts will likely derive from the Hyatt- Rickey’s project at E1 Camino Real and Charleston, the prospective re-development of the Sun Microsystems site on Charleston between Fabian and San Antonio Road, and future re- development of the Elk Club Site near Hyatt-Rickey’s. Not all of these changes were, or indeed could be, anticipated during development of the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan Environmental Impact Report (El-R). CMR:310:03 Page 1 of 4 This report describes the land use changes anticipated along the Charleston/Arastradero Road corridor. Since land use and transportation are inextricably linked, assumptions about future growth are crucial for reliable forecasts of future traffic. Even though Palo Alto is developing one of the most advanced traffic forecasting models of any comparably sized city in the nation, accurate traffic predictions are impossible without good assumptions about future land use. DISCUSSION Individually and cumulatively, development and re-development on the Charleston/ Arastradero Road Corridor will produce additional traffic volume, potentially add delay to motor vehicle trips, and increase the number of vehicle turning movements. The additional vehicular traffic and turning movements onto each street will increase the amount of conflict with, and exposure to, vehicular traffic for students cycling and walking along or across these streets. This will make safe, multimodal transportation, as envisioned in the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan, more difficult to attain and preserve for these two important streets and the intersecting streets. Most of the land in the Charleston-Arastradero corridor is zoned and used for single family use and little if any change in lraffic generation is expected in those areas. Therefore, the study focuses on those sites where change is proposed or expected. The City’s Comprehensive Plan sets a range of permitted development intensities for each area and these are the basis for this project’s land use planning assumptions. Existing zoning further narrows the range of development on some sites. However, in some cases, requests for changes, either in Comprehensive Plan designation or zoning, have been proposed or are expected. This information has also been added to the database. When the City adopted the Comprehensive Plan in 1998, it anticipated and accepted some increase in traffic congestion at some intersections, including several in the Charleston- Arastradero area. It did this in part because the City values multi-modal transportation and maintenance of existing street scale. The full description of the anticipated congestion, and the reasons for accepting it, are in Resolution 7780. To analyze the sort of traffic that might be generated during the lifetime of the Comprehensive Plan (1998 through 2010), the City prepared an EIR that used a range of assumptions about probable development on particular sites. These were referred to as the "low development," "high development, and "mid-range development" alternatives. The City generally adopted land designations consistent with the mid-range alternative. Land use is governed by the adopted Comprehensive Plan, not the EIR assumptions on future land use on any particular site. However, the information provided by the EIR and Resolution 7780 is important in evaluating how accurate those predictions were, and whether the City is still on the course anticipated when the Comprehensive Plan was adopted. Therefore, that information is also included in the database for this study. CMR:310:03 Page 2 of 4 As part of the Charleston Arastradero, traffic will be analyzed at "worst case" (the most intense uses permitted under existing Comprehensive Plan designations, plus requested or anticipated changes in those designations, with no transportation demand management), as well as under assumptions of less intense development. The use of various transportation demand management measures will be modeled. Traffic generated by development outside the corridor area, whether by development in Palo Alto or outside of it, wil! be simulated in the computer traffic model. Attachment B shows anticipated future development sites along the corridor, compared to 1) existing conditions at each site; 2) the assumptions for each site in the traffic forecasting prepared for the Comprehensive Plan EIR; 3) known proposals or what can be built-out under existing zoning at each site; and 4) the difference between what exists now and what is either being proposed or could be built-out ender existing zoning. The "Known Proposal or Build out Under Existing Zoning" list in Attachment B constitutes the important Charleston/Arastradero Corridor land development assumptions for traffic forecasting purposes. RESOURCE IMPACT On April 14, 2003 Council authorized an expenditure of $200,000 for preparation of the Charleston/Arastradero Corridor Plan. The resources will be obtained through internal re- allocation within the Planning Department budget and the City Manager’s Contingency Fund. POLICY IMPLICATIONS The Charleston/Arastradero Road Plan addresses the first five goals Comprehensive Plan: of the Palo Alto T-l: "Less Reliance on Single Occupant Vehicles". T-2: ~’A Convenient, Efficient Public Transportation System that Provides A Viable Alternative to Driving". T-3: "Facilities, Services, and Programs that Encourage and Promote Walking and Bicycling". T-4: "An Efficient Roadway Network for All Users". T-5: "A Transportation System that Minimizes Impacts on Residential Neighborhoods". ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW An Environmenta! Assessment will be prepared and presented to the Planning Transportation Commission and City Council for consideration along with the complete draft Arastradero Road!Charleston Road Corridor Plan. Since the Corridor Plan is intended to implement important provisions of the Comprehensive Plan, an important focus of the CMR:310:03 Page 3 of 4 Environmental Assessment will be consistency of the Comprehensive Plan. ATTACHMENTS A. Map of Charleston Road- Arastradero Road -Road Corridor B. Charleston-Arastradero Corridor Land Use Assumptions Corridor Plan with the PREPARED BY: JOSEPH KOTT Chief Transportation Official DEPARTMENT HEAD: STEVE EMSLIE Director of Planning and Community Environment CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: Debra Ju Penny Eltson Henry Lure Tom Vician Millicyent Hamilton Martin Stone Lee Weider Mark Solit Lydia Tan EMILY HARRISON Assistant City Manager CMR:310:03 Page 4 of 4