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Bruce Corcoran - Frontage Rd Traffic
Anatomy of County Missteps: Strawberry Traffic Study is Flawed
Bently Holdings, the owners of Belvedere Place #1 and #2 (the office complex above In-N-Out Burger in Strawberry), have submitted an application to convert the use of the existing office spaces from general office use to medical and dental office use.
The overwhelming majority of Strawberry residents oppose this application because our 1984 Master Plan and our 1996 Precise Development Plan specifically prohibit medical and dental use.
Most important, we oppose it because it will increase trip generation 3-fold.
This issue is on the Board of Supervisors agenda for August 11, 2015 at 1:30 PM in Room 236 at the Civic Center.
I submitted the following letter to Vin Smith, Mill Valley Director of Planning and Building, in response to his letter expressing Mill Valley's concerns about the W-Trans Traffic Study.
My letter exposes a series of missteps in the County approval process, which should be of concern County-wide.
Bruce Corcoran
August 10, 2015
MillValleyCity Hall
Attn: Mr. Vin Smith, Director of Planning and Building
26 Corte Madera Avenue
Mill Valley, CA94941
Via e-mail: vsmith@cityofmillvalley.org
RE: W-Trans Traffic Study for Bently Holdings Application to Convert General Office Space to Medical and Dental Office Use at Belvedere Place #1 and #2 in Strawberry
Dear Mr. Smith,
Thank you for writing your July 30, 2015 letter that questions the assumptions and conclusions of the "W-Trans Traffic Study" for the Bently Holdings application (see page 16 of the PDF document below) that proposes to convert general office space to medical and dental office space at Belvedere Place #1 and #2 in Strawberry.
Your letter was an unexpected but welcome analysis because it supports our position that the W-Trans Traffic Study is flawed.
The overwhelming majority of Strawberry residents oppose this application because our 1984 Strawberry Hill Master Plan and our 1996 Strawberry Center Precise Development Plan specifically prohibit medical and dental office use.
We also oppose it because, according to the ITE Trip Generation Manual, the proposed conversion of office use will increase trip generation by more than 3-fold. The W-Trans Traffic Study acknowledges that conversion of 25,000 square feet of office space will increase trip generation by 627 trips per day, and conversion of 47,500 square feet of office space will increase trip generation by 1,192 trips per day!
Miraculously, the W-Trans Traffic Study then claims that the impact of these additional 627 – 1,192 trips per day on our already congested roadways and intersections will be “de minimis” and “imperceptible to drivers.”
The residents of Strawberry continue to strongly disagree with the findings of the W-Trans Traffic Study. We believe the impacts on our roadways and intersections would be significant.
For example, W-Trans admits that during peak periods Belvedere Drive currently “carries more than the 2,000 vehicles per day that is often cited as the maximum volume for a ‘livable’ street,” but then illogically claims that that the additional trip generation from the project “would not cause the volumes to exceed this threshold.” If existing trips already exceed the threshold, then additional trips will make matters even worse.
In particular, we have dismissed as incorrect the original findings that the intersection of Tiburon Boulevard (SR-131)/Redwood Highway Frontage Road (TB/RHFR): a.) currently is operating at Level of Service C (LOS C) with peak hour delay times of less than 30 seconds, and b.) would continue to operate at LOS C with peak hour delay times of 30 seconds or less including expected additional trips.
We have argued, based on personal driving experiences and actual recordings of red light times, that northbound traffic on Redwood Highway Frontage Road currently operates at LOS F during peak hours. It is not uncommon for queues to extend to the Sonnen Auto Dealership and for drivers to be delayed for two cycle lengths to clear that intersection.
Moreover, we know from recordings of actual long redlight times of 120 seconds and short greenlight times of only 12 seconds that the left turn lane on westbound Tiburon Boulevard (SR-131) is operating at LOS F during peak periods.
In addition, we know from personal driving experiences that the intersection of Redwood Highway Frontage Road/Seminary Drive often operates at LOS F during PM Peak for northbound traffic because queues may extend all the way back to the intersection of Highway 101/De Silva Island, and delay times can exceed 100 seconds.
Furthermore, we know from the independent Iteris Traffic Study commissioned by Mill Valley/Caltrans/MTC in April 2014 that the cycle lengths for the TB/RHFR intersection are 120 seconds, 110 seconds, and 140 seconds for AM Peak, MD (Mid-Day) Peak, and PM Peak, respectively. With redlight times of 70 seconds for Tiburon Boulevard ‘through lanes’ during PM Peak and with long queues both eastbound and westbound, W-Trans’s most recent finding that average delay times are only 36 seconds seems to be unrealistic. A delay of 55 to 80 seconds indicates LOS E, which is a failing grade by County standards.
Note that contrary to W-Trans’s original Traffic Study and its June 24, 2015 Traffic Study, W-Trans now claims, as of July 14, 2015, (in response to Caltrans’s letter of criticism the same day) that the intersection of TB/RHFR operates at LOS D instead of the original assessment of LOS C. Such a change at this late date in the approval process is disturbing, and suggests that the Bently Holdings application should be sent back to the Strawberry Design Review Board and the Planning Commission for serious vetting.
We also have pointed out that the 2007 Countywide Plan recognizes that TB/RHFR operated at LOS F, so evidence of failing conditions are not new.
In our view, therefore, every County planner and official should know by now that TB/RHFR does not operate at LOS C, and they should immediately question any traffic study that claims otherwise.
Nevertheless, County planners originally recommended approval of the Bently Holdings application without questioning the W-Trans Traffic Study, and then, inconceivably, County Planning Commissioners recommended approval at the February 23, 2015 hearing on a 6 – 1 vote without having received a copy of the W-Trans Traffic Study and analyzing it! Only Commissioner Don Dickenson had the good judgment to vote “No.”
Then, just as inconceivably, Supervisors Rice, Arnold, and Kinsey were prepared to vote to approve the Bently Holdings application at the March 17, 2015 hearing based on the Planning Commission’s unjustified recommendation, even though we had informed all of the Supervisors in advance that the Planning Commissioners had not analyzed the W-Trans Traffic Study. Thankfully, Supervisors Sears and Connelly convinced the others that additional traffic studies were required, and the hearing was continued.
We now know, based on Caltrans’s letter dated July 14, 2015 and your letter dated July 30, 2015, that subsequent analysis of the W-Trans Traffic Study by professional traffic engineers have led two governmental bodies—Caltrans and Mill Valley—to conclude that the W-Trans Traffic Study is flawed, more traffic analysis is necessary, and a peer review of an expanded, new traffic study should be required.
The purpose of my recounting the litany of these procedural missteps is that if it were not for the efforts of a few Strawberry residents and like-minded supporters from other unincorporated areas, the Supervisors would have approved the Bently Holdings application based on a flawed Traffic Study that was not even vetted by the Planning Commission or Caltrans, and our traffic congestion problems would have become even worse.
This kind of bad governance should be of concern County-wide because what happens in Strawberry will impact everyone who uses Highway 101 and SR-Tiburon Boulevard (SR-131).
We have learned from this case that:
- County planners and officials tend to ignore comments from residents of Strawberry because we are “lay people.”
- Moreover, County planners seem to have abdicated their role as independent traffic analysts because they now rely almost exclusively on the analyses of outside consultants.
- Therefore, unincorporated areas such as Strawberry are at the mercy of outside consultants hired by the applicant because County officials accept their findings virtually verbatim, but those findings often are biased.
- However, County officials will pay attention to comments and analyses by professionals. That’s why we are so grateful for your analysis and for Caltrans’s analysis of the W-Trans Traffic Study because they both support our position.
We believe that MillValley, Tiburon, Belvedere, and Strawberry must work together more closely and coordinate more closely about projects that will significantly impact traffic congestion on our common roadways and intersections.
I want you to know that I alerted your office in mid-June about our concerns with the Bently Holdings application. I have been speaking to Scott Schneider because he responded to my original inquiry seeking any data that you may have had about the TB/RHFR intersection Level of Service. Scott has been exceptionally helpful, but I didn’t realize until I read your letter, which was included in the Staff Report for the August 11, 2015 Board of Supervisors hearing for the Bently Holdings application, that I probably should have been talking to you. I will know who to contact in the future. I’ve also contacted Pat Barnes in Tiburon and Scott Derdenger in Belvedere.
The Staff Report, which was released last Thursday afternoon, recommends continuing the hearing to support staff’s request for a peer review of the W-Trans Traffic Study by a third party traffic engineering firm. However, the Board of Supervisors still has the authority to approve or deny the Bently Holdings application at Tuesday’s hearing.
Given past procedural gaffs, we have no confidence about what the Supervisors will decide to do.
Therefore, given the importance of this issue for our communities, would it be possible for you to attend Tuesday’s hearing and address the Supervisors in person? The hearing will take place at 1:30 PM in Room 326 at the CivicCenter on Tuesday, August 11, 2015.
I realize I am asking another favor of someone who already has helped our case greatly by your letter alone. We are most appreciative of everything you have done, and anything else you may have time to do.
Respectfully submitted,
Bruce Corcoran
cc: Supervisor Sears, ksears@marincounty.org
Board of Supervisors, bos@marincounty.org
Brian Crawford, bcrawford@marincounty.org
Robert Goralka, rgoralka@marincounty.org
Scott Greeley, sgreeley@marincounty.org
Berenice Davidson, bdavidson@marincounty.org
Mill Valley Mayor Kenneth Wachtel, krwachtel@gmail.com
Tiburon Mayor Frank Doyle, town@townoftiburon.org
Pat Barnes, pbarnes@townoftiburon.org
Belvedere Mayor Claire McAuliffe, clerk@cityofbelvedere.org
Scott Derdenger, sderdenger@cityofbelvedere.org