Blog Post < Previous | Next >
Bruce Corcoran
Board of Supervisors Hearing for Bently Holdings is Scheduled for March 15th (Part 1)
Is Even More Traffic Congestion on the Way?
Bently Holdings, the owner of the office complex on the hillside above In N Out Burger in Strawberry, has been scheming with Marin General Hospital for the past year to put medical offices in the two buildings. Medical offices will generate an additional 1,200 vehicle trips per day.
This proposal is a striking example of corruption of due process, crony politics, bullying by deep-pocket Bently Holdings and Marin General, and utter disdain and disregard for local control. These are key issues for the election of Supervisors in June.
The next hearing before the Board of Supervisors is on Tuesday, March 15th. Citizens throughout Marin County who live along the Highway 101 corridor should be very concerned about the outcome of this hearing because what happens in Strawberry will have a direct impact on you. Traffic congestion on our roadways and intersections will be even worse if the Supervisors approve medical office use.
Please express your opinions by writing to bos@marincounty.org, or even better, by attending and speaking at the hearing.
Here is a copy of my recent letter to Caltrans for your review:
__________________________________
March 3, 2016
Mr. Cole Iwamasa:
By coincidence, I received this new information within one hour after leaving a message on your telephone yesterday afternoon.
Here is the traffic study by Traffic Works LLC, which was hired by Marin County Department of Public Works (DPW) and paid with $20,000 our tax money, to determine how much currently prohibited medical office space could be allowed in #1 and #2 Belvedere Place, the office complex above In N Out Burger in Strawberry, without significantly impacting traffic flows on our already heavily congested roadways and intersections near the Highway 101/SR-131 interchange.
Bently Holdings is the owner of the office complex and the applicant.
Previous studies using ITE Trip Generation Handbook standards estimate that converting 47,500 square feet of general office space to medical office use, as proposed, will generate an additional 1,200 vehicle trips per day.
The residents of Strawberry oppose the conversion to medical office use because of the increase in traffic from medical offices. In fact, we always have opposed medical office use in this office complex because of our concerns about additional traffic in this location, and for this reason our Master Plan, Precise Development Plan, and a deed restriction specifically prohibit it. Nevertheless, the Marin County Board of Supervisors is determined to approve this project to accommodate Marin General Hospital, which wants to expand operations into southern Marin and covets space at Belvedere Place.
We also oppose this conversion because of the cumulative impact of North Coast Land Holdings' current application to re-develop the former Seminary property. The traffic study submitted to the County for that project indicates that re-development will generate an additional 6,500 vehicle trips per weekday and an additional 7,800 vehicle trips per Saturday!
Our roadways and intersections cannot handle these cumulative impacts.
Having just received the Traffic Works LLC Traffic Study myself, I have not analyzed it in detail yet. Nevertheless, I have the following preliminary concerns:
1. The data for the traffic study is limited. It reflects only one PM Peak count from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM on only one day, Thursday, January 7, 2016. There is no data for AM, Midday, and weekend Peak Hours for several different days as is the case in most other traffic studies. (As an aside, in anticipation of this traffic study, I happen to recall that traffic seemed lighter than normal the whole week following New Years Day.)
2. The validity of this traffic study for #1 and #2 Belvedere Place is highly questionable because the buildings have been less than 50% occupied for over one year. The ITE Trip Generation Manual (9th Edition, Volume 1, p.17) recommends that buildings must be at least 85% occupied and appear to be economically healthy at the time of the survey or else trip generation rates and equations may be inaccurate.
I previously informed both DPW and Traffic Works LLC about the very low occupancy rate in the office complex, but Traffic Works LLC has ignored this condition and has failed to adjust the baseline of the study to account for the very low occupancy rate. ITE recommends that the occupancy rate should be recorded at the time of the survey, but I saw no mention of the occupancy rate in the Traffic Works LLC Traffic Study.
Existing counts do not reflect the trips generated by a fully occupied office complex, so Bently Holdings has manipulated current Level of Service (LOS) calculations to appear to be better than they normally would be if the buildings were fully occupied.
When current LOS is being reported as D/E, then adding only a few more cars to the current long queues can make the difference between waiting through another red-light cycle, or not, which in turn, is the difference between LOS D and LOS E, a failing intersection by County standards.
If the buildings were fully occupied and the traffic counts were LOS E, then this application would not even have been considered in the first place.
3. As mentioned above, the Traffic Works LLC survey does not take into account the cumulative impacts of traffic that will be generated by North Coast Land Holdings’ application to re-develop the former Seminary property.
Supervisor Kinsey, the leading proponent for allowing medical office use, has opined that the cumulative impacts should not be considered. DPW has stated that cumulative impacts typically are considered. This issue is unresolved at this time, despite my appeals to County for clarification.
4. The Traffic Works LLC traffic study does not include surveys that Caltrans has requested for other impacted intersections, such as SR-131/E. Strawberry Drive/Belvedere Drive.
Nor does the traffic study include a survey of the northbound Highway 101/Seminary Drive/De Silva Island interchange. This interchange has become increasingly congested during PM Peak because Highway 101 now is often bumper-to-bumper all the way to the Waldo Grade in Sausalito. I’ve attached a photograph of the problem to this e-mail.
5. The signal timing changes recommended by Traffic Works LLC based on one PM Peak survey conducted on one day seems to be in conflict with the comprehensive Iteris Traffic Study commissioned by the City of Mill Valley/Caltrans/MTC to determine optimal signal synchronization.
6. Traffic Works LLC was originally hired as an unbiased, independent consultant to perform a Peer Review of the initial W-Trans Traffic Study. Given the inaccuracies in and the inadequacies of the W-trans study, the Board of Supervisors required additional traffic studies and a peer review of those additional traffic studies.
Traffic Works LLC was supposed to be the unbiased, independent peer reviewer of those additional studies, but in a strange turn of events, DPW hired Traffic Works LLC to conduct the additional traffic studies at taxpayers’ expense, so Traffic works no longer is unbiased and independent, but now is working for the Board of Supervisors instead. Therefore, the remaining question is: Who will perform the peer review of the Traffic Works LLC Traffic Study?
The Board of Supervisors hearing on the Bently Holdings application is scheduled for March 15, 2016.
The residents of Strawberry as well as all of the other residents of Marin County who live along the Highway 101 corridor sincerely hope that Caltrans will be able to comment about the Traffic Works LLC study prior to the hearing on March 15th.
We look forward to your comments.
.
Regards,
Bruce Corcoran
_______________________________
Thank you for reading my Blog.
Bruce