Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission

City of Sunnyvale Meeting Minutes - Final Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Thursday, April 17, 2014 6:30 PM West Conference Room, City Hall, 456 W. Olive Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CALL TO ORDER Chair Manitakos called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. in the West Conference Room. SALUTE TO THE FLAG ROLL CALL Present 5 - Vice Chair Kevin Jackson Commissioner David Jones Commissioner Richard Kolber Chair James Manitakos Jr. Commissioner Kyle Welch Absent 2 - Commissioner Angela Rausch Commissioner Cathy Switzer Council Liaison Pat Meyering (present) Commissioner Switzer's absence was excused. Commissioner Rausch's absence was excused. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Vice Chair Jackson announced the upcoming Steven’s Creek Clean-Up Day at Whisman Park in Mountain View, the Fit and Fun Fair at Columbia Community Center and upcoming events with Safe Routes to School including Family Fun Bike Night and a BikeMobile at West Valley Elementary School. Vice Chair Jackson reminded the commission about the Council Study Session on Tuesday, April 29 and the implementation of 15-mile per hour speed zones near Lakewood Elementary. Vice Chair Jackson noted AB 2398 which is being considered in Sacramento. CONSENT CALENDAR 1.A 14-0441 Draft Minutes of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory City of Sunnyvale Page 1 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final April 17, 2014 Commission Commission Meeting of March 20, 2014 MOTION: Chair Manitakos moved and Vice Chair Jackson seconded the motion to approve the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes of March 20, 2014 as presented. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes 5 - Vice Chair Jackson Commissioner Jones Commissioner Kolber Chair Manitakos Jr. Commissioner Welch No 0 Absent 2 - Commissioner Rausch Commissioner Switzer PUBLIC COMMENTS Patrick Grant, member of the public, spoke regarding a previous matter. He distributed a picture to the BPAC showing sidewalk width at recent development. He showed a digitally enhanced image of Fremont Avenue sidwalk with trees fully grown. Mr. Grant noted that a future discussion with Assistant Director Pineda is pending on the matter of sidewalk widths. Commissioner Jones spoke regarding the Homestead Road project. He stated that the roadway on the City of Cupertino side removed the bike lane on the North side of Homestead Road and left one bike lane running from East to West with a 25 mile per hour speed limit with on-street parking. He expressed concerns and added that Homestead Road is a very busy commute, especially in the morning. Chair Manitakos asked Assistant Director Pineda to make note of the issue and take a look at the site. Assistant Director Pineda stated that he would report back to BPAC with his findings. Commissioner Jones commented on the Climate Action Plan (CAP) item later to be heard on the agenda and stated that the large scale traffic study should not only count motorized vehicles but should also count pedestrians and cyclists. He noted that real estimates cannot be made without that data. Commissioner Jones gave examples of various ways to collect data. Commissioner Jones handed Assistant Director Pineda a note regarding debris left on a bike lane on Sunnyvale Avenue and Maude Avenue. Assistant Director Pineda stated he would have the debris removed. City of Sunnyvale Page 2 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final April 17, 2014 Commission Chair Manitakos referred to the Land Use and Transportation Element (LUTE) study and asked if the study would be performed by City staff or if a consultant would be hired. Assistant Director Pineda responded that a consultant would be hired to perform the study. Chair Manitakos asked if there was consideration given to having the consultant proposal weigh in to account for other users in keeping with the complete streets. He expressed concern that the LUTE would only consider motor vehicle counts but not consider pedestrians and bicyclists. Assistant Director Pineda stated that bicycle and pedestrians would be counted, then corrected himself and stated that only motor vehicles would be counted. Chair Manitakos stated that without counts of bicycles and pedestrians it would be difficult to implement complete streets policies. Assistant Director Pineda replied that counts of pedestrians and bicyclists were not needed due to low numbers. Chair Manitakos replied that counts were needed for complete streets. Principal Planner Gerri Caruso noted that past LUTEs have focused more on auto-oriented data than pedestrian. She added that the future LUTE will include policies that are promoting pedestrians and bicyclists. David Simons, Valley Transportation Authority BPAC representative, updated the BPAC on March and April meetings he attended. Items discussed were the Anti-Harassment ordinance and access to Levi Stadium events for pedestrians and bicyclists, and gave an update on the Bicycle Expenditure Program (BEP). He noted that Sunnyvale received a score of “green” which represents always on time. Vice Chair Jackson commented on the BEP. He noted that in the past they have asked the BPAC to approve spending fairly significant amounts of BEP funds on pedestrian funds. Mr. Simons agreed that BEP funds should not be used for that. PUBLIC HEARINGS/GENERAL BUSINESS 2 14-0404 Climate Action Plan to Achieve State Recommended Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Goals in Assembly Bill 32: California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 Environmental Review: Negative Declaration Principal Planner Gerri Caruso introduced Associate Planner Momoko Ishijima and Consultant Leeane Singleton. Principal Planner Caruso presented the staff report and recommended the BPAC recommend to Council adoption of the Climate Action Plan. City of Sunnyvale Page 3 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final April 17, 2014 Commission Chair Manitakos asked for clarification regarding the recommendation of the item. Principal Planner Caruso stated that because the BPAC does not act on environmental documentation, they do not have to take an action on the Negative Declaration only on the Climate Action Plan itself. Vice Chair Jackson noted that the report was well done and added that it will be a future model for cities, states and countries to follow. He spoke briefly on the item and gave general comments. Vice Chair Jackson spoke about the LUTE and suggested further analysis as to how people are getting around the City. He added that we could greatly benefit in the future from the results. Principal Planner Caruso referred back to the CAP. She stated that in order to receive credit for reduction in greenhouse gas, trips or the length of trips have to be reduced. She added that the policies in the CAP focus on that. The purpose it to move people towards those other modes. Ms. Singleton stated that they do rely on data from various surveys that identify modes by Sunnyvale residents. She added that the Safe Routes to School Program has trip counts and shows how students are getting to school. She also stated that there are local ways that maybe do not get every intersection or in a comprehensive approach but certain programs do have that component to them. Vice Chair Jackson agreed and stated that it is something that needs to be addressed very firmly. He added that recently he heard that the County of San Mateo is not going to use their highway funds for any safety improvements when it is much needed. Commissioner Welch commented that by the year 2035 we should be relying more on state of the art technologies and asked why we were not relying more on technology to make the City smarter. He gave various examples on ways we could be working smarter. He added that we live in Silicon Valley and it should be an optimized City and everything should be smart. Commissioner Welch added that even though he thought it was a wonderful report he would have liked to have seen that in the report. Principal Planner Caruso sated that the report is not final. There is an opportunity to reevaluate the program and come back to Council in four months with updates. She added that if the State comes up with new initiatives that are more effective and cost effective the plan can be changed. Ms. Singleton noted that there are implementation chapters in the report that have City of Sunnyvale Page 4 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final April 17, 2014 Commission specific policies. One of them being the annual monitoring of the City’s Greenhouse Emissions and updating the plan at a minimum of five years to make sure to capture any new opportunities that did not exist five years ago. Commissioner Welch stated that a lot of the technology is available already and is being implemented in cities around the world. He felt the report was lacking a bit of the technology side. Vice Chair Jackson gave an update on the meetings that have happened since 2010. He stated that a lot the spoken items were on their minds. Some items suggested were to required outlets for electric cars, waste water recapture, white roofs, trees, putting solar in parking lots, open spaces, etc. He stated that the BPAC would like to be forward when it comes to technology and constantly evaluate where more improvements can be made. Commissioner Kolber complimented the report. He spoke briefly on the item and highlighted that these are the efforts that the City is going to do to make their goal not the citizens of Sunnyvale or people coming into town to work. There were no members of the public who spoke on the item. Chair Manikatos stated that the survey results contained in the CAP were a little surprising to him. He asked who was surveyed. Ms. Caruso responded that the survey was online through Survey Monkey and was susceptible to self-reporting bias. Informal surveys taken at meeting indicated greater support for CAP policies than the Survey Monkey results. Associate Planner Ishijima noted that there were some surveys taken at the Community Outreach meeting that were not included in the attachment before them. She added that the number did shift a little. The results were more favorable to the results towards the CAP. MOTION: Chair Manitakos moved and Vice Chair Jackson seconded the motion to recommend that Council take the following actions: • Adopt the Climate Action Plan with Implementation Program; • Direct staff to move forward with the “just do it” CAP Action Items; • Direct staff to prepare a CAP CEQA checklist to determine future project consistency with the CAP for all departments to use for public and private projects; • Direct staff to come back to Council within four months with a timeline, work plan and possible funding strategies for CAP GHG emission reduction measures; and City of Sunnyvale Page 5 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final April 17, 2014 Commission • Direct staff to come back within four months with a recommendation for securing a CAP monitoring program with a proposed budget modification as needed. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes 5 - Vice Chair Jackson Commissioner Jones Commissioner Kolber Chair Manitakos Jr. Commissioner Welch No 0 Absent 2 - Commissioner Rausch Commissioner Switzer 3 14-0445 Utility Bill Insert Concepts Assistant Director of Public Works Manuel Pineda spoke about the Utility Bill Insert Concepts and asked the Commissioners for additional ideas or refinement before moving forward. Vice Chair Jackson noted that he sent his ideas to Jack Witthaus. Assistant Director Pineda asked that the ideas be sent to him. Chair Manitakos stated that anything that could be done to get the message out is an opportunity that should be taken advantage of. Educating motorist and cyclists is very important. He also spoke about the importance of involving Public Safety, posting the information on the City’s website, and featuring it on the Quarterly Report. He added that getting the inserts out will educate the public. Assistant Director Pineda stated that he would check on the time frame of the inserts to go out and will report back with a date. It was noted that most likely it would be during the July/August bill cycle. Vice Chair Jackson noted that the header on the insert needs to get people’s attention and suggested the following: Sunnyvale Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Promotes Safe, Courteous, and Legal Road Sharing through You. 4 14-0446 Study Issue Brainstorming Chair Manitakos opened the topic of Study Issue Brainstorming and asked for new ideas to go over in September. Among the Study Issues discussed were: Smart Phone Study Issue, Car Sharing Study Issue, and Implementation of Complete Streets. City of Sunnyvale Page 6 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final April 17, 2014 Commission Assistant Director Pineda offered to bring back the list of Study Issues and how the items were ranked. He stated he would email the Commission and have them decide when to put the item back on the agenda. 5 14-0447 Bike to Work Day Planning Chair Manitakos asked for an update regarding the Bike to Work Day Planning. Assistant Director Pineda announced that he is managing the Traffic and Transportation Division until Jack Witthaus returns. He met with Traffic staff and it was decided that they will set up at the usual two locations: Plaza del Sol and Wolfe & El Camino. The Bike to Work Day event is Thursday, May 8. Set up will begin at 5:30 a.m. They will have two staff members at each location, snacks will be provided, and they will be ready to go. Vice Chair Jackson reported that the Moffett Park Business Association normally hosts two locations and that he would be joining them. 6 14-0448 Review of Park Dedication Fund Project List Chair Manitakos opened the topic of Review of Park Dedication Fund Project List Study and asked for feedback. There were no questions regarding the Park Dedication list. It was noted that during construction of the Murphy Park project the bicycle parking was left behind the construction fence. Assistant Director Pineda stated that he would remind his capital group staff to be aware of bicycle parking for future park projects. NON-AGENDA ITEMS & COMMENTS -Commissioner Comments None. -Staff Comments None. ADJOURNMENT Chair Manitakos adjourned the meeting at 8:30 p.m. City of Sunnyvale Page 7