SR-400-001-04
f/planning and community development/2005 council staff reports/march 15 workshop agenda(mm)
City Council Meeting 3-15-05 Santa Monica, California
TO: Mayor and City Council
Chairperson and Planning Commission
FROM: City Staff
SUBJECT: Presentation and Discussion of Possible Goals for the Circulation Element
and Alternatives for Measuring Traffic Impacts and Goal Attainment
Introduction
Shape the Future 2025 and Motion by the Ocean are the efforts underway to update the
Land Use and Circulation Elements (LUCE) to the General Plan. As part of update to
the Circulation Element, the City will be establishing performance goals and revising the
methodology used to measure the impact development has on the City’s circulation
network. This joint meeting is intended to provide the City Council and Planning
Commission an opportunity to learn about performance measures used in other cities,
and in Southern California at the regional level.
Background
The 1984 Circulation Element reflects community concerns over the impact auto
congestion has on the quality of life and includes policies and programs intended to
promote biking, walking and transit in addition to providing infrastructure for auto travel.
In the years since it was adopted, the City has recognized the impact the transportation
system has on other community goals such as recreation, fitness and sustainability.
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The City has been a leader in promoting use of transit, ridesharing and walking. Santa
Monica’s Big Blue Bus System, Transportation Demand Management Program and
Sustainable City Program are nationally recognized. The City’s crosswalk improvement
programs are innovative in both their scope and scale. The downtown design, including
the Transit Mall and the use of shared parking, allow significant recreational and
commercial activity to take place with less auto traffic than would be expected at a
typical southern California downtown location.
As a result of these programs and other Council policies, peak hour traffic grew less
than 1% per year in the years following adoption of the Land Use and Circulation
Elements, as compared to 3% per year during the period prior to their adoption. Santa
Monica employers of 10 or more workers have come close (1.38 people per vehicle) to
achieving the target ridesharing rate (1.4 people per vehicle) set in the Land Use
Element.
Despite these successes in addressing travel behavior generally, residents continue to
voice concern about traffic, the potential impact of new development on the
transportation system, and whether the methodology used to evaluate the impact of
development on the system satisfactorily gauges the likely effect of this development on
travel patterns and use of different travel modes.
The methodology currently in use focuses primarily on the ability of private automobiles
to move throughout the City with limited delay. Impacts to pedestrians, cyclists and
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transit users are not measured, and, these modes of transportation are not granted
equal importance with the private automobile. The standards and thresholds
presuppose that an improvement is a change that allows more cars to flow through a
particular intersection with less delay.
With the LUCE update, the City will have the opportunity to establish goals and
performance measures that reflect community priorities for the circulation system,
including measures that address quality of life objectives important to the City. The City
will also have the opportunity to reassess the way it estimates the likely impact of new
development on the overall system, and could adopt an alternate development review
methodology that more closely tracks with the overall performance goals for the
transportation system.
Meeting Format
This joint meeting is intended to give the City Council and Planning Commission an
opportunity to explore performance measures and standards the City could use to
evaluate progress under the new Circulation Element. Invited panelists will share
experiences developing and using innovative performance measures that reflect
community priorities in Seattle, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Boulder Colorado, as well
as, at the regional level, here in Southern California. While the goals and policies Santa
Monica will adopt in the new Circulation Element will incorporate this community’s
values, there is value in learning from other pioneering cities. Examples of the work of
the panelists are attached as an appendix to this report.
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This evening, staff will describe the current measures the City uses to assess circulation
impacts and then each panelist will give a ten minute presentation. After the
presentations, there will be the opportunity for questions and discussion among the
panelists, staff, the City Council and Planning Commission. The following will be
participating in the discussion:
Jeffrey Tumlin, Partner,
Nelson/Nygaard Associates Consulting
Hasan Ikhrata, Director
Planning and Policy Development
Southern California Association of Governments
Joseph Kott
City of Palo Alto
Transportation Division
Randall Rutsch
City of Boulder
Department of Public Works
Will Recker
Professor of Civil Engineering
Director, Institute of Transportation Studies at UCI
Recommendation
Staff recommends the City Council and Planning Commission hear from staff and the
panelists on circulation performance goals and alternative traffic methodologies, discuss
the options, and if appropriate, provide direction to staff.
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Prepared By: Suzanne Frick, Director of Planning and Community Development
Lucy Dyke, Transportation Planning Manager
Attachments: A) Examples of Panelist’s Work
B) July 23, 2003 Planning Commission Staff Report Regarding
Traffic Analysis Discussion
Attachments are not available electronically. Available for
viewing at the City Clerk’s Office.
Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 1.5",
First line: 0.29"
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