SR-410-001 (2)
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SEP 1 2 1989
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council Meeting:
September 12, 1989
Santa Monica, California
TO:
The Mayor and city Council
FROM:
City staff
SUBJECT: Approval of Resolution Establishing Hours to Open and
Close Third street Promenade to Vehicular Traffic
INTRODUCTION
This staff report requests City Council adoption of a resolution
establishing the vehicular traffic hours to open and close the
Third street Promenade and provides requested information
regarding the operation and circulation plan for the area.
BACKGROUND
On May 9, 1989, the City council adopted an ordinance adding
Section 3347c and amending Section 3612 of the Municipal Code to
permit vehicular traffic on the Third street Promenade with a
fifteen mile per hour speed limit. While
establishing
the
ordinance, the city Council expressed its desire to defer the
establishment of hours for opening and closing the Third street
Promenade until information regarding the proposed operations
could be presented and reviewed to ensure the pedestrian
character of the Promenade.
DISCUSSION
The City Council reviewed and approved the conceptual and design
development plans for the Third street Promenade presented by the
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SEP 1 2 1989
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consultant team of ROMA Design Group and Halcyon Ltd. in 1987.
At that time, the consultant team described their intent of
creating an inviting, exciting and protective pedestrian
environment within the 80 foot width of the Third street
Promenade. The bulk of this 80 foot width consists of 30 foot
sidewalks on either side of the Third street Promenade framing a
20 foot roadway. As a point of comparison, these sidewalks are
nearly twice as wide as those located on Ocean Avenue.
Based upon a traffic volume analysis by Kaku and Associates it
was determined that the proposed roadway would have minor volumes
and serve principally to aid circulation to and from nearby
parking structure facilities. Curb radii, established by roadway
geometries, were designed for a 15 mile per hour speed limit. In
addition, five islands were designed in the roadway to encourage
pedestrians to freely cross the roadway and meander in east-west
directions, in addition to the designated north-south promenading
zones.
A dominant concern of the consultant team was to create expansive
promenading areas without replicating the overwhelming width of
the old Santa Monica Mall. Therefore, pedestrian patterns of
local Santa Monica gathering places and commercial districts were
analyzed by Halcyon Ltd. In addition, the consultants researched
data and case studies from the public space planning firm of
Project for public spaces, Inc. to ensure the proposed activity
zone model for the Third street Promenade would provide the
desired pedestrian environment.
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Consequently, the Promenade design included a basic cross-section
of the 80 foot right-of-way which identified nearly 60 feet of
designated areas for continuous and exclusive pedestrian use
while accentuating the dynamic nature of a gathering space with
limited auto access, outdoor dining, Pavilion buildings, islands
featuring art works, diverse landscaping and abundant seating.
Automobile Access in other Former Pedestrian Malls
City staff and Bayside District staff surveyed ten other
analogous cities which have either altered a former pedestrian
mall or devised plans to encourage additional pedestrians flow on
its core downtown street.
Pratt street, Hartford, CT: The proposed Pratt street
reconstruction has many similarities with the Third street
Promenade including fluctuating roadway schedule of opening and
closing. originally closed to automobiles twenty years ago it is
being reopened to vehicles according to the following schedule:
Open in the morning and afternoon, but closed to vehicular
traffic during the mid-day. In addition it will open at night to
automobile traffic.
Oak Park, Ill: Their former pedestrian mall was recently
reopened after fourteen years without automobile traffic. The
two very long blocks have continuous auto use, some transit
traffic and very limited parking. pedestrian volume has
increased considerably since the reopening of the roadway to
vehicles.
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Pacific Mall, Santa Cruz, CA: This pedestrian area consists of a
winding, continuously open one-way street with some parking along
its side. Pedestrians are restricted to ten-foot walkways next
to the storefronts. Vehicle traffic is not considered an
impediment to achieving a very accessible pedestrian environment.
16th street Transit Mall, Denver, co: The cross-section of this
mall is similar to the Third street Promenade in configuration
and design. The eighty foot wide mall has a twenty foot roadway
and is continuously open to exclusively accommodate buses
carrying nearly 90,000 people daily. Despite this heavy volu~e,
pedestrians are uninhibited and move freely due to the narrow
twenty foot roadway and thirty foot sidewalks.
Oxnard, CA: This pedestrian mall was reopened several years ago
as a winding roadway. Since the reopening it is estimated that
the street averages approximately three times more foot traffic
and a better level of security has been realized. Oxnard's
roadway is never closed.
Galveston, TX: Following an unsuccessful experience with a
pedestrian mall , Galveston tried operating a trolley. It was
considered useful by local residents but extremely poor ridership
recently canceled the program. Galveston is currently completing
a plan to reopen the street to automobile traffic with extra wide
sidewalks.
Nicollette Mall, Minneapolis, MN: This pedestrian mall is open
to buses, taxis and emergency vehicles and is about six blocks
long. The combination of no vehicular access and the elevated
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skyways has resulted in far fewer pedestrians than anticipated by
the design.
Granview Mall, Vancouver, Be: This pedestrian mall is open to
buses exclusively and is basically a transit mall. Pedestrian
volume on the Granview Mall is actually less than either street
running parallel to this transit mall. Lack of vehicular access
is cited as a principal reason for the Mall's lack of success.
Recommended Hours
Based upon the integrity of the Promenade design, research by
consul tants and input from the BDC Board and hundreds of area
residents, customers, social service agencies and business
persons, consensus was sought from all groups prior to
recommending hours of operation to Council. Not unexpectedly,
adversarial positions were advanced by groups desiring continuous
automobile access, as well as those advocating the conflicting
position of permanent prohibition of vehicles from the Third
street Promenade.
The majority of those consulted, however, understood the intent
of the activity zones and felt that ample space was provided to a
leisurely stroll down the Promenade, even during periods of auto
access. The key periods during which most individuals and
organizations felt auto access may present a conflict with
pedestrians were periods when extremely high pedestrian volumes
were anticipated, such as peak hours of movie theatre patronage,
Farmers' Market days and popular mid-week luncheon hours.
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What follows is an overview of those recommendations made by the
Bayside District Corporation Board and the City retained traffic
consultant Barton-Aschman Associates.
Bayside District Corporation
At their meeting of April 27, 1989, and after much discussion,
the Bayside District corporation Board motioned and unanimously
approved the following in regards to the roadway operation.
"The Promenade should be closed to automobiles during peak
pedestrian hours between the hours of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 6
days a week and all day on Wednesday Farmers Market day.
We encourage city staff to explore flexibility in the hours
for the Promenade in which special cons ideration should be
given to special events, like the Grand opening and seasonal
changes as they are necessary"
At this meeting the Board also requested the scheduled hours of
operation be reviewed regularly by the BDC staff and the
Operations Subcommittee, with any proposed recommendations for
changes being forwarded through the BDC Board to the city IS
Parking and Traffic Engineer.
Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc.
The City also retained the traffic engineering consultant firm of
Barton-Aschman Associates to examine several traffic related
issues, including the hours of operation of the Promenade
roadway. Although the study is in draft form, conversations with
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Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc. indicates they recommend the
Promenade be closed to vehicular traffic between the hours of
11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.1 Monday through FridaYI and 12 noon to
6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Additionally, their recommendation will
be to close the Promenade on Wednesday (Farmer's Market Day) and
remain closed on Friday and saturday evenings to 9:00 p.m. once
the theater and restaurant developments are completed and the
activity level on the Promenade increases.
The completed Third Street Promenade Pedestrian study will he
submitted to city Council through an Information Item within the
next few weeks.
Numerous charts, tables and graphs are being
finalized for inclusion into the study.
With input from the consultant, BDC Board, numerous other
interested groups, and City Council comments received at the May
9, 1989 Council meeting, staff recommends that the Third Street
Promenade initially be closed to vehicular traffic during the
following hours:
Everyday
(except Wednesday)
10:00 a.m. to 4 p.m.
closed all day
Special events and promotions would further lind t auto access,
and upon the opening of all Promenade movie theaters extended
hours of roadway closure can take place.
City staff and the Bayside District Board will monitor and review
these initial hours of roadway operation over a six-month (6)
period and return to Council to report on how it is working. At
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that time, the hours of roadway opening and closing can be
adjusted if necessary.
RECOMMENDATION
It is respectfully recommended that the City Council adopt the
attached resolution establishing hours to open and close the
Third street Promenade to vehicular traffic.
Prepared by: Ron Fuchiwaki, Parking and Traffic Engineer
Darrell George, Senior Administrative Analyst
Attachment: Resolution
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RESOLUTION NUMBER 7905 (CCS)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
ESTABLISHING THE HOURS WHEN THE THIRD STREET PROMENADE WILL BE
OPEN TO VEHICULAR TRAFFIC
WHEREAS, Section 3612 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code
authorizes City Council to establish by resolution the hours when
the Third Street Promenade will be open to vehicular traffic:
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Third street Promenade shall be open to
vehicular traffic except during the times indicated below:
a) Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from
lO:OO am to 4:30 pm;
b) Wednesday, from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm;
c) From Thanksgiving Day to New Year1s Day the Third street
Promenade shall be closed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday from ll:OO am to 3:00 pm and
on Wednesday from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm.
SECTION 2. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of
this Resolution, and thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be
in full force and affect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
~~~~
ROBERT M. MYERS
City Attorney
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Adopted and approved this 12th day of September, 1989.
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I hereby certify that the foregoing Resolution No. 7905(CCS)
was duly adopted by the City council of the city of Santa Monica
at a meeting thereof held on September 12, 1989 by the following
Council vote:
Ayes: Councilmembers: Abdo, Genser, Jennings, Ka tz ,
Mayor Zane
Noes: Councilmembers: Reed
Abstain: Councilmembers: None
Absent: Councilmembers: Finkel
ATTEST:
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Adopted and approved this 12th day of September, 1989.
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I hereby certify that the foregoing Resolution No. 7905(CCS)
was duly adopted by the city council of the city of Santa Monica
at a meeting thereof held on September 12, 1989 by the following
Council vote:
Ayes: Councilmembers: Abdo, Genser, Katz, Reed, Mayor
Zane
Noes: Councilmembers: Jennings
Abstain: Councilmembers: None
Absent: Councilmembers: Finkel
ATTEST:
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