Loading...
Attachment 1 - Shannon Rd Community Meeting - Minutes 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov TOWN OF LOS GATOS SHANNON RD COMMUNITY MEETING MEETING DATE: 06/01/2023 MINUTES OF THE SHANNON RD COMMUNITY MEETING June 1, 2023 The Town of Los Gatos Parks and Public Works Department conducted a Community Meeting on June 1, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. at Congregation Shir Hadash. Council Members Present: Mayor Ristow, Vice-Mayor Badame, Council Member Moore, and Council Member Rennie Complete Streets and Transportation Commissioners Present: Chair Ehlers, Commissioner Verga, and Commissioner Walker Nicolle Burnham, PPW Director, gave the presentation. After the presentation, community members had small group discussions with an opportunity to visit the project location with staff. Community members reconvened and community input was summarized by street segment, including comments from residents who do not live adjacent to the project. North side of Shannon Rd from Los Gatos Blvd to Magneson Loop: • Concerns about parking and no on-street parking. • Some homes in the area do not have garages and have limited driveway space. • Concern about the accuracy of the right of way down on the south side of Shannon Rd. • Suggestion to move the planting strip on the south side of the street for parking and reduce the width of the sidewalk on the eastbound side of the project. • Kids walk along the north side of the street to access the crosswalk at the traffic signal. North side of Shannon Rd to Cherry Blossom Lane: • Some people liked the planter strips, and some people liked the parking. • People liked the project and were okay with the buffers but did not agree with the width of the buffer. • Good conversation about some of the improvements of the right of way at the property line and how that improvement might impact the construction of the sidewalk and the setback. • Discussed the color of the truncated curb ramps, the group asked whether we could use a different color other than yellow. • Good conversation about the landscaping strip and who will be maintaining the strip and if the resident could maintain the landscaping strip with plants. ATTACHMENT 1 PAGE 2 OF 5 SUBJECT: SHANNON RD COMMUNITY MEETING MINUTES DATE: June 6, 2023 • Talked about irrigation and how conduits might be put under the sidewalk so that irrigation can be provided from that property to the landscape strip. South side of Shannon Rd from Los Gatos Blvd to Englewood Ave: • Repurposing space, making room for parking. • Feedback that the bike lane looked too large and made it look more industrial. • Received questions on exactly how wide some elements needed to be; seven-foot sidewalk and three-foot buffer. • They want to ensure they have the best of both worlds and enough green space as they possibly can. South side of Shannon Rd from Englewood Ave to La Chiquita Ave: • Interest in increasing the drive lane to eleven feet. • Reducing the buffer for the bike lane. • Reducing the bike lane. • Discussed speed humps, ones that are out there are effective and they are slowing down traffic. • Additional speed humps in this project are important because they will help with slowing down speeds. • Would like us to be careful about where we locate the speed humps in relation to people’s front doors and houses. • Group was for the elimination of parking. Non-Shannon Rd residents Non-Shannon Road Residents: • None of the people in the group picked the option with parking. • They liked the option with more trees. • One of the issues mentioned was visibility when they are pulling out and there is someone parked, it makes it hard to see. • Another person mentioned an increase in bicycles, pedestrians, and e-bikes, especially since the pandemic. With an increase in this activity, people are also concerned that people will get hit by a car door as bicycles, pedestrians, and e-bikes go by. • They are other places where people can find parking on other streets. • Had a discussion on safety and on people’s behaviors and pedestrians. • Heard questions about where the storm drains will be located and why can’t there be Option 1, Option A, and Option B. • Heard a lot of concerns about parking and where will people be parking. Verbal Communications (as a community meeting, staff provided responses to the questions as appropriate): Resident • Has there been a parking study done historically? • Staff Response: We have not done one and I have not seen one in our project file. PAGE 3 OF 5 SUBJECT: SHANNON RD COMMUNITY MEETING MINUTES DATE: June 6, 2023 Andy Horwitz, Shannon Road Resident • In the plans how much of the budget is allotted to the properties impacted? • For example, the properties that have fences on the property line. • What is the impact on pavers and additional landscaping? • Trees are going to have to be removed even if they are in the right of way because of the sidewalk. Staff Response: • We do not have cost estimates yet. • We will be going back to the drawing board once we hear back from Council, doing a redesign, and doing another public meeting to talk about the actual improvements. • For example, on your property, you have hardscape and pavers in the right of way from your driveway and looking into alternatives. Mark Bony, Shannon Road Resident • There is a question we asked last time, and I am not sure if we got that answer. • On the state funding, I am not sure if we got confirmation that it can be extended, this is the matching funds. • Will that probably be an issue, we did not hear that it will be an issue. • The question that I have as well as several others, will it be postponed or extended. Staff Response: • I have been doing a deep dive into the two grant programs that were funded, and that were secured for the project. • The larger one the $940,000 grant program was set to expire in January 2023, but because there were projects still pending the federal transportation agencies extended it to January 31, 2024. • They are saying they will not extend it again and if the money is not obligated by that time, they will pull it. It is the whole program; it is not just our grant for Los Gatos it is the entire grant program, and they will sunset the entire program. • We are moving forward on the assumption that we cannot secure the $940,000 beyond January 31, 2024. What that means is that do not have to spend it all but have to have design plans completed and approved by Caltrans before January 31, 2024, or we will forfeit that money. Cheri Binkley, Shannon Road Resident • This road right now has a wide buffer on both sides and a lot of residents park as far over as possible onto the grass and landscape. • It will be hard to know how much use goes into it because people park all the way off to the side to give space because it is technically no parking. • You will see people park all the way over to give people space while they are walking by. • I feel like kids are safer biking on sidewalks. I know the original plans from fifteen to twenty years ago that were still online three-to-five-year range involved a more class one like the Los Gatos Creek Trail and having a big wide sidewalk on both sides and not having any bike lanes it would be assumed with people out there would give us enough width on both sides for parking and get everyone to a safer spot because they are up on PAGE 4 OF 5 SUBJECT: SHANNON RD COMMUNITY MEETING MINUTES DATE: June 6, 2023 the sidewalk. I still think that would have been the best plan. I think there was a plan on the north side that was bi-directional that would not work. • For bikes and sidewalks, a multi-use path there would be enough space for the greenery, and you can get the parking in. I think this is better and grew up in a master plan community with something along those lines and it is beautiful and really allows for trees to go over the sidewalk where people are biking, and it looks more rural, suburban vs urban. • I personally favor getting rid of the buffers altogether because without having any parking whatsoever people are going to park in and pull off into the bike lanes. I think it would be better to have the bike lanes without the buffers there. I know they are there because people are bad drivers and don’t give bikers enough space, but we are hoping to slow down traffic. I want to make the lanes look small and not look wide. Let’s get the buffers in, close the street in, slow everybody down and that is what is going to make it safer at the end of the day. Jim Mahoney, Shannon Road Resident • I am concerned about parking, in the section where we live there is no parking in plan B and there are eight spaces east of Magneson Loop. • On the north side of Shannon, very few kids go to and come from school all go on the south side. • We can make adjustments on the south side like what you did on the other side and have some parking spaces along thereby reducing the buffer and removing the planter strip out which you have done on other sections like what you did for planning. • This is really important, some of the houses have been there a long time and they only have enough space for one car, we have a driveway that allows two cars, but if anyone comes to visit us they will have to park on a side street and I am sure the neighbors will not be happy about that. Sheldon Gilbert, Resident • I do not live on Shannon Road. • Has there been a traffic study to see which side of the street is more heavily used and between what hours? • Is this part of the design? Staff Response: • I did find in the project file some counts from 2017. • Pedestrian and bike counts had numbers of up to 150 kids in the morning as an a.m. count. • We will be talking about this at the June 20th Town Council meeting. • As we prepare that memo, we will revisit some of those numbers and present that information and will be talking to our Safe Routes to School Coordinator, Wendy Riggs to see if she has any additional information about what we know and how many people are biking and walking to and from school. PAGE 5 OF 5 SUBJECT: SHANNON RD COMMUNITY MEETING MINUTES DATE: June 6, 2023 Resident • This is a balance thing. Clearly, there are a lot of people and kids going up and down the street. • What we need to remember is that right now there is no sidewalk, right now there is no bike lane, right now there is just a space for cars to park in, and right now there are no speed humps. Any of those things are going to be done and most likely to some degree all those things will be done. Things are going to get a lot better. I am pleased to see some progress being made. • What I am worried a little bit is that this stretch of road is being used as a showcase, I have heard multiple times we going to do it as it should be done. But that certainly becomes a template for the rest of the town. I do not think we want to make one block of Shannon Road a template for the entire town. We want to show how good of a job we can do. To sustain the character of the town while making it safer by adding a sidewalk, by adding a bike lane, and by adding speed humps. • So that is why I encourage you to talk about these dreaded buffers next to the bikes. These are the most controversial thing, why is it three feet even because someday someone hopes to add a barrier? We do not need barriers on a neighborhood street like this and therefore it could slow someone down and make it safe. • Let’s not make Shannon a showcase for the maximum amount for biking. Let’s make Shannon a showcase of how much of a balance we can provide for our town, providing the best-looking street while adding a sidewalk, adding a bike lane, and adding some speed humps. Resident • Thanked Nicolle because we never had this at all. We are happy you are doing this. We are happy Town Council is here to talk to us about this. • It is just sad that two-plus years ago we were asked which concept we would like, and we said number one to make it easy on Town Council members then when public verbal communications were over and then the Town Council just discussed Concept 3. So, we really felt like we were ignored, and it was very disturbing on that Zoom call. • If we went with project one, the project would have been down by now. • I appreciate your time with this, and I prefer Concept A it has more greenery and consistency with a rural-type look neighborhood. ADJOURNED 7:30 p.m.