Staff Report
PREPARED BY: MATT MORLEY
PARKS AND PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, and Finance Director
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 01/15/2019
ITEM NO: 5
DATE: JANUARY 10, 2019
TO: MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
FROM: LAUREL PREVETTI, TOWN MANAGER
SUBJECT: REVIEW OPTIONS FOR A ONE-WAY STREET PILOT ON NORTH SANTA CRUZ
AVENUE AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF ON A PREFERRED OPTION
FOR IMPLEMENTATION
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the Town Council review options for a one-way street pilot on North
Santa Cruz Avenue and provide direction to staff on a preferred option for implementation.
BACKGROUND:
The Town’s adopted FY 2018/19-2022/23 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Budget
designates funding of $130,000 for a one-way street pilot program in the downtown. A pilot
program allows for exploring options and implementing modifications of a temporary nature
during the pilot and then returning to the original conditions after the pilot. Given the funding
for the pilot, the modifications would consist primarily of changes to street paint markings. At
the conclusion of the pilot program, the Town would have explored the concept, received
public input, and could use the information acquired to inform possible longer term permanent
changes.
DISCUSSION:
Staff has reviewed a number of options for a one-way pilot. The review considered several
elements that have been raised in public forums regarding traffic, parking, downtown vitality,
neighborhood quality of life, and other factors. Specifically:
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SUBJECT: REVIEW OPTIONS FOR A ONE-WAY STREET PILOT ON NORTH SANTA CRUZ
AVENUE AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF ON A PREFERRED OPTION FOR
IMPLEMENTATION
DATE: JANUARY 10, 2019
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DISCUSSION (continued):
• Downtown Accessibility – Create a situation where access to the downtown is
encouraged by vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Avoid an appearance of cutting off
the downtown by discouraging access at Highway 9 or Main Street.
• Parking - Minimize the reduction in parking spaces and explore angled parking for
increased capacity.
• Walkability - Increase the attractiveness of the downtown for pedestrians and bicyclists.
• Residential Neighborhood Impact - Acknowledge potential impacts to residential
neighborhoods and minimize those impacts to the extent possible.
• Cut Through Traffic - Explore the ability to impact cut through traffic.
• Budget - Manage the scope given the existing budget and temporary nature of the
changes.
• Roadway Integrity - Maintain state and federal engineering standards and best practices
for roadway design.
Through the initial evaluation process, much of the focus considered potential modifications to
North Santa Cruz Avenue. Staff explored numerous configuration options that included
modifications to various stretches of this street between Main Street and Highway 9 . Options
explored included creating bi-directional bike lanes, converting curbside parking to angled
parking, and incorporating designated areas for parklets. Provided below is a summary of three
potential options which best maximize the aforementioned ele ments taken into consideration.
Option A (Attachment 1) - provides for a southbound one-way North Santa Cruz Avenue
between Elm and Royce Streets. The intent of this option is make the downtown as accessible
as possible while minimizing the use of Almond Grove streets to bypass the downtown. The
selection of the Elm and Royce cross streets is strategic as both allow two-way traffic to enter
the core of the downtown from the north and the south, and avoids redirecting vehicles at
major intersections (i.e., Main Street and Highway 9). Additionally, at both cross streets
vehicles would turn east or away from the residential streets of the Almond Grove Historic
District and in the direction of the downtown parking lots.
This option incorporates a northbound bike lane and allows for southbound bikes to share the
road with vehicles. Technically this option retains a two-way road as the northbound bike lane
is considered a traffic lane. For safety, a buffer is required between traffic and that bike lane .
Because of this, the option eliminates the opportunity to park on the east side of North Santa
Cruz Avenue (California law prohibits vehicles to cross oncoming bike traffic to enter a parking
space). The result is a net decrease of eight parking spaces with a broad increase of
unprogrammed space that is currently used for parallel parking along the east side of the
street. This unprogrammed space could be programmed into expanded parklets, to test a
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SUBJECT: REVIEW OPTIONS FOR A ONE-WAY STREET PILOT ON NORTH SANTA CRUZ
AVENUE AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF ON A PREFERRED OPTION FOR
IMPLEMENTATION
DATE: JANUARY 10, 2019
S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2019\01-15-19\One-Way Street Pilot\Staff Report.docx 1/10/2019 4:34 PM
DISCUSSION (continued):
future scenario that might include widened sidewalks. The bike lane provides an opportunity to
reinforce the Town’s commitment to a bike and pedestrian friendly downtown.
Option B (Attachment 2) - provides similar solutions to the previous option but switches the
northbound bike lane to a southbound bike lane. This means there will be no northbound
traffic (vehicle or bike). This option increases parking by 13 spaces over the existing condition,
some of which could be committed to parklets in the future.
Option C (Attachment 3) - takes a different approach and creates a smaller section of
pedestrian only space in the downtown. The location is again strategically located to minimize
the impact on private driveways and parking. Although this solution does not create a one-way
street pilot, it has other benefits, including eliminating North Santa Cruz Avenue as a through
street (potentially discouraging cut through traffic) and creating a space in the current roadway
for community vitality activation/placemaking through events, casual seating, or other options.
This concept would encourage vehicles to turn east towards University Avenue and the parking
lots to minimize residential traffic impacts. The design does result in a decrease of 25 parking
spaces, which may be offset by a reduced demand for or approval of parklets in the future due
to the commitment to a large pedestrian area.
Attachment 4 provides a summary matrix of the key elements associated with each item,
including cost, parking, and challenging aspects.
In all options, staff anticipates a settling in time for traffic to normalize around the changes.
This means the initial weeks may result in increased congestion and inconvenience. To account
for this, staff recommends a four-month pilot beginning in July and running through October.
This timeframe incorporates summer traffic months and school traffic in the fall. Each option
accounts for restoring the current condition at the end of the pilot program.
The review of options took into consideration recent lessons from the one-way road scenario
created on Blossom Hill Road when the bridge crossing Highway 17 was damaged. Similar to
the experience on Blossom Hill Road, each modification of North Santa Cruz may shift the
current traffic to other streets, resulting in impacts on those routes by way of increased traffic
and the resulting degraded performance. For this reason, it is anticipated that all options
would result in neighborhood traffic effects.
ALTERNATIVES:
One-Way University and North Santa Cruz Avenues - Often one-way streets are created with
parallel streets providing traffic flow in opposite directions and that was the original intent of
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SUBJECT: REVIEW OPTIONS FOR A ONE-WAY STREET PILOT ON NORTH SANTA CRUZ
AVENUE AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF ON A PREFERRED OPTION FOR
IMPLEMENTATION
DATE: JANUARY 10, 2019
S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2019\01-15-19\One-Way Street Pilot\Staff Report.docx 1/10/2019 4:34 PM
ALTERNATIVES (continued):
the pilot. In reviewing a possible scenario of one-way streets on University and North Santa
Cruz Avenues, staff first considered two lanes of one -way travel on each street. While this may
provide for managing capacity concerns, this option provided several challenges:
• Two lane streets create a situation where vehicle speeds naturally increase,
impacting safety.
• Two lanes of travel leave the roadway structure, including parking and sidewalks,
unchanged in terms of allowable width to explore angled parking, wider sidewalks,
or bike lanes.
• The implementation of this alternative could require reworking four signalized
intersections, creating a very expensive project.
• The alternative may lead to increased traffic in the adjacent residential
neighborhoods.
Modifying the approach to create single lanes on University and North Santa Cruz would create
such a dramatic reduction in roadway capacity that the resulting effects would likely be too
impactful. For these reasons, staff recommends against a pilot program that includes t his
scope. If this option is a Town Council preference, staff would recommend a traffic feasibility
study as opposed to implementation of a pilot program.
CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS:
Each of the proposed options would provide an opportunity for evaluating structural changes to
downtown streets and the subsequent effects. The evaluation outcomes could potentially
inform discussions of a permanent change similar in scale or may lead to a more robust master
planning effort for the downtown that addresses needs with lessons learned from this pilot.
The Town Council should discuss and select a preferred option for implementation. If the
Council selects one of the proposed options, implementation would occur in the summer.
Outreach to the business and nearby residential community would occur in the late
spring/early summer prior to implementation. In addition, programmable message boards and
social media outreach would occur prior to implementation. Surveys and other data would be
collected during the pilot period. Existing conditions would be reinstalled after October 31,
2019.
OUTREACH:
Staff has informed the business community of this Council item given interest in the pilot
expressed by individual businesses, property owners, and the Chamber of Commerce. The
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SUBJECT: REVIEW OPTIONS FOR A ONE-WAY STREET PILOT ON NORTH SANTA CRUZ
AVENUE AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF ON A PREFERRED OPTION FOR
IMPLEMENTATION
DATE: JANUARY 10, 2019
S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2019\01-15-19\One-Way Street Pilot\Staff Report.docx 1/10/2019 4:34 PM
OUTREACH (continued):
Transportation and Parking Commission reviewed this at their January 10, 2019 meeting an d
provided the following input and observations:
• Traffic may impact residential streets.
• The contra-flow bike lane in option A works well to avoid the temptation of wrong way
bike riding.
• Sharrows work for southbound bikes.
• Angled parking may provide a challenge for visibility when vehicles are backing out.
• Option C does not provide broad reach for the programming of common space with
limited restaurants in the vicinity to take advantage.
• Removing vehicles from the downtown through traffic flow changes could reduce
customers to businesses.
• Data collection on where vehicles are going is important in the evaluation.
COORDINATION:
The review of the three proposed options was coordinated with the Town Manager’s Office
(including Economic Vitality) and the Police Department.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Funding of $130,000 has been identified through the CIP budget. Project estimates for options
A and B exceed that budget amount, as identified in Attachment 4. If either of those options
are identified and the preferred option, staff will recommend budget adjustments through the
annual budget process to complete the restoration work at the end of the pilot program in
October.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
This is a project as defined under CEQA but is Categorically Exempt (Section 15301c). A Notice
of Exemption will not be filed.
Attachments:
1. Option A - One Way Street Bike and Ped Focus
2. Option B – One Way Street Parking Focus
3. Option C – Mid Block Pedestrian Zone
4. Matrix of Key Components of Each Option