13 Staff Report
PREPARED BY: Lisa Petersen
Assistant Parks and Public Works Director/Town Engineer
Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, Finance Director, and Parks and
Public Works Director
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 01/21/2020
ITEM NO: 13
DATE: January 16, 2020
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Laurel Prevetti, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Discontinue Efforts Towards a Roundabout Design on South Santa Cruz
Avenue at Wood Road
RECOMMENDATION:
Discontinue efforts towards a roundabout design on South Santa Cruz Avenue at Wood Road.
BACKGROUND:
Over the past several years, the Town of Los Gatos has implemented multiple traffic mitigation
measures striving to address the cut-through beach traffic that impacts the Town over warm
summer weekends. One of these measures was to close the South Santa Cruz Avenue entrance
to Highway 17 at Wood Road with a temporary roundabout. The closure was in place during
various weekends in the summers of 2016 and 2017.
Given Caltrans purview over Highway 17, Town staff worked closely with Caltrans on the
implementation of the temporary closure at South Santa Cruz Avenue and Wood Road because
it prevented access to the Highway 17 on-ramp. Due to this impact, the Council was advised by
staff that any permanent infrastructure or ongoing closure at this location would require
permits from Caltrans.
At the January 17, 2017 Town Council meeting, Town Council authorized the Town Manager to
execute an agreement with a transportation consultant firm (W-Trans) to work with Caltrans on
the development of a report and conceptual plan for a permanent roundabout at Wood Road.
The final W-Trans report was submitted to Caltrans in November of 2018.
PAGE 2 OF 4
SUBJECT: Discontinue Efforts Towards a Roundabout Design on South Santa Cruz Avenue
at Wood Road
DATE: January 16, 2020
BACKGROUND (continued):
At the March 6, 2018 Town Council Meeting, the Council directed staff not to implement the
temporary closure at Wood Road for the summer of 2018. Reasons included the congestion
created by the closure around the Town’s downtown corridor which limited consumer access to
downtown businesses and changes in Town traffic patterns that resulted in increased traffic
congestion on the east side of Highway 17.
DISCUSSION:
The final report submitted to Caltrans, called an Intersection Control Evaluation (ICE), reviewed
the option of placing a permanent roundabout at the intersection of South Santa Cruz Avenue
and Wood Road. This location takes advantage of both Town and Caltrans right of way to
achieve the space necessary for a roundabout, as there is not enough space to install a
roundabout on Town right-of-way alone.
The report noted several benefits of building the roundabout, including providing a gateway
entrance to downtown, slowing speeds of vehicles exiting Highway 17 northbound, and
facilitating a closure of the Highway 17 on-ramp to address freeway cut-through traffic. If
constructed, the Town would still need Caltrans approval for any future temporary closures.
The consultant report recommended advancing the roundabout concept for further
consideration.
Since the submittal of the report to Caltrans in November of 2018, there have been several
discussions between Parks and Public Works staff and Caltrans regarding the roundabout
design. During these discussions, Caltrans made it clear that any proposed project by the Town
would require the addition of metering lights to the southbound ramp to Highway 17 from
South Santa Cruz Avenue. With the installation of ramp metering lights, Caltrans requirements
additionally stipulate other costly improvements such as building new High Occupancy Vehicle
(HOV) lanes on Caltrans ramps and widening of the freeway to add short lanes specifically for
traffic entering and exiting Los Gatos (called auxiliary lanes). Caltrans noted the Town could
request these additional improvements be waived through a Caltrans “Design Exception”
process; however, Caltrans staff was not optimistic that a waiver for all of the requirements
would be approved.
The additional requirement for ramp metering significantly changes the scope and character of
the roundabout project for the Town. Ramp metering increases the project complexity, cost ,
and time frames beyond what was envisioned by Town staff for the project. The estimated
order of magnitude of costs are approximately $2-3 million. Additionally, the Town’s Traffic
Engineer is concerned that ramp metering could cause traffic congestion on South Santa Cruz
PAGE 3 OF 4
SUBJECT: Discontinue Efforts Towards a Roundabout Design on South Santa Cruz Avenue
at Wood Road
DATE: January 16, 2020
DISCUSSION (continued):
Avenue on weekdays when Caltrans would typically turn on the ramp metering lights.
Currently, the Town has no traffic back up problem with the on-ramp during a typical weekday.
The Town would have minimal control over when Caltrans would turn on the metering lights
and the metering time lengths.
The initial policy rationale of proposing a Wood Road Roundabout was the Council’s interest to
use the roundabout to address summer cut-through beach traffic by temporarily closing the
Highway 17 on-ramp. It is important to note that during project discussions with Caltrans,
Caltrans made no commitment to approving future temporary closures to the Highway 17 on -
ramp if the roundabout project was ultimately built.
CONCLUSION:
Due to this scope change by Caltrans and the cost and time impacts created by that change,
staff recommends not moving forward with the design of the roundabout at the South Santa
Cruz Avenue and Wood Road intersection.
ALTERNATIVES:
Alternative 1: Should the Town Council desire to move forward with the project with the scope
changes required by Caltrans, the Council can direct staff to proceed with next steps, including
a traffic study to determine the traffic impacts that would be created by the addition of
metering lights to the South Santa Cruz Avenue on-ramp to southbound Highway 17. Metering
lights could create back-ups and queuing on South Santa Cruz Avenue. The project budget does
include enough funding to complete this task; however, funds have not yet been identified for
additional engineering and construction of the full project.
Staff does not recommend this alternative because the Town would have minimal control over
the timing of the metering lights and the timing criteria assumed for the traffic study could be
changed by Caltrans later, making the study results invalid. Additionally, the cost for the entire
project could be substantial, including metering lights, the widening of Highway 17 for auxiliary
lanes, and widening the existing South Santa Cruz Avenue freeway ramps for HOV lanes.
Alternative 2: There may also be an opportunity to recast this project as a traffic calming and/
or gateway project on Town right-of-way only without installing a roundabout. By not
impacting the flow of traffic onto the freeway and staying off Caltrans right-of-way, Caltrans
would have no control over the scope of the project. A permit from Caltrans would still be
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SUBJECT: Discontinue Efforts Towards a Roundabout Design on South Santa Cruz Avenue
at Wood Road
DATE: January 16, 2020
ALTERNATIVES (continued):
required for closing access to Highway 17. This project could take a number of forms, including
narrowing of travel lanes through installation of a center median.
Staff is neutral on this approach. If the Council would like to pursue this option, the Council
could decide to allocate the remaining funds in the Cut-Through Traffic/Wood Road
Roundabout project towards this purpose during the annual budget process.
FISCAL IMPACT:
During the on-going Town budget process, the Council has maintained funds in the Cut -Through
Traffic/Wood Road Roundabout project for use on various cut-through traffic mitigation
measures, including the advancement of a design for a permanent roundabout at Wood Road.
The total remaining amount in the project budget is $355,000. Council could choose to leave
the funds for future cut-through traffic mitigations, other than the design of a permanent traffic
circle at Wood Road, or reallocate these funds during the Town’s upcoming budget process.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
This is not a project defined under CEQA, and no further action is required.