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Corporate BusesPREPARED BY: MATT MORLEY Director of Parks and Public Works Reviewed by: Assistant Town Manager Town Attorney Finance S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2016\06-07-16\Corporate Buses\Staff Report - Private Corporate Buses FINAL.docx6/2/2016 1:20 PM SH MEETING DATE: 06/07/16 ITEM NO: 11 COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT DATE: MAY 27, 2016 TO: MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL FROM: LAUREL PREVETTI, TOWN MANAGER SUBJECT: PROVIDE DIRECTION TO ADDRESS PRIVATE CORPORATE BUSES IN TOWN RECOMMENDATION: Provide direction to address private corporate buses in Town. BACKGROUND: Large employers in the Silicon Valley rely on alternative means to transport employees to their employment campuses. One of these alternatives is the use of private shuttle buses. The buses pick up employees as an alternative to public transportation and driving. The shuttles pick up employees near their residences and deliver them to the campus fairly directly. This has proven effective as one tool towards meeting what can be very restrictive transportation demand management (TDM) requirements placed on the campuses by the cities where the campuses are located. Both Apple and Google operate corporate buses that pick up employees who reside in Los Gatos. Apple picks up three times in the morning in a Mercedes passenger van, which is a fairly small vehicle. Staff observed pickups on one route through Los Gatos of six individuals with three of them boarding at one stop (see Attachment 1). Google has significantly more ridership. Of the 330 Google employees with Los Gatos addresses, Google reports 146 riding their buses. Google runs through Town six times in the morning and again in the evening, stopping at three locations on each trip. Google utilizes a typical charter bus for their services. The known route and stops are shown in Attachment 1. Netflix also employs corporate buses to pick up its employees who live outside of Los Gatos. This alleviates traffic in and on the way to Los Gatos. Experience has shown that employers can have difficulty identifying locations to pick up their employees as well to provide parking for these employees. These employers are at times successful with short term leases for the use of vacant parking lots or similar spaces. These spaces do vary in availability and constant change means the employers need alternative locations. Alternatives may PAGE 2 MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL SUBJECT: PROVIDE DIRECTION ON ADDRESSING PRIVATE CORPORATE BUSES IN TOWN MAY 27, 2016 BACKGROUND (cont’d): include street side locations where the users park their personal vehicles on the public street. This can often lead to vehicles parked in front of residences and subsequent complaints to the Town on that condition. Because the streets are public, addressing the issue can be challenging. DISCUSSION: Town staff has talked to affected residents and the corporations. Based on these conversations and other information, several potential solutions are outlined below for Council consideration. Direction on one or more of these options is the purpose of this agenda item. Coordination with Employers The employers who provide the busing to employees have been reasonable when issues are brought to their attention and they have adjusted the routes and pick up/drop off locations. Frequent adjustments can lead to an ongoing effort by Town staff if the new pickup location creates parking or other impacts to Town residents. Locations without Conflict Several locations currently in use have not created conflict with residential streets, including the Google stops along Los Gatos Boulevard. These stops are identified on the map on Attachment 1 and are less problematic as parking along Los Gatos Boulevard is sufficient to meet the need. Staff recommends encouraging the continued use of the locations. Defined Parking Locations With the goal of acting towards sustainable solutions, staff has looked for options to work with the employers towards establishing sustainable pickup locations with nearby parking. Several locations have been identified. The first includes a stop along North Santa Cruz Avenue in front of Starbucks Coffee at an existing VTA bus stop. With this location, staff recommends encouraging the use of the Town’s North Side parking lot, which runs from Highway 9 to Safeway and is accessible alongside Starbucks. This would encourage use of the underutilized back portion of the lot. Apple already uses this location. A second location is a longer term solution and includes utilizing a future location for parking intended for the Vasona Light Rail extension. VTA has allocated funding to acquire property for this location and is amenable to improving the property for parking until such time as the light rail can be built. This is a larger site which could provide parking for 150 vehicles. Finally, the Town could repurpose the Town-owned vacant lot at Winchester and Lark for use as a park and ride. This lot is fairly small and would require extensive improvements to allow for parking, including addressing the land use designation. Use as a parking lot would also preclude other uses or sale of the property. PAGE 3 MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL SUBJECT: PROVIDE DIRECTION ON ADDRESSING PRIVATE CORPORATE BUSES IN TOWN MAY 27, 2016 DISCUSSION (cont’d): Red Curb, No Parking Signs, Limited Parking Signs, or Preferential Parking Residents often request these physical changes as solutions. The Town has also heard concerns that residents should not have to pay for any associated costs for the Town’s Preferential Parking Program because the residents are already impacted by the buses. All of these options are impactful to the Town with initial costs and ongoing maintenance obligations. Additionally, these solutions may not be aesthetically pleasing in neighborhoods. Finally, these efforts often result in the relocation of the issue to other locations. Because of this, staff looks to other options as first choice solutions. CONCLUSION: Staff recommends that the Council provide direction to address private corporate buses in Town based on the options identified in the staff report. The specific next steps depend upon the option(s) that Council would like the staff to pursue. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT: This is not a project. COORDINATION: This report has been coordinated with the Community Development Department. FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact. Attachments: 1. Apple and Google Routes and Stops 2. Public Comment Received Corporate Bus Routes 3000 ft N ➤➤ N © 2016 Google © 2016 Google © 2016 Google ATTACHMENT 2 From: Anne Winter [mailto:amwinter@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 8:04 AM To: Council; Town Manager Cc: Ernie Hayden; Marva Prow; Leta Shattuck; Charlene Soreff Subject: Google Buses Honorable Council and Town Manager: I am attaching a letter from our homeowner association to Google regarding the Google buses that pick up passengers at the VTA bus stop on Knowles Ave. While the parking issue has received much attention in the newspaper, no attention has yet been given to the disruption caused by the bus route on West Parr Avenue. We would like to alert the Council to our concern.. Please include this letter in the packet for the council meeting in which this issue will be discussed. Thank you, Anne Winter, Vice President Villa Capri Homeowners Association ATTACHMENT 2 Villa Capri Homeowner Association 576 West Parr Avenue, Unit 8 Los Gatos, CA 95032 May 26, 2016 Google, Inc. Attn: Transportation Manager 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 Dear Sir or Madam: I am writing on behalf of our condominium community at 576 West Parr Avenue, Los Gatos. For several years an increasing number of Google buses have been using our street to return to their routes after picking up employees at a VTA bus stop on Knowles Avenue. The buses turn right on Dardanelli, and then right again on West Parr to return to Winchester. There are now at least seven buses between 7:00 o’clock and 10:00 o’clock in the morning and a similar number in the evening. West Parr is a two-lane residential street with an elementary school. It is not appropriate for large, noisy buses. Our building is between the two stop signs on Theresa and Capri. The buses make additional noise starting up and then stopping again on this short block. This has a detrimental effect on the atmosphere of the neighborhood. We appreciate that Google is providing alternate transportation which reduces automobile traffic. However, our neighborhood is receiving the brunt of this bus route without any mitigating circumstances, and the buses are using a street that has a posted 3-ton limit. We urge Google to work with the Town of Los Gatos to find a route that does not disrupt our neighborhood. We thank you for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, Anne Winter, Vice President Villa Capri Board of Directors Cc: Los Gatos Town Council Mercury News