3A Public Hearing 2007 0507 - Laserfiche WebLink

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To: Mayor Santos San Leandro City Council Members From: Barbara Templeton 304 Melven Court San Leandro CA 94577 April 20, 2007 Some of the discussion at last week's Planning Commission meeting prompts me to communicate with you in the hope that it is not too late to address the traffic and parking problems inherent in the development proposed for MacArthur/Herma Court. (I can't help but note how ironic it was to hear about the so-called parking problems and traffic issues in conjunction with Faith Fellowship's application for a rezone at the same meeting.) Those who suggested that traffic on MClcArthur Boulevard is light, apparently including the City's Traffic Engineer, are mistaken. I do not drive every day and when I do, I am usually able to avoid peak drive times. However, I cannot count the number of occasions on which I have spent several minutes at the stop sign on Broadmoor in front of Stepping Stones, waiting for a big enough gap in traffic to turn right and catch 580 toward Hayward. I believe that many of the vehicles in the stream of traffic turn onto MacArthur from Durant. Although parking on MacArthur along the Stepping Stones frontage may indeed be no problem today, it certainly is an everyday problem on Herma Court and Broadmoor. There is certainly no room for traffic to flow both ways on Herma, even now, and there is rarely even a driveway wide enough to pull in out of the way of oncoming traffic. On many occasions, there is no street parking available on Broadmoor between Melven Court and MacArthur, either. Some of the vehicles parking in this area belong (I believe) to Dynasty Cleaners' employees (who stay all day) and customers (who tend to be in- and-out). Others belong to patrons of the barbershop, who seem to stay much longer than needed for a shave or a haircut. The barber shop seems to be as much a social gathering place as a place of business, and I've heard some pretty scary stories about police activity triggered by the gatherings there. No one mentioned the commercial building that is going up on the Broadmoorl MacArthur corner where the old Hollywood Bar was, and how its completion will affect the area. That, too, may add traffic and subtract from the parking supply. Certainly, the housing development proposed will do nothing to alleviate these problems. On the contrary, I believe it will exacerbate them because it simply does not provide enough additional onsite parking. Two vehicles per residence is probably a minimum; most occupants probably will have more vehicles than that. As several people pointed out, they would not use tandem parking themselves, so those "two-car" garages may in fact end up being one-car garages. And six guest spaces for 23 units is laughable, even if it is enforced. What will happen when someone hosts a party or a celebration?