3B Public Hearing 2007 0904 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Joint BZAlPC Worksession Minutes Agenda No. 07-15 August 9,2007 Page 8 of9 parking, BART's practice has been to convert to paid parking once a certain threshold of reserved places occurs, where riders pay a monthly fee for a guaranteed space until 10 a.m. The San Leandro BART station has not yet met that threshold, which is why parking there is still free. The strategy also presents residential parking permits as an option. What she expects is that as development comes forward, there will be a number of options to analyze to ensure that the decisions made are the appropriate ones. Board Member Gilcrest said that he has heard the City is looking at abandoning Martinez Street behind BART. He asked what the timetable for that decision is and how it would affect parking. Planning Secretary Livermore said that the City would not abandon that street without looking first at an actual development application, and looking at the entirety of the parking situation. She said there would be shared parking opportunities there. She again encouraged Board members and Commissioners to take a look at the proposals, suggesting that their comfort level will increase as they do so. She welcomes calls if there are any questions that come up later. Planning Chair Reed welcomed people in the audience to add comments or questions. Leland Morine, who lives on Parrott Street, asked about the outlook for San Leandro Boulevard, which he believes is one of the most heavily traveled in the area. He is concerned about narrowing it for parking and enhancing pedestrian-friendliness, and wondered if another route would be available for the reduced capacity of San Leandro Boulevard. Planning Secretary Livermore said that the TOD Strategy does respect the arterials in the City, of which San Leandro Boulevard is one. At the beginning, the strategy considered on-street parking for a greater length of San Leandro Boulevard, which triggered some concern. North of Davis and south of Williams, however, San Leandro Boulevard has only two lanes in each direction. The short section being considered for on-street parking has seven lanes. She also noted that a plan was approved in 2001 to reduce the number of lanes in that section to five and add a wide median. The TOD Strategy looked at that and thought perhaps a narrower median with some on-street parking, a buffer for pedestrians and a bike lane - perhaps from Estudillo to Parrott or Thornton. She pointed out that traffic studies for that very short portion showed these changes would not slow traffic enough to affect the arterial nature of San Leandro Boulevard. Dan Martinez, who lives on Charlotte Avenue, referred to the July 12 Planning Commission meeting, where he and others commented on the TOD Strategy's Draft EIR during a public hearing. He wondered what came ofthose comments. Planning Secretary Livermore said that the comments from that meeting, as well as all other comments received by the July 19 deadline, will be addressed in the Final EIR, which is being prepared and will be circulated before the August 23 Planning Commission meeting. She said that the Final EIR will include a compilation of all of the comments and all of the responses.