3A Public Hearing 2010 0503 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Public Hearing on the Kaiser Medical Center Project pg. 4 Traffic Mitigation May 3, 2010 Public comment and Commission discussion focused on the issue of whether the circulation plan as proposed, including the mitigation measures recommended in the EIR and the staff's recommended Conditions of Approval, were adequate to accommodate projected traffic levels associated with development of Phase 1 of the Medical Center. Specifically, comments suggested that a southbound Merced Street double left turn was needed at the hospital's new main entrance road at Merced Street/Republic Avenue during Phase 1 in order to prevent operational impacts and congestion along adjacent roadways and intersections. Staff Recommendations Staff and the City's traffic engineering consultants have reviewed all information submitted on this topic, including those comments made at the April 22, 2010 Planning Commission hearing. Staff does not believe that any of these comments change the analysis or conclusions presented in the project's EIR, which have formed the basis of the mitigation measures and recommended Conditions of Approval. The EIR determined that traffic generated by Phase 1 of the Kaiser Medical Center would adversely impact the Marina Boulevard/Merced Street intersection. Mitigation Measure TR -1.1 requires implementation of an adaptive traffic signal system for all of the signals along the Marina Boulevard corridor between Merced Street and Alvarado Street, and along the Merced Street corridor between Marina Boulevard and Fairway Drive. An adaptive traffic signal system is a state-of-the-art system that allows for the modification of signal cycle lengths and optimized actuated signal phasing sequence and timings for the corridor based on actual real-time traffic conditions. This measure was determined to be capable of reducing traffic impacts associated with Phase 1 of the Medical Center to a level of less than significant. However, implementation of this mitigation measure at the freeway on- and off -ramps on Marina Boulevard would require approval by Caltrans. Although the City does not foresee a problem with Caltrans' acceptance of these improvements, Caltrans' acceptance cannot be guaranteed. As such, impacts to the Marina Boulevard/Merced Street intersection are identified as significant and unavoidable. Even with the adaptive signal system in place, it is anticipated that queuing effects on Merced Street at the new Republic Avenue entrance to the Medical Center could extend beyond the available storage capacity of the turn lane, resulting in an operational impact during Phase 1. Therefore, the staff's recommended Conditions of Approval requires Kaiser to construct a new signalized driveway to the Medical Center from Marina Boulevard as part of Phase 1 (even though the EIR indicates that this improvement is not required until development of a mixed-use retail project). The new access driveway from Marina Boulevard would provide an additional access point to the Medical Center, thus diverting a portion of project traffic and improving operational characteristics at the Merced Street/Republic Avenue intersection. With these two improvements (the adaptive traffic signal system and the new Marina Boulevard driveway), the analysis indicates that Phase 1 traffic impacts would be reduced to a level of less than significant and operational impacts would also be alleviated. It is not until development of the mixed-use retail component of the project that further traffic impacts to the Merced Street/Republic Avenue intersection would worsen to a level necessitating a second left turn lane. The EIR recommends Mitigation Measure TR -1.3 to be implemented as part of the development of any future mixed-use retail project, which requires widening the north