3A Public Hearing 2010 0517 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Planiring Commission Special Meeting Minutes March 25, 2010 Agenda No. 10-03 Puge 9 of 20 people except for after school. Under Option B, he doesn't see how people will be able to get to the Post Office with constraints on turns, and notes that four lanes of traffic will be reduced to two. He said he simply cannot understand the mindset of anyone who would favor this. It will not benefit anyone in the City. He said he does not see anyone from Bay-o-Vista, Washington Manor or the area in which he lives, near Assumption parish, using BRT. He said he'd like to meet 10 people in different areas who say they will use it. If we are going to have BRT in San Leandro, it would be Option A, or better yet, forgetting it entirely also should be a consideration. Principal Engineer Cooke pointed out that Option B includes a proposed new signal with left- turn pocket at the Post Office. Linda Perry, 1527 - 139th Avenue, said that she has been involved in BRT discussions since 1991 when she was on the City Council. As the past president of the Halcyon-Foothill Neighborhood Association, she said they have opposed the dedicated lanes put forth for the south area in every EIS/EIR that AC Transit has done in regard to these plans. Among the reasons: it adds no service; the 1R is already enhanced. Dedicated lanes would interfere with fire and ambulance service that comes up I43`d Avenue. The Post Office has been mentioned. It divides the neighborhood by eliminating left turns. It will push traffic onto Bancroft Avenue from East l4`~' Street. It will impact the safety of school children in particular, not only at McKinley School but also at Jefferson Elementary School. South area businesses that are already struggling would lose parking; most of them could not survive the impact of 18 months or more of construction. The South Area Plan asked AC Transit for actual ridership figures, and decided against a dedicated lane at that time, which was part of the reason the City opted to recommend terminating BRT at the downtown San Leandro BART station. The Downtown Plan, the TOD Plan, the LINKS shuttle all connect with this BART station. Thus, if we bring in BRT at all, she favors Option A. The issue of cross-town connectivity remains to be resolved; she is interested to see how the new routes work. Options to BRT such as car-sharing, additional shuttles should be considered. Charles Gilcrest, 1271 Terra Avenue, current president of the Halcyon-Foothill Neighborhood Association and the Business Association of South San Leandro said that the staff had it right in 2006 in recommending that the City Council adopted an official position to terminate BRT at the downtown San Leandro BART station. "It was magnificently reasoned and it was the right decision," he said. The most significant thing to come out of 10 years' worth of hearings on this matter is the silence - not a single resident or business owner has come forward in that time to say dedicated lanes would cause them to ride BRT if they would not do so otherwise. Data presented has been dubious. BRT proposes spending $15 million for dedicated lanes in the south area increasing ridership by 1,900 a day. However, total hoardings would increase by 1,300. When the hearings on BRT started in 2002, they said they wanted dedicated lanes to preserve the right-of--way for future laying of rail. That will not happen because of the cost. City leaders have basically opposed dedicated lanes over this whole period of time. Dan Dillman, 14808 East 14th Street, owns the historic Bal Theatre. He wants it to be a beacon of our City. He said that having dedicated lanes in the southern area would be destructive. Every business owner that remains says it will damage their business and clog traffic. He sees the IR every day, and sees very few riders. He said no people get off those buses to come to his computer store or the theatre. AC Transit could instead upgrade existing bus stops and deal with the problem of homeless people using them as shelters. Those areas seem to draw problems. instead of solutions. If BRT starts tearing up the streets in front of the theatre, it would ruin the great possibilities the area has for the near future and drive out even more businesses. At this time, he believes doing nothing would be doing the best thing for the City.