While it may appear that little is happening on the proposed rail yard development -- known as Curtis Park Village -- that is far from the case. Since the public meetings last fall concerning what should be included in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), all parties - SCNA, the City, the developer and its consultants, have been busy.
SCNA Board members have met with City staff on the issue of how the anticipated increase in traffic on our neighborhood streets will be analyzed and evaluated. The City Planning Commission is expected to discuss this issue on February 24.
Briefly stated, SCNA would like there to be a point at which increased traffic on neighborhood streets will be considered significant, triggering a duty to consider mitigation measures. In 1998, when considering the prior Union Pacific development application for the project, City staff required the use of the SCNA's neighborhood traffic threshold in the EIR (the EIR was never completed because the project was dropped). A fuller discussion of the neighborhood traffic thresholds that SCNA proposed can be found on page four of SCNA's October 21 scoping comments.
For the current development proposal, City staff is stating that they will consider only changes in the "Level of Service" at major intersections; that is, how long a motorist waits to make it through an intersection.
In general, for the project to make a significant impact under this standard, it must increase traffic such that it takes more than 35 seconds to clear an intersection that has a traffic signal or more than 25 seconds to clear an intersection without a traffic signal.
SCNA recently obtained a copy of the scope of work for the proposed traffic study to be done as part of the environmental review process. The SCNA Board at their January retreat meeting allocated up to $5,000 for independent traffic experts to review and comment on the design of the traffic study for the project.
With regard to the proposed project, the proposed traffic study will study the access scenarios contained in Option 1 and 2 of the developer's proposal (involving a northern access at Portola Way, southern access at Sutterville road, eastern access at Donner Way and two variations of access to Fifth Avenue).
In addition, the proposed traffic study will consider adding eastern connections at 10th and 11th Avenues. The study will also include an evaluation of a southern access only, but with the traffic signal remaining at 24th Street and Sutterville Road. There will also be a qualitative evaluation of a western at-grade railroad track crossing in the study. Pedestrian linkages to the City College Light Rail Station will be evaluated.
One of the major issues that arose at last fall's meetings concerned which alternatives to the proposed project should be included in the EIR. It appears that the following alternatives will be analyzed:
The proposed scope of work for the traffic and is posted on SCNA's Web site. Anyone interested in the project should review the study. Also posted on the Web site is the EIR consultant's proposal to Petrovich Development (dated May 17, 2004) and maps of additional alternatives for land use. SCNA will post other items of interest as they become available.
The draft EIR was originally scheduled to be released in May, 2005. Although it seems likely that this date has slipped, City staff does not have a new target date. Once the draft EIR is released, the public will have at least 30 days to comment on it. SCNA will sponsor community meetings to discuss the draft EIR.