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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 1998-02-18 Mayor Eugene R. Mullin Council: James L. Datzman Joseph A. Fernekes -"Karyl Matsumoto ,ohn R. Penna S_P_EC!AL MEETING CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO FEBRUARY 18, 1998 MINUTES City Council Municipal Services Building Community Room February 18, 1998 q'v --/0-7 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Section 54956 of the Government Code of the State of California, that the City Council of the City of South San Francisco will hold a Special Meeting on Wednesday, the 18th of February 1998, at 6:00 p.m. in the Municipal Services Building, Community Room, 33 Arroyo Drive, South San Francisco, California. Purpose of the meeting: Discussion of transporation. BART Station design. City Clerk City of South San Francisco Dated: February 11, 1998 CALL TO ORDER: ROLL CALL: AGENDA (Cassette No. 1) Discussion of transportation. ACTION TAKEN 6:18 p.m. Mayor Mullin presiding. Council Present: Council Absent: Datzman, Fernekes, MatSumoto, Penna and Mullin. None. City Manager Wilson stated he had asked various departments to give an overview, take a walk through town, discuss the various items affecting circulation and glean from the Council any areas to focus upon. Superintendent of Streets White spoke on asphalt maintenance of streets: the City has $150,000,000 2/18/98 Page 1 AGENDA A~!ON TAKEN ._Discussion of Transportation - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 2 of asphalt maintenance of streets; there are three strategies - slurry seal, overlay and reconstruction and there is a four year plan; slurry seal is an oil and sand mixture applied to the roadway surface to bring oil back into the asphalt, prevent water, sun and traffic damage through loss of aggregates, for when you lose the aggregates, then you start to lose the roadway; another strategy is an overlay - a new layer of asphalt applied over the existing roadway surface to improve the structural strength and pre- vent possible road base damage; he showed a picture of Forbes Avenue where a new layer of asphalt was applied over the existing roadway; he showed vari- ous cracking of streets on Lomitas and San Mateo Avenue that develops into potholes; different strate- gies to overlay a road; Lomitas has the beginnings of a base failure because it is not in the path of traffic, but on San Mateo Avenue you have trucks and you get cracking and rutting as the road is depressed and it loses flexibility, whereas asphalt is flexible unlike concrete; on Miller there are some utility cuts where a gasline has cut into the road line which reduced the effectiveness of the street where we can not put an overlay for it would be too much of a crown; cost of the strategies - slurry $1.15 per sq. yd., overlay - $6.90 to $10.00 per sq. yd., and reconstruction - $32.00 to $65.00 per sq. yd.; the program is $80,000 slurry, $500,000 in overlay and a million dollars in recon- struction; Chestnut to Linden, that is reconstruction for a short stretch of street; the following year would be about the same, a little less depending on what needs to be done, what we can do in a section and what we can do traffic-wise; we still have the reconstruction on Del Monte Ave. primarily due to a bus route and the street needs structural work; in 2001 and 2002 we are doing B Street and overlay Buri Buri and old town and the slurry program; over the next four years we are covering a good portion of the street and in new areas where the slurry seals work well; etc. Mayor Mullin questioned: many times the slurry seals can be used on a street to prolong its life; have the heavy rains we experienced had a deleterious effect on the streets; has any thought been given to stepping up the slurry seal phase on some of the roadways that the City may lose in the shorter peri- od. Superintendent of Streets White responded: it de- AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Discussion of Transportation - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 3 pends upon the performance of the street, but it can be ten to fifteen years; reconstruction is twenty years and beyond; yes, the rains are washing away the finishing aggregates; yes, in the last several years we have reinstituted a slurry seal program and that will do us well in the next few years; in past years budgets $300,000 has been spent per year or less on the slurry seal program; it would be fine to do it all this year, but finances come into play and we will make sure all our reconstruction is done; they are going to introduce lime treatment in the roads to stiffen it, opposed to reconstruction which is a new strategy; there is a new strategy on Parkway to pulverize and use the existing asphalt as a new base and applying the new asphalt on that which cuts the reconstruction costs down to about a third; the roads will take up to 80,000 pounds of trucks, but the City has to keep the maintenance up. Discussion followed: cement trucks are coming in on City streets; there are truck routes like Del Mon- te that see a lot of traffic; the streets were designed for residential not for buses and the result is crack- ing and stretching that the street can't take the weight and the City cannot do an overlay with any success; was Forbes Blvd. constructed for heavy truck use; the Superintendent believes it is a 6" asphalt over a 6" base that should have been ade- quate, but there was not a good estimate of it for there has to be something on the streets for proper drainage, but that adds to the problem; where does the Council get the funding for the $3 million; gas funds and unallocated reserves. Police Chief Raffaelli gave an overview on traffic enforcement and the training of officers to handle peak hours. He stated the way the police work the areas is called T.A.R.P.S, the police look at the traffic coming into the area, you are watching some- one come in through a red light, so you don't stay at the intersection but you watch the violation before the intersection. When you have a four lane high- way, you get people making turns that are not safe and that is how we reduce the accidents by the offi- cers working the traffic. Most frequent violations are for red lights, speeding and following too close. He continued: in the area of traffic complaints, the residential areas are the biggest areas and usually it is for speeding; most is during peak hours and com- ing home, in the high schools we have a problem AGENDA ACTION TAKEN ._.Discussion of Transportation - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 4 for they go on the residential streets and there is a problem with parents picking up their kids; the other area is special enforcement of the five areas - Ar- royo, Grand, Magnolia and Linden, Miller, Mayfair Village and the 1200 block of Mission Road, which are identified by coming through communications; by the time the officer stops his car and issues a citation you are talking about 15 minutes; the effect is issuing the citation and the officer could be there for a half hour and only give two citations. Discussion followed: how many traffic citations are given at the Grand and Airport intersection; a lot; there was talk about making the signs larger to fix the problem; that has already been done; there is a large amount of truck traffic in the downtown areas and the quandary is how you determine a truck route and the forewarning signs; a year ago the police did a survey and said what signs can we get rid of and decided there aren't many we can get rid of; etc. Director of Public Works Gibbs related problems engineering is facing due to development; he is looking at widening and realigning the intersection at Harbor to East Grand and improving the drainage with undergrounding of utilities and street lighting to go along with the campus effect; Chestnut Avenue request for proposal for four lanes, realignment, underground utilities, right-of-way acquisition, retaining wall at north end, storm drain improve- ments and signal interconnect; Hickey Blvd. exten- sion - negotiations San Mateo County to build from Mission Road to Hillside is estimated in 1999 and the El Camino Real/Mission BART; Commercial Avenue - reconstruction from Chestnut - Linden with Wilsey Ham as the design consultant; he stated they were talking to the County, who is trying to bargain, on the catch basins of Terrabay, which are a County responsibility which they don't like and are offering; if the City takes over the maintenance of the catchment basins they will go ahead and build Hickey Blvd.; we are saying they could do both, and that is where we are. Discussion followed: the traffic on East Grand, Sister Cities Blvd. and Hillside - will that relieve the traffic on Westborough; yes, very much; why does the extension of Hickey -- why is that the purview of the County; it is in the town of Colma and the County purchased it; the theory is that by extending Hickey Blvd. it will have City value, so the County AGENDA ACTION TAKEN ._Discussion of Transportation - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 5 had the responsibility; it has multi City value if it turned over to the City; what is the drawback to the catch basins; the cost of maintaining the catchment basin is negligible - less than $5,000.00, and staff is evaluating the design of new ones and passing the cost over to the homeowners; that has to be worked out as it is involved with Phase 2 and 3; the Direc- tor has spoken to Nell Cullen on the timing on this and if we get it together he can build in 1999; May- or Mullin, why do we bargain when the cost is so modest; there are a number of obligations the County has, they are long standing and they are going into cost avoidance; our catchment basins are on a hill we have, but other communities have un- stable hills and are losing them, so the question comes down, if it is already there as an obligation, then they could meet those instead of dealing them away from us; from a starting position the County should be responsible for what the County is re- sponsible and for us, what we are responsible for; Mayor Mullin wants to see the road built as soon as we can get it; the County has responsibility for Phase 2 and 3; he identified the major area where we get flooding - South Airport Blvd. has tidal action, low street elevation and have a new bridge 4' from grade, flap gate, pump station and retention; in front of the Conference Center the street is lower and floods at high tide at the intersection; some time this year the County is going to build a new bridge that is 4' higher; San Mateo Avenue new bridge future - tidal action in storm drain, storm drain flat, small drain pipe, old flood gate, large pipe 60' stormwater and/or retention and pump station; the pump station is like a sump pump; Wondercolor Drive - flooding of the Conference Center, parking lot, Chevron gas station and the travel lodge, they planned to raise the ground when they built the hotel; staff is looking for some kind of retention and syphon it to collect the water while the tide is going back and the storm is going through; Produce Ave- nue - Shaw Road has tidal action, flooding extended to Interstate 380, street lower than creek at high tide/heavy rain, raise the Colma Creek flood gates to control; in London there are large flood control gates to control the tidal activity of the river by the use of the gates; traffic signalization - El Camino Real, Hickey to Spruce, is a Caltrans street and they are maxed out now, possibly in the future as BART goes in S.S.F. the City may want to take over El Camino and if we do, we would enter into a maintenance cost; how would that be a benefit to the AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Discussion of Transportation - Continued. Councilman Penna Left the Podium BART Station design. 2/18/98 Page 6 traffic flow, do we have different standards; no, all we can do is modify the traffic signals themselves; Caltrans has different timing for control of the inter- section and are controlled by their own and Federal regulations to let a signal stay green; the trade-off would be expensive because we have to assume maintenance for El Camino; El Camino and Arlington is a high speed blind turn without signals, and as the traffic increases, because of that, eventu- ally we will have to look at the problem; El Camino Real at Hickey, the analysis was done and the sig- nalization of the intersection is all part of the BART instruction; Hickey at Hilton has egress problems; Westborough Interstate 380 connection to Skyline, with Papan input, interconnect El Camino Re- al/Skyline and the Caltrans signals are in place at Westborough and connected at Westborough/Juni- pero Serra and Westborough/El Camino Real; status on the barrier that was to be installed on Westborough Blvd. between Camaritas and Junipero Serra; that occurred two years ago and became negotiated and they will be willing to install it if we were willing to install the road; when staff raised the issue of potential liability and it became negotiable, is this some responsibility we want the City to take over, and we did not think it was worth it; the BART Director stated we have an agreement with BART where staff analyzes the streets before and after to see the current condition and then we re- quires the owner to bring it back to good or better condition; Westborough is getting maxed out and we have a number of studies and it is not all originating or ending in our town; extending Skyline; traffic comes down 280 to our streets; any survey of where the traffic is coming from; some preliminary work has been done; Councilman Penna wants a report on it; how were vehicles identified; by license plates; City Manager stated Council will see these projects when the CIP is brought to them, so we plan to proceed in this direction based on the condition of the roads. Councilman Penna left the podium at 7:30 p.m. and did not return to the meeting. Senior Planner Kalkin related: background infor- mation on Council's guidelines for the design of the BART station; those guidelines were forwarded to BART there are BART principals present to present the design sketches and model of the BART station; the landscape presentation will be low maintenance AGENDA ACTION TAKEN hART Station design - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 7 due to their budget and the City may want to supple- ment BART's efforts if we want something above and beyond that; they will put the landscaping and irrigation in, but what happens to it in the long term depends on the maintenance, and usually it is low priority. Mr. Jim Tousey, BART Project Manager, stated BART has full funding and a mandate to build the station and if we don't build it we don't get the funding. He stated he was a design engineer before going to BART and asphalt is an amazing material. Since he has been with BART he has put in two stations on line, the Martinez and the Bay Point Station and if you check with either city, he has a good reputation in delivery in serving the City as well as BART and he feels the three are a team, for he is controlled by the PUC. He related: Len Lampey is a Group Manager for Administration and Finance and Eric Fuller is the Project Manager of the S.S.F. Station and if you have any questions call Eric or Mary Wong and Ashok Kotari has a long history with BART and the Colma station; and Miles Stephens who is the local architect in S.S.F. will do the presentation. He will take your design guide- lines and turn them into the station and tell you what we have agreed to perform for the City. Mr. Miles Stephens introduced his staff Peter Har- ris, Project Architect, and Phillip Gorton who is the technology person. He presented a slide show on their design concepts for the BART station: this is a landmark facility with strong volume; the climate here is attractive; the key element is neutral because of what is going on and has a very strong landscape which is marched out to El Camino. Discussion followed: at what point is there wind protection when entering the station; you will be protected; but, we will be exposed to the trees and the landscaping for the problem is still there; the overhead will protect people when they leave the bus; what kind of maintenance is required; almost none, for they have discussed this extensively with Bordi of the Maintenance Dept. and we are very concerned about that; is there any consideration for some kind of covering from the parking structure to the station to stay out of the rain; it's a short run, 40-50'; Mr. Nell Nodd, Consultant, stated they had looked at a bridge connection but that would be an expensive element to build; what about an awning; A~ENDA ACTION TAKEN ._.BART Station design - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 8 an awning has some of the same problems, to clear the buses it has to be wide to give you weather protection, but most BART stations do not have protection between the parking lot and the front door of the station; BART has a 44 month program from the time we give notice to proceed, we don't know their schedule and until June or July it could be two years before you see a station contractor on the site constructing what they have shown Council tonight; City Manager Wilson stated the Council sees in the newspaper about overruns, and being last in line as a station means less dollars; BART has approval from the Board for the bids came in higher than anticipated, 3 % and Millbrae was 8 % and that is not a big spread for professional engineering is usually 10% of the estimate; some of the budgets were realigned for they were delayed by the full funding grant agreement and during that time some of the budget scope was added and changed; they had to spend down their contingency upfront, but they do have an application in the State for an additional $58 million; Mr. Takis said that no part of the contract is going to stand alone; that is true, BART has a target budget of $25 million; there is a right turn only into the garage on the conceptual drawings; Vice Mayor Datzman stated that is not clear on the drawings and the lighting is dim; that is part of the design guidelines to not make it glaring; the commu- nity expectation is for it to be pedestrian friendly, not to discourage students from using it; unless the student is using the station he will not be going through the station; it is up to the Council to tell BART there is a misunderstanding and next time there will be a presubmittal, but BART will take Council's comments, for Mr. Tousey stated the Council is his client, as well as BART and he is looking for a good team work effort; Mayor Mullin commented that this parking structure is going to be massive and it seems our initial thoughts about the parking structure to terrace it, to move it back and use the lower portion for retail to soften it; the design coming south from El Camino shows the parking structure as massive compared to the way Council looked at it; Senior Planner Kalkin stated the retail component is still a possibility in the de- sign in the east west access to the plaza area; the building height is 32'; what is the sill height, there is a facade, a drop down and all BART stations' architecture is very exacting; if the City wants the landscaping increased, they can and have their own people maintain it; the City prides itself on its green AGENDA A~ION TAKEN _.BART Station design - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 9 spots; Mayor Mullin would like to see greenery that would enhance the building, rather than hide it; he feels the station meets a lot of the guidelines and complimented those concerned and said it meets the character of the community; however, he is still not persuaded that it is going to be much of an eye catching, for all we will see is a big BART parking structure and tucked away is an interesting design, so the interest is on the interior rather than greeting the people at the first glance; he is not convinced that short of the planting of the trees and is looking at our staff to tell Council he is wrong; Senior Plan- ner Kalkin stated staff is trying to get a more inter- esting project, for this relies on the landscaping and the portal and they would like to see more alterna- tives for a simple balance, like of the site and the station rather than focusing on the garage; Mayor Mullin does not have a good feeling about the ap- proach, particularly when the other is built out we could have a bowling alley on the inter design, but the exterior is not as interesting as a mixed design for El Camino and he is not impressed with this; the structure is a parking garage; BART will continue to develop this and look forward to Council input, will adjust the designs as best they can, but it is a funda- mental problem - it is a parking structure; Mayor Mullin stated he would probably need to see a little more of the architectural detail for the entire length of the parking structure; he understands the need for security, but is not seeing how that is going to be done and the drawings are too small; the structure is 460' long, the stairwell is rounded for the guide- lines; what about maintenance once built; BART maintains; name two cities where the city partici- pates in additional landscaping; BART built the City of Concord a linear park; BART was sued in Pittsburg and BART built the linear park and turned it over to the City; City Manager Wilson stated the City was informed that BART would not build a linear park; that was part of the plan for BART was going through at grade, they were on the old Pacific Railroad right-of-way, so they put in the improve- ments to satisfy the city and then in turn took re- sponsibility for it; it is the same as in S.S.F., BART is working on the Hickey Blvd., between Mission and El Camino, and had that agreement; there was the question of stretching back and the reason they were not is because we would lose parking; BART has a requirement of some 1,100 cars and if you start changing the size there is a problem; there is one way to build it so the City will not have to see AGENDA ACTION TAKEN . I~ART Station design - Continued. 2/18/98 Page 10 this again, but a different design; it is BART's plan to meet with the City staff every two weeks and when we are closer to the bid we can meet each week and take input; City Manager Wilson stated BART caused him concern when maintenance was mentioned and you are using plants as a major fea- ture of the portal; low maintenance plants, but they do not grow rapidly; the City did not limit the land- scaping, and the suggestions originated from the population, from the community, as well as the elected officials and staff; initially the City thought it was a three level garage; a BART representative stated that they built parking structures throughout the area, and so the basic layout is something that works very well where most of the people want to come in and get on the train; they will have security forces that patrol, and a third floor is more work, but they are hearing the Council loud and clear; Mayor Mullin does not want the garage to dominate everything; he realizes they have to put a 1,100 spaces, but he would like to see greater detail than this so he can get the scale and scope of this project maybe in comparison of how it is going to be sited on El Camino and more alternatives; maybe more security and three floors; he still has some concerns because there is no development on the north- side, but there is going to be substantial develop- ment that will make it more of a funnel and an interesting statement; the potential development is unknown to BART; Mr. Gary Orton, Coalition One Stop Transit, stated thousands have yet to be ap- proved by Caltrans because they are partners and are $100 million over budget and Mr. Tousey was candid by saying, just a little over the budget; the funding uncertainties are admitted by the BART staff report and they are now using all the contingencies and are going to dip into the BART reserve; the full funding agreement does not assure funding; he suggested that San Bruno and S.S.F. are at risk for having this whole thing reviewed, they are going to the CDC for the money; he urged Council to go to Samtrans because BART has not acquired the right-of-way and are jumping the gun and certainly the City is at risk; they went to MTC and they said show us how you are going to pay this back, then BART went to CDC so the question is still up in the air; you could be demanding answers to that and not approving con- tracts until you get satisfactory answers; he stated he and John Penna were the only ones that had ad- dressed these questions, because he felt someone A~ENDA ACTION TAKEN ...BART Station design - Continued. ADJOURNMENT: RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, extensive and he does not believe this is enough money to do it; the voters say they want Caltrans to the Airport, how can we do that with the existing review, for BART is going to be spending more than $99 million while the government is capped and all are saying we are not spending any more than; etc. M/S Fernekes/Datzman - To adjourn the meeting. Carried by unanimous voice vote. Time of adjournment was 8:45 p.m. APPROVED. ~aya, C~ City of South San Francisco ~Mayo~ City of South San Francisco ~e entries of this Council meeting show the action taken by the City Council to dispose of an item. Oral communica- ~ns, arguments and comments are recorded on tape. The tape and documents related to the items are on file in the office of the City Clerk and are available for inspection, review and copying. 2/18/98 Page 11