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Home My WebLink About05/08/2014� BAKERSFIELD Staff: Committee r Rhonda Smiley, Assistant to the City Manager Bob Smith, CI Harold Hansc Ken Weir SPECIAL MEETING OF THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE of the City Council - City of Bakersfield Thursday, May 8, 2014 12:00 p.m. City Hall North - Conference Room A 1600 Truxtun Avenue Bakersfield, CA 93301 AGENDA 1. ROLL CALL 2. ADOPTION OF FEBRUARY 4, 2014 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT 3. PUBLIC STATEMENTS 4. DEFERRED BUSINESS A. Report on Results of Meetings with City Staff and Elected regarding the Implementation of a Complete Streets Policy - Bryc Local Government Commission 5. COMMITTEE and STAFF COMMENTS 6. ADJOURNMENT � BAKERSFIELD /y//2h,cnuL'wSh�� Committee ME Staff: Rhonda Smiley Bob Smith, Chc Assistant to the City Manager Harold Hanson Ken Weir AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT SPECIAL MEETING OF THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Tuesday, February 4, 2014 12:00 p.m. City Hall North - Conference Room A 1600 Truxtun Avenue Bakersfield, CA 93301 The meeting was called to order at 12:03 p.m. 1. ROLL CALL Committee members: Councilmember Bob Smith, Chair Councilmember Harold Hanson Councilmember Ken Weir City Staff: Alan Tandy, City Manager Rhonda Smiley, Assistant to the City Manager/PIO Steve Teglia, Assistant to the City Manager Chris Huot, Assistant to the City Manager Caleb Blaschke, Management Assistant - City Manager's Office Virginia Gennaro, City Attorney Andy Heglund, Deputy City Attorney Doug Mclsaac, Community Development Director Jim Eggert, Planning Director Additional Attendees: AGENDA Sl Planning and Developr Tuesday, 3. PUBLIC STATEMENTS None 4. NEW BUSINESS A. Discussion and Committee Recommendation re__ aq rdin_q Residenti� Desianations Community Development Director Mclsaac reported that this item for discussion by Committee Chair Smith for the purpose of devisin that will make it easier to develop lots smaller than the current minirr of 6,000 square feet. Two options were considered, the first being to change zonii developments from R-1 to R-2; however, R-2 also allows for multi-fai and that possibility might cause concern to neighbors. The second be to require that the developer apply for a Planned Use DevelopmE that would create extra effort, time and expense on the part of tl who would then need to submit a site plan, landscaping plans and drawings to the Planning Commission. Staff proposed creating a new zone which would be noted as � would allow, upon request by a developer, for 4,500 square foot request would require a public hearing before the Planning Commi for public input. Additionally, staff proposed reducing the setback for this new current minimum standard of 20 feet to 18 feet. Donna Carpenter, with the Kern Homebuilders Association, subn comments via electronic mail in support of the concept. She variable setback, with an average of 20 feet. Roger Mclntosh, local � also submitted electronic comments in support of the concept. Committee member Hanson asked if lots already approved could from 6,000 to 4,500 square feet, or if the new zoning could only be a� developments. Community Development Director Mclsaac replied that if a tract m approved, but has yet to be developed, a request could be made lots from R-1 to R-1-4.5. However, approval would not be automa ... . . . ... . . .... . AGENDA Sl Planning and Developr Tuesday, Committee member Weir asked if the setback modification woulc considered separately from the zoning issue. City Attorney Gennaro said that as the setback had not been agenc have to be considered at another meeting. The topic could eithE back to the Committee, or both topics could be combined in a dre which would then be referred to the Planning Commission for dE approved, the Commission could then forward the proposed ordii City Council for first reading. Committee member Weir confirmed with staff that the variable only apply to the new R-1-4.5 zone. The Committee unanimously approved a motion to refer both the ne setback issues to the Planning Commission. B. Discussion and Committee Recommendation Re__ aq rding Adoptior Committee Meeting Schedule The Committee unanimously approved the schedule. 5. COMMIITEE COMMENTS Committee Chair Smith asked staff to review an assessment obtainec that addresses their standards, lane widths, and shoulder widths to det� may affect City standards. 6. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 12:21 p.m. ��I I lll I II�� ;;�a I ��i w �� ...,:: �� L��I ��o�r�ernr�� +��r��i��it�� 1303 J Street, Suite 250 • Sacramento, CA 95814 • 916-448-1198 Memo May 1, 2014 To: From: copy: Re: Background: Robert Smith, Bakersfield City Council Laura Podolsky, Local Government Commission Bryan Jones, Director, Public Works Department, City of Fremont Paul Zykofsky, Local Government Commission Complete Streets Implementation in the City of Bakersfield With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Leadership for Healthy Communities prog� Local Government Commission (LGC) was able to assist the City of Bakersfield per the r� Council Member Smith to advance the City's commitment to complete, healthy, and safe : LGC organized a series of focus groups in early January 2014 with staff from multiple city departments, including: Fire, Police, Community Development, Parks and Recreation, and Works. Representatives from the City Manager's Office also participated. A full list of par� included at the end of this memo. The focus group meetings were structured to support a candid discussion about what face Complete Streets the City is doing well, what could be improved to better suit each depart identify any concerns each department has regarding implementation, and identify potenti collaborative solutions. The focus groups were facilitated by the City of Fremont Public � Director Bryan Jones who has a track record of success in finding creative ways to repurp� existing streets as well as build new streets that meet the transportation needs, economic g community values of the various cities he has worked in. One important reason Mr. Jones brought in to assist with this effort is his professional experience working in the San Joaql Mr. Jones served as the City of Fresno's Traffic and Engineering Services Manager where championed the award winning Bicycle Master Plan, which allowed Fresno to be the first Based on discussions with city staff, LGC and Bryan Jones developed the following recommendations for advancing Bakersfield's commitment to complete, safe, and healthy Recommendations for Moving Forward The Bakersfield City Council adopted a resolution in support of Complete Streets on Apri stating commitment for creating "a safe and efficient transportation system that promotes and mobility of all citizens and visitors by incorporating high quality transportation faciliti� motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit access to all destinations throughout the city" Complete Streets are defined by the city as "transportation facilities that are planned, desi� operated, and maintained to provide safe mobility for all users, including motorists, bicycli pedestrians, and transit riders appropriate to the function and context of the facility". To � the commitment outlined in the resolution, next steps the city can take include: �. Document .rucces.re.r of advancing Com�ilete Streets principle.r and define hozv to me succes.r moving forzvard. Bakersfield is well on its way to creating a safe and healthy transportation network that ser users though successes and milestones are not well documented. Specific accomplishment shared at the focus group meetings included the Kern River Parkway which has added alrr additional miles of Class I Bike Path in the city; the addition of bike lanes on all arterials; t of bike lane widths from 5' to 6'; updated ordinance to include bike racks on all private an properties; travel lanes narrowed down to 11' where bike lanes have been added (e.g., Gos Street); and installation of new countdown pedestrian crossing signals. These are only a sr� sampling of the accomplishments mentioned during the focus group meetings. Document accomplishments and sharing these accomplishments with city council as well as the gene� will help generate additional support for and understanding of Complete Streets implemer To measure success over the long term requires the establishment of performance measur city should consider identifying appropriate performance measures that will allow staff to progress and success over time in implementing Complete Streets. For example, Bakersfie consider tracking miles of new or restriped on-street bicycle facilities; percentage of street� tree canopy; rate of crashes, injuries and fatalities by mode; transportation mode shift; and percentage of children walking or bicycling to school. 2. Connect zvith other fire chiefs ivho have experience ivith narrozver lane avidths. Safety is an important community value in the City of Bakersfield. Key safety concerns ex� staff regarding narrower lane and street widths include: ■ slowing down emergency response vehicles; ■ insufficient room for setup of fire trucks with ladders and "outrigger" stabilizer le� ■ second or third vehicle(s) on a scene would be unable to pass a deployed fire truck ■ PYITlIY/`1Yll7 111P(F/]1 Yl/]YIr1Yll7 Emergency l�e.rpon.re" looks at new street construction. Both can be found and downloaded f LGC's website: http://ww�u.lgc.org/emergency-response. The Fire Department did express support for a street system that is well-connected with t� circles at intersections given that some of the older suburbs are difficult to maneuver thro It is always good to learn from others. Fortunately, there are many cities that have adoptec standards requiring narrower lane widths and streets. Short descriptions of Complete Stref highlights as well as contact information for fire chiefs representing cities that have made � street standards to support narrower lanes and streets are provided below. (This informati also provided to Chief Greener in a separate email.) City of Carlsbad — Complete Street highlights in the City of Carlsbad include: severa diet" projects, implemented 36' residential streets, and has 9-10' travel lanes on a nurr collectors that were implemented through a resurface and repurpose process to reduc speeds, make roadways safer, and provide space for the addition of bike lanes. Mike Davis Fire Chief City of Carlsbad michael.davis@carlsbadca.�ov 760-932-2140 worl� Chief Mike Lopez Fire Marshal and Division Chief City of Carlsbad Contact person: Debbie Donnell 760-931-2141 work debbie.donnell@carlsbadca.gov City of Fresno — Complete Street highlights in the City of Fresno include: several "rc projects; and in 2010, installed 30 new miles of bike lanes and 3 new miles of trail, w� more than any other city that yJear expect New York City. Kerri L. Donis Fire Chief Fresno Fire Department (559) 621-4001 work Kerri.Donis@fresno.gov Micheal Despain Fire Chief Clovis Fire Department (559) 324-2270 work MikeD@cityofclovis.com *Prior to coming to Clovis, Chief Despain ser as Battalion�Division Chief with the City of F 3. Evaluate and update public engagement protocol.r. Community involvement and input will play a crucial role in Complete Streets implementa Across the board, staff shared that public participation in city planning efforts is low. Curr methods and approaches used to engage and gather input from residents in Bakersfield sh evaluated for effectiveness and updated as appropriate to ensure staff are receiving broad : ret�resentative of Bakersfield's diverse t�ot�ulation. St�ecificallv. data should be collected in community leaders in California revealed that "public meetings often do not meet the nee� residents or local officials, and that large segments of the public are often missing from th� — especially low-income populations, immigrants and young people." Fortunately, there are great resources available to municipalities for updating public engag� practices. The Local Government Commission recently updated the Particpation Tools for B Co�cmunity Planning Guidebook that provides an overview of public participation tools that c communities plan for health-promoting land use and transportation, with a focus on lowe underserved communities. An important message included in the guidebook is a discussio a values-based framework when describing design alternatives and discussing tradeoffs. T� especially important because residents will not necessarily request narrower lane widths bu will share their desire to live in a safe and healthy community that is family-oriented. At th time, residents will also communicate the desire for short commute times and concern ovf increased congestion. Therefore, the ability of staff to communicate the tradeoffs of differ roadway standards based on the vision and values held by the community will be key. Staff expressed interest in the ability to try new technologies and platforms for engaging rf such as the use of social media (i.e., Twitter, Facebook). The proliferation and use of smar and new ways to engage online provides a key opportunity for expanding the reach of cur� engagement practices. A recent report from the Pew Center stated 91 % of American adult mobile phones, including 86% of adults with lower incomes. Ensuring appropriate use of media to engage the public is a valid concern and has been addressed by other municipalit as: Palo Alto, West Hollywood, and Seattle. The League of California Cities has put toget: resources for cities exploring the use of social media to engage constituents, which can be here: https://www.cacities.org/Resources/Social-Media. 4. Provide staff training. Successful implementation of a Complete Streets program usually requires changes to poli procedures, and processes related to the design, construction, and maintenance of streets. key requirement is the involvement and buy-in from staff from all the departments involv� design, construction, maintenance, and use (i.e., police and fire) of the street network. The Completes Streets Coalition is a great resource for local governments looking to build inte capacity to implement Complete Streets. The National Complete Streets Coalition website (http://ww��.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets) includes presentations, factsheet� case studies, and policy workbooks that communities can use for educational purposes anc creating their own Complete Streets policies. Interested local governments can also visit t� to request technical assistance, learn more about available workshops, and/or find a Com� Streets speaker or local consulting firm. Currently, the Local Government Commission ha to cover the full cost of providing a National Complete Streets workshop for staff on any following topics: Laying the Foundation for Complete Streets, Complete Streets Policy Development, Complete Streets Policy Implementation, and Complete Streets Design 5. Keviezv and evaluate City's standard.r and thre.rhold.r for collector and local road.r. Upon reviewing the 2011 Speed Limit documentation available on the City of Bakersfield' the majority of collector and arterial roadways have 85th percentile speeds in excess of 40 Speed is the number one contributor to vehicle crashes and the severity of a collision. Ped are especially vulnerable. A pedestrian hit by a vehicle at 40 mph has only a 20 percent ch� survivaL The odds of survival increase to 60 percent if the vehicle is traveling at 30 mph, a significant difference. (W.A. Leaf and D.F. Preusser, "Literature Review on Vehicle Trave and Pedestrian Injuries Among Selected Racial/Ethnic Groups," US Department of Tran; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (1999)) While midblock motorists can acc speeds greater than 40 mph, their average travel time along a corridor because of traffic si� (decelerating, waiting at red, and accelerating) is often 22-25 mph. Roadway design contributes significantly to the speed of travel. Bakersfield utilizes 12' tra� on most roadways which is the same width as travel lanes on Caltrans freeways with desig� of 80 mph. Bakersfield has gone down to 11' travel lanes in certain areas and there are op� to design streets that are safer for all roadway users with 9-10' travel lanes. When Bakersfif for the largest vehicles to trave140 mph the majority of motorists in smaller vehicles on th feel safer driving at faster speeds. In addition, Bakersfield utilizes a number of five-lane roadway widths to the edge of the ci planners and engineers are not sure where development will be occurring in the future. Tr taken the approach that it is easier to build five lane roadways as new development takes � than building a roadway that is the appropriate size for current development and travel ne� Bakersfield also uses a relatively low threshold of 2,000-3,000 vehicles per day for decidin€ build a five-lane collector versus a three-lane collector. Many other communities have ado thresholds of 15,000-25,000 vehicles per day to determine when to build larger five-lane rc Multiple lane roadways with low volumes tend to induce high vehicle speeds and can be v� challenging for pedestrians to cross. It would be interesting for City of Bakersfield staff to evaluate how many of their five lanE have an average daily vehicle usage under 15,000, 20,000 and 25,000 vehicles respectfully. many of those collector roadways are experiencing traffic volumes below those thresholds provide evidence that the City is currently overbuilding these types of roads. While some r argue that building wide streets today helps meet future capacity needs, there is evidence t: approach might be misguided. First of all, there is strong evidence that people are driving than they used to. Recent studies have found that vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. started off in 2005. Younger people are driving less and instead are opting to stay connected via t] mobile devices. Furthermore, overbuilding streets results in greater costs for maintenance During the discussions in Bakersfield we heard from staff that the City already faces signif for deferred maintenance. addition, development impact fees for upfront capital infrastructure are higher than they n to move motorists effectively and efficiently due to the e�sting low thresholds without a � ongoing maintenance funding source. Bakersfield has a well-established freeway system with significant capacity, as well as, majo (arterial/collector streets) connectivity and significant capacity to most areas of Bakersfielc Designing a roadway for the peak 15-minute or 60-minute demand usually results in an ov roadway for the remaining 23 hours of the day. With low density residential (4-10 dwellin� acre), the city is not creating a sustainable land use revenue source to pay for new roadway infrastructure in addition to other needs such as public safety (police and fire) and parks. � pride in that they operated a"lean" government in terms of size of budget and staff to ser community. This same philosophy could be applied to the design and implementation of infrastructure to reduce maintenance costs. The City of Bakersfield currently utilizes 40' wide residential streets. There have been stud demonstrating that speeds on residential roadways increase from a base of 25 mph for a 3: residential street by 2-3 mph for every additional foot wider that street is built However, � roadways are not allowed by the California Fire Code unless parking is not permitted. In � with many fire agencies, connectivity and multiple access points in a residential area are m� important than wide roadway. However, connectivity and multiple access points have bee� in many communities because of standards and policies to access collector and arterial roa There is a definite need to balance roadway width, access, and connectivity so that emerge vehicles are not responding to emergencies caused by overly wide residential roadways. Af these residential streets are often the ones that kids and pets frequently play in and use to ; schools. In addition, California Fire Code standards have now required residential sprinkle make homes safer from the threat of fires. While these sprinklers do not eliminate all fires significantly reduce the source of many residential fires, which is the cause of multiple fire responding on a residential street as opposed to a medical response. Cities like Fresno and Clovis among many other cities throughout California have adoptec residential streets and this is also a recommendation for Bakersfield to consider. Reducing of residential streets by four feet will increase safety. Residential streets also make up a ma the public street right-of-way, so by reducing the pavement width will reduce pavement m by approximately 10% on these streets. This reduction in residential street width in conjur the 40% plus reduction in collector street widths will significantly improve financial sustai� both the short and long term and enhance public safety. Bakersfield should consider adopting a standard for local three lane collectors with two tr� 10' in width, a two-way left-turn lane 10' in width, bike lanes 7-8' in width, and on street p; width for a total cross section of 44-46' without on street parking and 58-60' with on stree This change would allow collector streets to be more walkable and bikeable by facilitating --�i_:_i� ..��a.. _�a _ ..�,_�� a�..:�.� �l__�:.. .__�._� _�.__L'�._�_L1� _._� ---�1._._.__:._,� �� 1� Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements have increased the time required for pedestrians to cross a roadway. Roadways that are wider than they need to be due to wide� lanes mean more time given to the pedestrian to cross, which can cause delays to motorist new ADA requirements are often dictating the cycle lengths for a traffic signal on wider rc especially on coordinated corridors. City Staff Participants in Complete Streets Focus Group Meetings January 9 & 10, 2014 Name Ross Kelly Dou� Greener Howard Wines Steve Teglia Paul Hellman Martin Ortiz Ryan Bland Phil Burns � im �ggert Dou�- McIssac � ennie r,ng Tom Jones Ken Trone Dianne Hoover Greg Williamson Lyle Martin Brian Clayton Joe Mullis John Ussery Ryan Starbuck Ed Murphy Marian Shau NR Fickler Arnold Rammin� Title Deputy Chief Fire Chief Prevention Director Assistant to City Manager Principal Planner Principal Planner Community Development Coordinator Building Director Planning Director Community Development Director Principal Planner Park Planner Park Superintendent Recreation & Parks Director Chief Assitant Chief Captain Lieutenant En�-ineer III Traffic Engineer En�ineer III CE IV Assistant PW Director CE IV-Desi�n En�inec Department Fire Department Fire Department Fire Department City Manager Office Community Developmet Community Developmer Community Developmer Community Developmer Community Developmet Community Developmei Community Developmei Recreation & Parks Recreation & Parks Recreation & Parks Police Depar� Police Depar� Police Depar� Police Depar� Public Works Public Works Public Works Public Works Public Works Public Works ent ent ent ent