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7B Page 17 EXHIBET A FINDING OF FACTS Finding 1: That the Ciiy of Redwood City lies on the San Francisco Peninsula towards the southern portion of the County of San Mateo. The city is connected to the City of San Carlos to the north, to the City of Menlo Park to the south, to the Town of Woodside and �nincorporated portions o# San Mateo County to the west, and San Francisco Bay to the east. The City of Redwood City is composed of a combination of flat and hilly areas. !t rises from San Francisco Bay to nearly 90Q feet in ele�,�ation. The city also has a deep-wafier po�t and channel, and a section of town referred to as Redwood Shores. These two areas are connected to the city proper by means of bridges, overcrossings, or single road connections which in case of an emergency such as an car��ake, could very easily be as��at�d and cut u��rorn assis�ance. The iimited �umber ot resporse routes and the lack of feasible alternate routes subject respo^c4ing fire department apparatus to significant delays in arriving at fires. As the city and environs continue to graw without compensating increases in traffic arterials, #ra�c congestion becomes cortespondingly worse. it is not uncommon for responding fire apparatus to come to a complete standstill in traffic when responding the entire length of EI Camino Real (State Route 82}, Middlefield Road, W�odside Road {State Route 84}, Whippie Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Marine Parkway, Oracle Parkway, and U.S. Highway 101 —when responding to parts of the city during various times of the day. Peak traffic volum�s at these locations are as high as 4050 vehicles per hour with daily volumes in excess of 4Q,000 vehicfes per day.' These delays result in an insufficient number of fire department resources arriving sufficiently sarly to effectively control fires involving high-rise buildings, buildings with untreated wood shake and shingle exteriors, and large interior areas not having automatic fire- protection and life-safety systems. Many of the new high-rise buildings and large building complexes have structural, landscaping features, and designs which preclude or greatly limit any approach or operational access to them by fire department apparatus. There are many buildings to which access is limited to a!1 but one side due to slopes, canals and sloughs, levees, high-tension electrical transmission lines, fences, or other buildings. When fire department apparatus cannot gain access to high-rise buiidings and farge building complexes, it becomes necessary to conduct all extinguishing and ventilating operations from fihe interior. It also requires that much equipment must be carried for long distances from fire apparatus to the fire location, whieh may be many floors above the ground. Such operations quickly exhaust firefighters both in numbers and in stamina. This can result in delaying, misdirecting, or making impossibfe - fire and smake control efforts. ' State of California 2006 Traffic Volumes Atty/Reso.i 762 3 120307