AgdaPkt 2020-11-16 Special - Laserfiche WebLink

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From: To: GRP -City Council Subject: South Main - Transit Oriented Development Date: Monday, November 16, 2020 10:11:23 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside your organization. Exercise caution when opening attachments or clicking links, especially from unknown senders. To our Redwood City Council Members, Quote from the South Main project: "Reducing the number of vehicle trips that occur in the City and the number of vehicle miles traveled by residents of the City. Motor vehicle trips are the biggest source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in California. Reducing the number and length of vehicle trips by residents of Redwood City will benefit Redwood City residents, both directly and indirectly, by improving local air quality, alleviating traffic congestion on local streets and roadways, contributing to regional and statewide efforts to reverse or slow global warming, reducing local energy consumption, and contributing to broader efforts to reduce our nation's dependency on foreign oil and petroleum products. Adoption and implementation of the South Main Mixed -Use Project will enable substantial residential growth in close proximity to public transit including the Transit Center and Caltrain's Redwood City Station, employment opportunities, entertainment and recreational opportunities, retail and commercial providers, and other necessary services, thereby eliminating and/or shortening the length of a significant number of vehicle trips in the City. In addition, shortening the length of commuter trips and other vehicle trips will reduce the time spent in vehicles, enabling residents to devote more time to more productive or desirable activities." Quotes from the 2030 Climate Action Plan: "Reducing emissions associated with single -occupant vehicle (SOV) transportation by focusing on mode shifts to walking, biking, and using transit; reducing trips altogether." "Support the City's Safe Route to Schools program by investing in enhancing bike trails and safe pedestrian routes to local schools." "Install bike lanes to make walking and biking more desirable." And yet the Developer and City Staff collaborated on this project without any consideration towards anything they put in the marketing material or the current Climate Action Plan. If city staff worked as hard on solutions as they do on marketing, the city would be healthier, less congested, with fewer Spare The Air days and way more Safe -Bikeways -To -School. And yet this project again only includes "Bike Boulevards" or 'Sharrows' - a type of facility that is lacking legal standing in California and is hence out of favor with AASHTO, NACTO, FHWA and other nationwide professional traffic engineers, city planners and bike advocates. They might even decrease safety, they are definitely not for the 8-80 year old and are not helping towards Vision Zero. Mistakes like this are easy to fix now, but hard to fix later. This project must include bike lanes to schools Roosevelt ES, Henry Ford ES, Kennedy Middle School and Woodside High School. Since this project doesn't come with much Open Space, it requires bike lanes to Red Morton Park. Since this project is supposed to be Transit -Oriented, there must be a straight Bike/Ped path from there to transit. Since this project does not include any of the action promoted in the 2030 Climate Action Plan, your approval of our CAP tonight immediately becomes a farce. Council, send the developer and city staff back to the drawing board and fix the missing Transit - Orientation and Active Transportation component of this TOD. Enough talking the talk, start walking the walk. best regards, Gerd Stieler