From: Marie and Larry Stein
To: City Council
Subject: 4-25-2023 Meeting - Agenda item 9B – Specifically 580 Masonic Developm ent Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 1:18:38 PM
My family has lived in Sterling Downs since 1994 and is very concerned with how the building of an apartment at 580 Masonic will have a negative impact on our neighborhood, especially regarding the subject of parking for the residents and their guests at this building and the additional traffic congestion which will have to enter and exit the site in an already problematic traffic area, as all residents of Sterling Downs know about.
The proposed building at 580 Masonic Way is lacking in details of what the city will be doing to address issues with traffic and parking amongst other items which will need to be addressed, concerning myself and a vast majority of my neighbors. The only reference I can quickly find is this link https://www.belmont.gov/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/467/642.
Parking - Let’s immediately put a stop to any discussion that a majority of the people who will be renting at this location will only be using public transportation and will not have automobiles (or only have motorcycles or bikes), and that people living there will be taking the train, or other public transportation, NOT A CHANCE, if they have 137 units, you will need at least 200 parking spots for the tenants and staff, and if you do an inventory of parking spaces available on the streets around that area, you will “see” that there is not enough available parking for everyone.
Traffic Nesbit- All who live in our district, or those who bring their children to Nesbit school, know of the problems at Ralston and Hiller, also Ralston and Old County during school drop off and pick up, a vast majority know that they need to get out before 8 or after 8:30, same goes for afternoons.
Traffic - In general those who want to head south experience the problems of lights being timed for Ralston, not Hiller and when “we” complained, the only traffic items addressed are for those who are traveling on Ralston, not Hiller (or Old County). If we have 10 to 15 cars backed up trying to get from Hiller to Ralston, then add in those who want to turn from or onto Masonic or into or out of the parking lot at 580 Masonic, it can be a real mess.
For those of us who are heading south out of the subdivision, we need to wait an extended time for the traffic signals timing to run its course once triggered so we can make the turn, or the process is sped up when someone heading west uses the left turn lane to go to Homeview or make the “U” turn, but that is it, and lord help us if someone is not paying attention and the light changes.
Public Transportation – It is said that we are a transportation corridor/hub, but on the east side of District One there is no real and dependable “public transportation” available, and it is ridiculous to say there is. The Belmont Cal train Station has only Local trains and maybe a few limited ones stop at the Belmont Station, people who need the Bullet, will have to go to Hillsdale or Redwood City (how will they get there?). If people want to take a Bus, well they can walk it to El Camino (or wait at Ralston and Hiller for the bus to El Camino), all one needs to do is look at the SamTrans schedule to see the lack of regular service in our area.
It is not reasonable for the City Council to not offer any concrete details on how these major concerns will be addressed by the city and to be quite honest, it seems to not be interested, since only one council member is from our district and ZERO district representation on the now much smaller Planning Commission live on the East Side (we did have people apply, just not selected).
It feels like a vast majority appear to be interested in checking a box, getting this project done, and moving on to other items (like the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), which the City in all its wisdom seem to designate our district to bear the brunt of that project also, but that is From: giuliano carlini
To: City Council
Cc: x-City Clerk"s Office
Subject: Comments on tonight"s meeting agenda items
Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 6:45:03 PM
Attachments: OpenPGP_0x42C724ECB3F93272.asc
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Item 5: Items not on the Agenda
I want to focus on one part of the ADLP project here. The presumption that there can be no continuous connected bike lane, in particular at Ralston. The first response to the community workshop comments is, "... there is not enough right‐of‐way width to include separate bicycle lane at this segment approaching Ralston Avenue without significantly impacting traffic onto Ralston Avenue". But that's only true if one assumes that car traffic is paramount. It's not. Indeed, it's the problem. There's only one reason that traffic on ADLP is so slow: too many cars. And there's one solution: convert trips from car trips to bike trips. An end to end bike lane will enable folks to overcome their fear of cycling. With a lane, they will cycle. Especially kids to schools, as their parents will be comfortable with their traveling to school if the infrastructure is safe.
Item 9B: Belmont Development Projects & Long-Range Plan Update Please, as the further plans develop, please define desired mode split.
And please set it at levels that will help heal our plant's climate crises, better our civic infrastructure, improve our health, and improve our children's health and autonomy. In particular, use the opportunity that Stanford's development of the NDNU campus will bring. giuliano
From: Joanne Adamkewicz
To: City Council; x-City Clerk"s Office; x-community development; Planning Comm Subject: Public comment on City Council meeting Agenda Item 9B for April 25, 2023 Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 4:53:57 PM
re: Belmont Development Projects & Long-Range Plan Update (Item 9B) Dear City Council, Planning Commission, and city staff, Thank you very much for tonight's City Council presentation on Belmont development projects. It's very helpful to see this all in one place and I appreciate the staff effort to prepare this informative update. I understand this is not a public hearing, and that individual projects will be reviewed at later dates. However I would like to make a few comments about the overall plan and the changes coming to eastern Belmont, and how we can address and mitigate impacts proactively.
I have 3 specific suggestions, with details elaborated below my signature. 1) Belmont should work closely with San Carlos to coordinate our Harbor Industrial Area (HIA) planning with their Northeast Specific Plan. 2) Developers, particularly those putting in commercial / biotech development, should be asked to fund traffic mitigation measures as a condition of approval. 3) As part of the planning process, BIG changes in road configuration and traffic patterns need to be looked at, and funding sources identified -- before all the new buildings go up.
Thank you for your consideration.
Regards,
Joanne Adamkewicz
Belmont resident
1) Belmont should work closely with San Carlos to coordinate our Harbor Industrial Area (HIA) planning with their Northeast Specific Plan.
Despite the city limits, the land area bounded by Hwy 101, Old County Rd, Ralston Ave., and Holly St. is a contiguous area with shared issues and shared resources which needs to be treated as one unit for planning purposes. Flood control, parking issues, bike and pedestrian access, parks and open space, traffic -- none of these stop at the Belmont/HIA/San Carlos border. Please work closely with San Carlos throughout the planning process! Hold joint public workshops and make plans that treat the area as a unified whole. Pool funding to pay for a joint flood risk analysis or traffic analysis. Apply jointly for grants to upgrade bike and pedestrian access. Etc etc. We are stronger together!
2) Developers, particularly those putting in commercial / biotech development, should be asked to fund traffic mitigation measures as a condition of approval.
The planned biotech/commercial development projects are a fantastic opportunity for Belmont to increase our tax base, but we only have leverage to extract concessions at the time of application -- we need to ask developers to help mitigate the impact of all the new employees traveling to these new buildings. Some things we can and should ask for:
(a) Developers (and employers) should contribute funds towards a permanent CalTrain / ECR shuttle to get people out of their cars. This shuttle should be done jointly with San Carlos, and should stop at the San Carlos CalTrain station, as express and high-speed trains will not stop in Belmont. The Utah-Grand CalTrain & BART Shuttle in South San Francisco may serve as a model.
(b) Employers should be required to have car-reduction plans in place, such as discounted bus or train passes for their employees, or paid gas for employees who carpool. They should be required to have secure on-site bike parking.
(c) Developers should contribute funds towards the road re-configuration projects outlined below in #3.
3) As part of the planning process, BIG changes in road configuration and traffic patterns need to be looked at, and funding sources identified -- before all the new buildings go up.
It is clear that all this new development will greatly increase the number of cars entering and exiting Belmont by thousands per day. While we can and should promote public transit solutions, bold ideas are also needed to reconfigure our streets to funnel these cars in and out without gridlock. Bold ideas take time and effort and need to be started now.
Here are some ideas for your consideration -- not all may be feasible. But I would like to see big ideas like these discussed at planning meetings, starting now. Do not wait for individual development projects to come up and then ask developers to pay for small changes. (a) Work with the state of CA to put an automobile overpass at Harbor and 101, including on and off ramps from Northbound 101, or a ramp with Shoreway Road that will allow cars to travel north on Shoreway to access 101 from the Ralston interchange. This would greatly reduce car trips through the Homeview neighborhood, along Old County Road, and at the Ralston/Hiller intersection.
(b) Completely redesign traffic flow around Hiller/Ralston/Masonic and Nesbit School.
Traffic is unbearable for local residents now during school drop off and pickup, and during rush hour, and it will only get worse with 580 Masonic going in. --Purchase land or easements that would allow extension of Wessex Way west of its current terminus and through to Old County Rd
--Make the short block of Granada St between Ralston and Masonic into a two-way street to allow exit from the neighborhood. (Right now it is one-way from Ralston to Masonic). --Prevent left-hand turns from Masonic onto Hiller St.
--Extend the right-hand turn lane on OCR south-bound where it intersects with Ralston, by removing a section of the extra-wide sidewalk there.
--With the BRSSD Board, identify funding for shuttles or buses that will reduce the number of families transporting their students to Nesbit by car.
(c) Identify a funding source for the pedestrian/bike Caltrain underpass at Oneill Avenue.
This is in the BVSP but needs funding.
(d) With San Carlos, look at ways to increase traffic throughput on Old County Rd, to keep cars off of residential streets. This may require elimination of street parking on OCR, which would be a hardship on local businesses and would necessitate alternative parking solutions for them.
(e) Consider barriers or traffic calming measures on Elmer to prevent drive-throughs by people trying to avoid the OCR/Ralston intersection.
another conversation for another day).
I am hopeful that the city will take a long hard look at what will be happening to our neighborhood and take the necessary steps to not “screw” up by allowing the building at 580 Masonic to be more than what the neighborhood can support. Just look at 815 Old County, that will be a huge cluster with all the traffic trying to get to and from Old County, using all the side streets, Hiller, Chesterton, and all the feeder streets just to get into their location.
Regards,
Larry Stein
Chesterton Ave.