1 STAFF REPORT
DATE: June 25, 2024
TO: Justin Hess, City Manager
FROM: Patrick Prescott, Community Development Director VIA: David Kriske, Asst. Community Development Director, Transportation BY: Nick Burant, Administrative Analyst II
SUBJECT: Approval of a Right-of-Entry and Encroachment Agreement with Disney Worldwide Services , Inc. to Provide Employee Shuttle Services at the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station and at Eight Places Along the City’s Right-of-Way
RECOMMENDATION
1. Approve a two-year Right-of-Entry and Encroachment Agreement (Agreement) with two, one-year renewal options with Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. (Disney) to use a bus bay at the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station and at eight places along the City’s right -of-way to provide employee shuttle services to and from their various offices in and around Burbank (Attachment 1).
2. Approve a 75% Transportation Demand Management (TDM) discount to the monthly fee under the Agreement, and offer as a matter of policy a comparable discount to future employers who seek to offer similar employee shuttle services within the City.
BACKGROUND
Disney is a media company headquartered in Burbank with approximately 5,500 employees in the City’s Media District. Disney has offices across both Burbank and the City of Glendale. To facilitate employee transportation among their different campuses while minimizing single occupant car trips, Disney operates an employee shuttle. Disney has been operating this shuttle for approximately 10 years.
Disney approached the City of Burbank (City) in late 2023 to add a shuttle stop at the city- owned Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station parking lot to their shuttle route. The purpose of this additional stop was to connect their Metrolink -riding employees to some of their campuses. While the BurbankBus Pink Route provides frequent weekday service
2 between the Metrolink Station, the main Disney Headquarters, and offices in the Media District, other outlying Disney sites do not have connections to transit. Adding the Metrolink shuttle stop would allow employees located at these outlying sites to commute by transit. To respond to this request, the City issued a temporary encroachment permit to operate this stop on a trial basis from early October through early January, and then issued two permit extensions through mid-July 2024. Based on the popularity of this new stop, Disney would like to continue utilizing the shuttle stop at the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station on a regular, more permanent basis.
In addition to the new Metrolink Station stop, Disney’s employee shuttle stop s at eight locations within the City’s right-of-way (Exhibits A and B of Attachment 1 ). These stops are either standalone or are co-located with a BurbankBus or Metro transit and were established informally by Disney. Due to this, Disney has requested an encroachment agreement to formalize these as permanent stops on the Disney employee shuttle route.
DISCUSSION
To allow Disney to operate its Metrolink Station shuttle stop beyond the trial period, staff recommends the City and Disney enter into the Agreement to formalize Disney’s use of the Metrolink Station and the existing eight shuttle stops located throughout City right-of- way. Disney’s employee system supports the City’s Transportation goals and policies related to providing employee commuter options other than single occupant vehicles. The City’s Media District Specific Plan (MDSP) seeks to accommodate the incre ased travel demand created by Media District employers through Transportation Demand Management (TDM). TDM refers to a set of strategies that maximize travel choices (such as taking transit, carpooling, biking, and walking) to reduce the vehicle demand on the City’s roadways during peak commute times. The MDSP employs TDM specifically as a means to accommodate traffic into and out of the Media District without incurring the financial expense and environmental impacts of expanding roadway capacity. The MDSP requires employers in the Media District with over 25 employees to engage in various strategies to reduce peak hour trips (Article 21 of Chapter 1 of Title 10 of the Burbank Municipal Code (BMC)).
BMC Section 10-1-2134 outlines nine strategies that emp loyers can use to reduce their peak hour commute trips. Two of these strategies are “Transit Ridership and Bus Operations” and “Satellite Parking.” The former states that employers can “provide transit shelters or actual shuttle connections to various public transportation centers to make commuting by public transportation more convenient ” while the latter states employers may “provide required parking outside of the Media District at satellite locations linked to the District by reliable shuttl e service .” Disney’s shuttle service implements both strategies by connecting their campuses to public transit at the Metrolink Station and various BurbankBus and Metro bus stops and serves as a satellite parking arrangement 3 where commuters can utilize amp le Metrolink Station parking and use the shuttle to connect to their place of employment.
Staff sees a major benefit to Disney’s employee shuttle service. Disney is reducing traffic impacts in the City during both morning and evening commute periods by providing shuttles between its offices and the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station, which include various bus stops. Furthermore, this shuttle service allows Disney employees to attend meetings at multiple offices throughout the day without needing to find alternate modes of transportation for the commute. Each shuttle route reduces multiple car trips, lowering traffic demand on City streets and reducing the City’s Vehicle Miles Travelled, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. More broadly, Disney’s employee shuttle service is evidence that the City’s TDM ordinance within the MDSP is working. Disney is implementing two of the nine TDM strategies listed in the BMC and is working to reduce its impact on peak hour traffic congestion.
To mitigate increased security and maintenance costs associated with the Disney shuttles using the Metrolink parking lot and various City right-of-way locations, staff recommends the Agreement include a monthly fee that will be used to reimburse a portion of these costs to the City. Revenues from the fee would be deposited directly into the City’s Proposition A Fund (104.ND000.51220.1006.000000.00000), which is used to maintain the Metrolink Station and provide some maintenance of the City’s transit stops.
Normally, this monthly fee would amount to $4,848; however, Disney requested a discount to $1,212 (75% discount). Staff believes the discount is justified by the TDM benefits provided to the City, including reducing commuter traffic on City streets at an operational cost that is completely paid by Disney and closing a service gap that is currently not being provided by other transit services.
Staff also recommends that any potential employee shuttles from other Burbank companies be discounted as a matter of policy by the City. To qualify for the discount, a company would have to successfully implement the City’s TDM policies , and they must not conflict or compete with BurbankBus transit services. Employee shuttles implemented in this way are expected to reduce traffic congestion on City streets, reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled, and will not compete with the City’s other transit services . Therefore , staff believes the fees to implement these services should be subsidized.
In addition to the monthly fee, the proposed Agreement also requires Disney to fully reimburse the City for minor improvements to some of the existing shuttle stops in the right-of-way. These improvements include curb painting and sign relocations to improve traffic engineering and disability access. The cost of these improvements will be $3,320, which will be deposited into the City’s General Fund and used to offset these curb and sign management costs.
4 The alignment of the bus bays at the Metrolink Station can be seen in Exhibit A of the proposed Agreement (Attachment 1). Disney shuttles will be sharing their bus bay with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl concert shuttle. Staff expects minimal conflicts due to differing schedules. The Disney shuttles are expected to operate between 7 AM and 10 AM and between 3 PM and 6 PM on weekdays only. The L os Angeles Philharmonic shuttles are expected to operate from 5 PM to 12 AM.
Disney is requesting a two-year agreement with two, one-year options to administratively renew. Finally, the Agreement includes standard insurance, hold harmless, and indemnification requirements.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Approving the A greement is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 Class 1 , Existing Facilities, by permitting Disney’s use of existing City facilities involving negligible or no expansion of existing or former use . Transit use of the Metrolink Station parking lot and public right of way identified in the Agreement is an activity intrinsic to operat ing these locations. Approving the Agreement does not expand the use of these existing facilities, and there are no unusual circumstances that would preclude the use of this CEQA categorical exemption.
FISCAL IMPACT
Additional maintenance and security costs resulting from Disney’s operation of the shuttle at the Metrolink station and along City right -of-way will be partially covered by the Agreement’s subsidized license fee, while the remainder of the costs will be paid through Proposition A Local Return funds already budgeted as part of the annual budget. License fee revenues will be deposited into the Proposition A local return revenue account (104.ND000.51220.1006.000000.00000) and will be used to offset increased security and maintenance costs at the station and along the City’s right-of-way.
CONCLUSION
Disney seeks to provide employee shuttle services to the various Disney campuses and parking structures in and around Burbank . Staff believes that Burbank benefits from Disney making a good-faith effort to comply with the TDM sections of the MDSP, and that the shuttle will lessen traffic and maintenance impacts on City streets. As such, City staff recommends that Council approve a two-year Right-of-Entry and Encroachment Agreement with two, one-year options to renew for Disney to enter the Metrolink Station parking lot and eight locations along the City’s right of way to provide employee shuttle services. Staff also recommends the Council approve a TDM discount to the monthly fee under the Agreement and offer similar discounts to future employers who seek to operate similar employee shuttle services within the City.
5 ATTACHMENT
Attachment 1 – Right of Entry and Encroachment Agreement with Disney Worldwide Services, Inc.