Orinda City Council Minutes Page 1 of 18 05.06.24
MAY 6, 2024
CITY OF ORINDA
TRI-CITIES SPECIAL
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
1. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Dawson called the Tri-Cities meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: Lafayette City Council: Mayor Dawson, Vice Mayor Kwok; Councilmembers Anduri, and McCormick
Absent: Councilmember Candell
Present: Moraga Town Council: Mayor Onoda; Vice Mayor Woehleke; Councilmembers Hillis, Shapiro, and Sos
Present: Orinda City Council: Mayor Gee; Vice Mayor Malkani; Councilmembers Iverson, Miller (left 7:10pm, return 8:28pm), and Riley
Staff Present: Niroop Srivatsa, Lafayette City Manager; Scott Mitnick; Moraga Town Manager; David Biggs, Orinda City Manager; Shawn Knapp, Moraga Director of Public Works; Afshan Hamid, Moraga Director of Planning; Siva Natarajan, Orinda City Engineer; Joanne Robbins, Lafayette City Clerk
3. Disclosure and/or Take Action on Remote Participation due to Just Cause or Emergency Circumstances Pursuant to AB 2449 (Gov. Code section 54953(f).)
4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Mayor Dawson opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Onoda/Riley) to adopt the agenda. Vote: 14-0-1 ( Candell absent).
5. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Led by Mayor Dawson.
6. PUBLIC COMMENTS (For Items not on the agenda)
LIBBY HENRY asked each City Council to write a letter of support for Senator Glazer’s request that he has put in for a complete audit of everyone’s RHNA numbers. It is being heard on May 14th in the Joint Audit Committee in Sacramento.
She asked that each city officially write a resolution and endorse their neighborhood voices because all cities are having their rights and powers removed bit by bit.
Additionally, in light of the recent court decision where five cities in Southern California were involved in, the court decided that SB 9 was indeed Unconstitutional for charter cities. This will apply retroactively to all charter cities. She asked that all three Lamorinda cities consider seriously applying for this. She referred to the Orinda City Council Minutes Page 2 of 18 05.06.24
Housing Element, she asked that Lafayette’s downtown not be upzoned. There are ways where public members have submitted several proposals that can and would work and asked the Council to consider this as part of the Housing Element.
JOINT SESSION WITH TOWN OF MORAGA AND CITY OF ORINDA
a. City and Town Council Introductions and Updates from Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda
Recommendation: Receive and file.
Mayor Dawson said by way of roll call, each Councilmember has introduced themselves. She asked Mayor Gee to provide an update on the City of Orinda.
Orinda Mayor Gee announced that the City is in the process of hiring a new Planning Director and they are getting close in negotiations on their offer.
Unfortunately, they are also losing City Manager David Biggs to unite with his family, and the City is in the process of getting ready to interview candidates for a new City Manager.
Moraga Mayor Onoda announced that St. Mary’s College Men’s Rugby team just won national championship on Saturday. Their General Plan is in the works of being updated and on April 30th they held a community outreach and over 60 residents participated. Regarding housing development, they have a State-certified Housing Element. Currently, they have a 49-unit, 100%-affordable apartment project on Rheem Boulevard that has been submitted. The City has under review a 100-unit apartment project in the Rheem Center, and a 66-unit apartment project near Moraga Center under review and others in the planning stages for over 200 units.
The Town also has an aggressive street rehabilitation program, and it covers 4+ miles and $6 million to be completed by the end of 2024. They revised their program which involves cost-sharing and benefiting residents. Right now, they are focusing on the worst streets and will repair sidewalks as needed. Moraga-Orinda Teen Pickleball tournament was held on April 28th. It was organized by Moraga Youth Involvement and Orinda Teen Advisory Council. 55 teens participated in all three Lamorinda cities, and she believes Moraga won. There was an MPA Spring 2024 Walking Challenge and Moraga placed first out of several hundred. Orinda came in third and Lafayette also did well.
Mayor Onoda said Moraga was incorporated 50 years ago in November, and the Town is having a parade on September 28th, and everyone is welcome. Thus far, they have 30 different groups in the parade, with marching bands and stilt walkers, Boy Scouts, and everything all-American.
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Mayor Dawson said last year, the City celebrated 175+ years of history. The City has utility box wraps up and down Mt. Diablo Boulevard depicting this celebration, as well as adoption of a Land Acknowledgement Statement in deference to their history. They worked a lot on safety last year and had a particular priority for multimodal safety around schools. They invested a lot of time, energy and budget in that, and they recognize continued efforts. The City adopted a traffic-calming program, a Local Roads Safety Program last year, and launched a Slow Down Lafayette campaign, all with Vision Zero in mind.
The City completed its Safety Element of the General Plan and continue to work on fire and safety preparedness. They thank all of their partners for their work and this week Con Fire is working on clearly their evacuation routes. Tomorrow at the Community Center, Con Fire is preventing Wildfire Preparedness and Safety at 7:00 p.m. and Lamorinda cities are welcome to attend.
The City has worked on the priority of fiscal sustainability as well as what they are doing in preparing for certification of their Housing Element, which is currently scheduled for review by HCD. They look forward to new development, welcoming new residents, and making the downtown corridor a safe, sustainable, and vibrant place to be. There are many things happening in their downtown in tandem with the Chamber of Commerce. There will be an Artisanal Walk downtown this Saturday and local artists and businesses will be open, as well as Taste of Lafayette coming up, and Summer Concerts.
Mayor Dawson then opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
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7. PRESENTATIONS
a. Contra Costa County Transportation Authority (CCTA) Evacuation Study – Scope of Work
Recommendation: Receive presentation and provide feedback.
Shawn Knapp, Director of Public Works and Town Engineer, Town of Moraga, said he has been with the Town for 7 years and 31 years as an engineer. He has two presentations today focusing on the Lamorinda evacuation Preparedness studies they have been working on. He introduced some important police and fire staff in attendance, and thanked sponsors for projects. He introduced John Hong, representing the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA). They are a sponsor of the Lamorinda Smart Signals Project and also the evacuation grant application they have submitted to Caltrans for funding. Also, a big supporter of projects is Tim Hale, CCTA Executive Director who has been instrumental in supporting the Lamorinda agencies in these endeavors.
Also representing Congressman DeSaulnier is Ryan Thomas Brown, the Congressman’s Deputy District Director. The Congressman is also a big sponsor of their Lamorinda Smart Signals Project through their Community Project Federal Appropriations. He read a brief comment about contacting their office of Congressman Mark DeSaulnier for assistance with grants and letters of support for federal grants. They can also sign up with Office of Grants Newsletter by contacting the office. Additionally, they will continue to assist individual constituents with federal agencies such as FEMA, IRS, and Social Security.
They also have a representative from Assemblymember Bauer-Kahn’s office, Field Representative Antoinette St. Johns. The Assemblymember is a big proponent of wildfire prevention and preparation for residents, and she thanks all three Councils and CCTA for providing the opportunity to share valuable information. Wildfire evacuation is an issue that is important and on top of everybody’s minds in Lamorinda. She knows how hard MOFD and Con Fire and their partners are working to keep the communities safe from wildfire risk. It is important they all continue to collaborate, making their communities aware and more prepared in case of an emergency, and Ms. St. Johns can answer questions and provide information after the meeting.
Mr. Knapp said Lamorinda cities continue to jointly plan and train for possible future local and regional evacuations. The two presentations tonight will focus on their latest joint efforts of their planning and transportation departments. They need to recognize their police and fire departments who have on-going efforts to implementing evacuation preparation programs for residents.
Tonight, they have their Police Chiefs for the three agencies, representatives from Con Fire and MOFD, as well. Notable work has been studying and modeling evacuation routes for the three agencies, developing wildfire evacuation zones and automated emergency notification for residents, doing mock evacuation events, training police and fire staff along with the public, coordinating with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and volunteering and training residents. They develop and distribute wildfire preparation and evacuation guides for each of their residents. He urged all residents to check out each of their agencies’ websites for more information on this.
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He then introduced Afshan Hamid who will give the first presentation. She is the Director of Planning for the Town of Moraga and has been leading joint efforts in the Lamorinda Planning Initiative for Lamorinda Evacuation Study, coordinating regionally. The Lamorinda agencies have partnered with CCTA to apply for grant funding.
Afshan Hamid, Director of Planning, Town of Moraga, presented the Lamorinda Evacuation Preparedness and what the three cities are doing regionally and collaboratively tonight. She presented a diagram showing the evacuation which has become a three-legged stool. Implementation is the important first leg of the stool and the work being carried out by emergency responders. Transportation, which is the second leg, is currently evaluating the existing roadway network capacity and improvements.
More will be provided in the presentation by Siva Natarajan from the City of Orinda.
The third leg is a recent leg added which is the Planning Departments, where they are looking at future scenarios and what the buildout projections may be with the new RHNA numbers as a result of their 6th cycle Housing Elements. The RHNA numbers for each city are: Lafayette: 2,114 units; Moraga: 1,118 units; and Orinda, 1,359 units. The focus of this presentation is the response to future build-outs with additional housing requirements and with more residents being added to these units, and how the Lamorinda region has become the leader in addressing evacuation studies.
During the State-mandated Housing Element process, a new set of requirements was added to address evacuations through SB 99 which is local level evacuations. AB 747 which is a high-level route capacity, safety and viability analysis, and all of this had to tie back to AB 1409 which is the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. During the Housing Element process, if this was enough, the Attorney General issued a guidance memo essentially providing that housing numbers and future development cannot be precluded by evacuations. The AG’s Office also put out guidance for evacuations.
Additionally, during the Housing Element process, residents vocalized addressing evacuations as a high priority. While their emergency responders have a coordinated response and transportation was working on smart signals, the planning leg of the stool was not only still grappling with the large RHNA numbers but also how best to respond to the AG’s office, the increased resident concerns, and future resident build-out scenarios.
Each City was mandated to adopt its own Housing Element. Naturally, they were also taking an agency-by-agency approach to evacuation requirements. Each City was slightly varied in terms of how they were identified on Cal Fire maps and the risk level.
During this period of time, it was also shared that Cal Fire was in the process of updating its fire maps.
The three Planning Directors met a few times in 2022 and along with Afshan’s counterparts from Orinda and Lafayette, they had a very good, shared collaboration.
They discussed how best to handle evacuations and shared knowledge with each other, as each of their cities were at different stages of their Housing Elements and Safety Elements. Both Orinda and Lafayette were underway with plans to address the State laws. However, there was essentially no book or how best to approach evacuations, so it was new territory for all three jurisdictions.
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The cities met in October 2023 with the three City Managers, the three Planning Directors, Police Chiefs, and Shawn Knapp. The three cities took a broader approach, especially as evacuation studies, the methodology, analysis, and technology were all rapidly changing in a matter of months. What was scheduled to be a one-hour meeting quickly evolved into a two-hour meeting with each city easily seeing the benefit of a comprehensive, collaborative regional approach.
It became very clear the cross-jurisdictional approach would allow for mitigated risk, anticipate future scenarios and zones as a region, and understanding that evacuation routes and directions were based on scenarios. Depending on where the event was happening, they needed to rely on the same resources. The ability to work seamlessly became a priority to serve all residents. They were cross multiplying their resources by working together. It also placed the Lamorinda region in a proactive and forward-thinking approach with a win/win for the region. A broader approach would look at evacuations area-wide and allow the three legs of the stool to work in a more comprehensive manner.
A new Countywide Emergency Evacuation Plan will address climate change, infrastructure adaptation, vulnerability, and resiliency. The Lamorinda region collaboration entailed partnering with CCTA. They are indebted to their partners, both Tim Hale and John Wong. CCTA embraced the opportunity to lead the project and allow for much-needed public outreach, participation, and the benefit of resiliency due to the climate change effects. Based upon the Lamorinda model and desire to take a regional approach, CCTA expanded the scope to all 20 jurisdictions in Contra Costa County, under-served populations, and multiple stakeholders including MTC, transit operators, Bay Area Regional Collaborative, fire departments, police departments, EBRPD, BART, and Amtrak.
Current projections show that Contra Costa County will experience a unique combination of climate-induced effects. These effects will include substantially increased sea level rise, wildfire, and levy failures. These impacts will exacerbate existing hazards and are expected to strain the transportation networks currently in place throughout all of Contra Costa County.
CCTA took this model, expanded it and sought grant funding through the Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning grant. The plan builds upon the development of Contra Costa County as a multi-jurisdictional local hazard mitigation plan. An outcome of the study, as identified by several agencies throughout the county, is understanding climate change and other hazard risks that may result, as well as evacuations using routes that may span several jurisdictions.
The study, if awarded, will further planning resources for extreme weather events by focusing on preparedness drills, evacuation planning drills, identifying communities with inadequate access to transportation options, planning for increased transportation options, identifying opportunities for intelligent transportation systems, education campaigns, and the study as proposed for the grant will tie to regional and sub-regional planning efforts conducted at the local level and assessments of SB 99 and AB 747 for all of the 20-member agencies.
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In short, this approach takes what would have been an agency-by-agency approach and creates a new model that can be replicated throughout Contra Costa County. The grant is pending, and they will know more about the status in early summer of 2024, and she was available to take any questions.
Mayor Onoda referred to warning system upgrades and asked what that means. Ms.
Hamid said more of this will be discussed in the next presentation, but it is part of making their roadway system smarter, more adaptable, and capable.
Vice Mayor Woehleke asked as to what degree is stakeholder engagement included in the plan for the study.
Ms. Hamid replied that it actually becomes a core element of the grant if they are awarded the grant, and there will be multiple stakeholder engagement throughout the entire process. She commented that when they were initially doing these studies and looking at it, agency-by-agency, that component was missing because all this was relatively still new to each of the agencies. They were trying to figure it out, but as they took a more regional approach, the outreach became an important component.
Councilmember Iverson said in the case of wildfire evacuation, the Council gets many questions about modeling wildfires and how they spread and how that impacts the kind of studies they do. She asked to what extent will this grant include dynamic fire modeling.
Ms. Hamid stated this I one of the core areas the grant will undertake—dynamic modeling.
Again, this was one of the things that was evolving, and the technology was changing and emerging, so it became evident this is the way to approach the modeling in the analysis.
Vice Mayor Malkani asked if Ms. Hamid had a sense of where they are in the evolving technology of dynamic modeling. She also asked if Ms. Hamid knows if regional efforts like this have been undertaken elsewhere in the State.
Ms. Hamid said they know that a regional effort has been taken in Southern California, so they looked at that as well. In terms of dynamic modeling, this is evolving. They are looking at tools like GIS and even Google because these are necessary to understand this, but they are ready to take this on.
Mayor Gee said given the modeling and study, she asked what is the final product expected to be delivered. She asked if it will be a tool that will continue to be updated and used, and asked to share what it may mean to their communities.
Ms. Hamid said an important partner throughout all of this are fire departments—MOFD and Con Fire. They will work with them very closely to develop the models and also understanding the transportation networks and behaviors, and what happens during different times. If there is something that occurs at 2:00 a.m. versus 4:00 p.m., these are very different behaviors. So, they will look at different scenarios, how they are modeling, and will have an actual tool to share.
Councilmember Sos noted it states the grants will be awarded in the summer and if they are fortunate, she asked what is the timeline after that award.
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Ms. Hamid said once they get the grant, they will have to go out with an RFP to hire a transportation consultant to do this. Once they have a consultant awarded, outreach meetings and how those should be held will be identified, and then they will work with partners to develop the modeling, so this could take a couple of years.
Councilmember Shapiro asked what happens if they do not get a grant. He asked if there is a backup plan to work together to come up with their own response to these evacuation concerns.
Ms. Hamid said this is a great question and she would present this to the Councils and ask what the cities want to do as a backup plan.
Councilmember Shapiro said it seems the towns should be working together and determine what they will do if they do not get the funds to hire the consultant to develop a joint plan, while still having plans that coordinate with each other.
Ms. Hamid said they are doing a 20-agency effort right now and this will support their more vulnerable residents and those agencies that may not necessarily be thinking about this. She thinks it also puts them in line with Con Fire, MOFD, their police departments, and their transportation agencies and gets them all thinking collaboratively so this is a good opportunity. If they do not get the grant, they should still look at other opportunities for a grant, and she thinks this is a very good model.
Councilmember Hillis said he knows staff is very busy as well as staff in other communities, as well. He asked what the work share looks like for this. Ms. Hamid mentioned this is occurring in 20 separate agencies, and he asked who is taking the lead and asked what is the role of their individual agencies.
Ms. Hamid said the lead agency on this will be the CCTA. They will be working in step and in line with CCTA and they will be carrying out the work, looking at consultants, and will also work with each city in doing the heavy lifting with outreach to communities and provide updates to their Councils and residents.
Mr. Knapp said this is very similar to the model they have with the smart signals, where CCTA is the lead and hiring the consultants and working with all three agencies on the details that occur in each agency and unique needs for each agency. Ms. Hamid has been talking about the planning leg of this and looking into the future. Their police and fire departments have all been working on this for many years.
They also give grants for this type of work, and it is just now they are looking at it from a planning level and from a regional level which is more unique. He knows they team together with one or two of the agencies, but this is a broader scale which has benefits.
They are multiplying their forces by working together with limited resources to combine their efforts for lower costs and a better output. If there is an evacuation, they do not know which direction the evacuation will be going towards. It depends on the event and police and fire personnel already do this planning and the Lamorinda cities are combining themselves at this point.
Mayor Dawson opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
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Mayor Dawson thanked staff and the Councils for their work and collaboration over the last few years. It sounds very exciting and complex which will benefit all communities.
She is thankful there are partners here interested in seeing this through. So, she looks forward to receiving an update on the grant which she confirmed is early summer or likely June of 2024.
Councilmember Sos thanked staffs of all three cities. This is an incredibly timely, wise, and judicious project that their constituents need and want. It makes sense to have the three communities collaborate with each other because they know evacuation and fire safety do not stop at the borders of their cities. They also know all developments to be built over the foreseeable future also has impacts across their borders, so to do a comprehensive, holistic, and collaborative review at evacuation makes imminent sense.
She thanked staffs for coming up with this idea. It really was generated from the grass roots, and they very much appreciate staff being proactive and taking a leadership role.
She also thanked CCTA for partnering with them in this and for recognizing the model that Lamorinda is providing for the entire County, and also for taking the leadership role of extending this study throughout the county because it will be to the benefit of all residents. She also thinks CCTA is uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in this because of its expertise in all things transportation, all things movement of people in multimodes, and to provide that coordination role. So, she cannot wait to see what happens with the grant and is sure whatever package they put together will be fantastic and incredibly competitive, and she looks forward to talking about how the study is going this time next year.
Vice Mayor Malkani echoed comments of Councilmember Sos. This is adopting a regional approach to evacuation planning that is looking into dynamic fire modeling. She thinks they are at the cutting edge of the State in doing this, but she also thinks they are exactly where every community needs to be that have fire hazards and risks, and she thanked all partners.
Mayor Dawson agreed with all comments, and then called on the next presentation. b. Contra Costa County Transportation Authority (CCTA) Smart Signals Project: Status Update
Recommendation: Receive and file.
Mr. Knapp introduced Siva Natarajan, City Engineer for the City of Orinda, who has been with the City of Orinda for 4 ½ years and 20 years as an engineer. Siva, alongside himself, Patrick Golier, and Mike Moran from Lafayette are working on the two Lamorinda signal projects, and Mr. Natarajan will provide an update on the projects.
Siva Natarajan, City Engineer, City of Orinda, introduced himself and said he is honored to provide an update on the Smart Signal projects. He recognized the significant contributions he received in putting this presentation together from Lafayette and Moraga staff, particularly from Shawn Knapp and John Wong at CCTA, and their consultant, Advanced Mobility Group.
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He then gave a PowerPoint presentation, stating the Smart Signal projects are a unique endeavor where Lamorinda agencies work closely together along with Congressman DeSaulnier’s office and CCTA offices. They identify the regional need for safety improvements. They worked together to secure funding and share expertise to implement a global project.
As noted here, former Lafayette Councilmember Teresa Gerringer was a huge proponent of it along with Congressman DeSaulnier’s office and Tim Hale of CCTA. In addition, there was quite a bit of support and effort by LFFA and LPMC committees which includes current and former councilmembers of all three agencies.
Although the term Smart Signal Projects is used interchangeably, it represents two separate projects. The one is the Lamorinda Smart Signal System Project which is actually sponsored through Congressman DeSaulnier’s office from a federal community project grant. This addresses all 56 traffic signals that are within the Lamorinda agencies and to upgrade them to a smarter signal setup.
The second project is the Countywide Smart Signals Project that CCTA sponsored, and this is funded through the One Bay Area grant with a Lamorinda focus on 18 of the 56 intersections that met certain criteria that was put in place for the project. Overall, the Countywide project is actually a much larger project where $30 million of funding spent over 19 jurisdictions and implementing upgrades for 328 intersections. Funding for these projects is both federally funded and there is also a local match component associated with it. For the Lamorinda agencies, matching funding is being provided through the Regional Transportation Impact Fee which is overseen by the LFFA JPA.
He then presented a breakdown of what the projects are and what they are funding. The Federal Community Funding, which is also referred to as earmark funds is providing for all 56 intersections within the Lamorinda agencies. The breakdown shows that Lafayette has the most signals, then Orinda and then Moraga. He clarified that the 18 signals listed under OBAG 3 is also included in the 56 shown.
Mr. Natarajan then presented a breakdown of the funding for the projects. The OBAG 3 component is a countywide effort. The Lamorinda portion of it is almost $2 million and of that, the federal funding component is close to $1.7 million. The earmark fund primarily focused on the Lamorinda signals project is about $5.2 million. And of that, $4.2 million comes from federal funds. The rest is provided locally and through some funds CCTA was able to secure through MTC grants.
Mr. Natarajan then presented slides showing how signals are distributed. As the group will see, they are all signalized intersections within Lafayette and the blue dots represent those funded both by OBAG and earmark grant, and the red dots are primarily community-funded grants. As far as specific improvements, these will be addressed during the design phase of the projects, but the idea is to find the most efficient way to use the funds to bring all signals to the most updated state they can achieve.
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He then presented the map for Moraga, and he said the blue dots represents only the earmark funded projects and the orange dots represents OBAG and earmarked funded.
He then presented Orinda’s and said the blue represents OBAG plus earmark and the other color represents earmark only. There is one signal at the southern-most part of Orinda, which is shared by both Orinda and Moraga, so they will be sharing the costs on them.
Regarding the current status on this project, Mr. Natarajan said he believes last year they had just heard about the grants and got started into getting them in motion. Since then, they have been awarded both grants and CCTA has played a major role in delivery of the projects, so they are acting as the project manager for these signal projects. All three Lamorinda agencies have signed a funding agreement with them to provide the local match component for it. In addition, CCTA is working directly with Caltrans to require respective authorizations to move the design forward.
On the Countywide project, the design is also funded through federal funds, so they have secured authorization to move forward with that phase, and this is the proposal out currently to secure design services. The plan is for the design to start in the summer of 2024. On the earmark side, CCTA already has Advanced Mobility Group as one of their consultants who will be overseeing the design on the countywide portion but will be doing the actual design for the Lamorinda component. That contract is already in place and all three agencies just recently finished the funding agreement, so that project’s design is underway.
Mr. Natarajan said most of what he covered is an update of where they are. He wanted to touch more on how this project ties in with what Mr. Knapp just went over. As noted, this project would come under the transportation leg of the three-legged stool. One of the major components and the primary goal of the signal project is to improve safety, mobility, and being prepared for all three cities to adapt to future advancements in technology as things progress more and more towards AI systems.
He then presented what is actually involved in upgrading the signals. The current set up they have, which is true for all three agencies, is most intersections have very old systems that are not capable of communicating with each other unless there is a direct fiber optic wire connection between them. The first component of the upgrade will involve replacing those cabinets and controllers to use the latest technology that has the ability to communicate with other systems. The next step would involve replacing traditional detection methods which are typically done using loops on the pavement and to move more towards a camera reader-based detection at intersections. As part of this project, there is also a focus on trying to upgrade it to a more advanced level video-detection that could benefit the overall system mechanics.
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In addition, they will be implementing fiber optic connections which will allow each intersection to communicate with each other, thus making it easier to control timing changes “on the fly.” The next step would be to add video and data analytics which primarily is a data gathering system which constantly monitors, collects data, allows staff to study the data, and prepare for future scenarios or special situations. All these together will work towards protecting more of the more vulnerable populations of pedestrians and bicyclists through the intersection and also will improve smart mobility through the corridors.
The five steps he just mentioned will fall within the first three steps of the chart which are before the councilmembers which is called the Smart Signals component. As noted, the first will be updating the controllers as an improvement, make them a little bit smarter by using the latest technology-based devices, and then the third step would be to make them communicate with each other.
As a future implementation, this will eventually be moved to the next level of communicating with other City infrastructure such as parking programs, emergency programs, or street lighting which can all work as one individual system and then eventually it will all start to connect to the overall countywide smart system where it will allow for a countywide traffic control. In a situation such as an evacuation, it will allow for more communication between emergency personnel and county staff.
Some key benefits of the smart signals upgrade are bicycle, pedestrian, and support for those with disabilities, improvement of micro-mobility, and transit support. The pedestrian and bicycle detection system increases safety by proactively identifying situations that can occur and actually even recommend suggestions to prevent near miss situations.
The signal synchronization control improves a smooth traffic flow and relieves congestion.
This will also allow them to have a designated evacuation route setup within each city’s programs. This way, in any emergency, staff will be more prepared and aligned in focusing traffic through those corridors in a more systematic manner.
The smart signal system allows for dynamic traffic control where it not just looks at one thing. It is an integrated system that takes multiple data points into consideration and sends that to a remote monitoring location, so it is not required for personnel to be in the field. It can be controlled from a transportation center hub where all data gets stored. And, using that real time traffic data which also can be shared with emergency personnel who are in the field trying to coordinate any emergency operations such as a countywide evacuation. Having that data immediately and in the hands of emergency personnel will allow for more smooth movement of traffic in a stressful situation. It also helps with coordinating with other cities.
All three Lamorinda agencies are kind of interdependent as far as how they navigate as far as traffic terms because they have some primary corridors they all rely on, and this will allow not only communications with individual cities but between all three agencies and have the ability to focus on targeted problem areas and anticipate and ease traffic to a more orderly evacuation scenario. Again, it has the ability to manipulate signals to allow for prioritizing emergency vehicles.
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Not only the reader detection system is getting upgraded. They will be using more advanced AI-based technologies which will allow them to identify targeted areas. If there is a specific event in the area, they can use models to study that and anticipate targeted areas, be more prepared and route traffic in alternative routes that can move traffic in a smoother manner. The integration with other technologies also allows them to not only communicate within the City but with other agencies and the County as well, so when they are sharing services from different agencies such as MOFD or Con Fire, it allows for sharing the technology and data in a live manner.
Mr. Natarajan then presented a slide showing pictures on the left which represent traditional video-detection system. The primary focus on the detection system was to identify the vehicles and not necessarily all elements around them. The newer, more advanced technology systems they have nowadays uses AI and it is able to not only identify cars but also separate pedestrians, bicycles, transit systems, and emergency vehicles. Having that data will actually provide staff not only the ability to manipulate traffic in a more reasonable manner, but the system itself is capable of providing proactive assistance and help prevent accidents using video analytics and methodology.
Overall, the Smart Signals project will not only bring significant improvements to the dayto-day traffic operations. It will also act as a vital tool during an emergency situation such as a wildfire evacuation. He concluded his presentation and said he was available for questions.
Vice Mayor Woehleke thanked Mr. Natarajan for his presentation, stating it is very informative and substantial. Because of the interdependencies between the three cities and the boundary they can draw around it, this is such a logical opportunity. He sees it as having a very high return. Drilling down, for a system like this he asked if they yet know if 5G cellular is a requirement and he asked if they were ready for that at this time in terms of implementation of the technology.
Mr. Natarajan said he knows it is capable of cellular connectivity. For the Lamorinda region, they are more dependent on cellular connectivity than fiber. He knows it is capable of connecting through cellular based systems, but he does not know if in fact it is 5G compliant.
Mr. Knapp said since many locations of the traffic signals have long distances they may have to go to cellular type systems instead of more costly fiber optics going from intersection to intersection. As they go through, they will explore which will be the best and most cost-effective method for connecting the intersections.
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To build on the presentation, in regards to evacuation and automating the system to talk to each other so they can have evacuations, he knows the police and fire departments have done many mock evacuation exercises with residents and they have had to use 40 to 50 residents or volunteers to man intersections to direct traffic. There were pictures showing directional arrows, and they would be able to control that without the need to use fire or police department personnel. They can be responding to the incident and the equipment can be automated and controlled from a central location. Some of these things will force- multiply and help them to respond to the situation and other agencies have already done this, so they are building upon something already in front of them.
Councilmember Sos thanked Mr. Natarajan for the presentation. The projects are exciting and will obviously be incredibly beneficial to all three communities. When it is up and running, she asked what happens in the event of a widespread power outage.
Mr. Natarajan said all intersections will have some sort of backup power setup as part of the signal upgrade. In addition to that, Lamorinda agencies staff are working closely to drill down during the design phase and have already shared thoughts on what they want to do in extending the backup system to the extent possible. They do not have a clear grasp on costs associated with such an expanded backup system, but it is something they plan to look into and see how far they can take it.
Typical backup systems are only operational for a day or two at the most, so in an extended power outage situation which they have experienced in the past, they feel it may need an extended power source and it has been shared with the designers. When they get to that point and there is more data available, they will be able to make a more informed decision on how much they want to have capacity for backup.
Mayor Gee said under non-emergency conditions she asked if the entire system controlled from a central location. If so, she asked where it is located.
Mr. Natarajan said in Orinda there are none that exist right now and it is the same for all three agencies. They will have to set up a traffic operations control center which is similar to one of the pictures which was displayed. The core of the operations is intercommunication with the intersections and the data gets transferred to the operations center. There are back-in systems that will be put in place to benefit the data in a way that will make their operations easier.
Mayor Gee said under non-emergency conditions, she asked if every intersection is doing real time adjustment, and Mr. Natarajan confirmed. It is like a full-time setup but there are options to make it more prepared for an emergency situation and implement emergency protocols during an evacuation situation. But, day-to-day operations will also benefit quite a bit, particularly when they have pocketed traffic issues. Since they are able to see live data and analyze that date, it will provide them with a better view of how traffic patterns move.
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Currently, they look at individual intersections and study those traffic movements and try to time the signals accordingly. This will allow them to look at it from a whole City-based system. For Orinda, it will look at all 18 signals and seeing which is their primary corridor and how that can move at 8 AM to 8:15 AM because that 15 minutes makes a significant difference, and the system will be able to teach them how to improve those traffic flows.
Mayor Onoda asked if each town or city require more staff to monitor this. Mr. Natarajan said this is a good question and he does not have an answer right now. As far as Orinda, they do not have a specific traffic engineer. It is part of something that comes under his purview, so the goal will be to either train a staff member to do it. Hopefully, between the data collection and the ability to use the data to put them in a more prepared state, it will eliminate the need for significant additional staff, but this will be explored as the design progresses.
Mr. Knapp added that they are partnering with CCTA which is implementing the project for them. While each of the agencies will have their own individual control stations, it may not be a big control room based on the number of signals they have. They can have agreements with CCTA to manage the implementation for the whole region, depending on the needs of each agency and how they want them to operate the system.
So, they will be coming back to their councils with many questions to get answers on how they would like them to start the system, operate the system, and parameters utilizing it.
They want to be talking to each agency to optimize this, and these will all be questions as they go through the implementation process and develop a way to deliver it in a manner that Lamorinda agencies want. They are at the beginning and there will be sessions with each Council on the best way to move forward.
Vice Mayor Malkani said control centers and smart technology always makes her wonder if there is either in planning or funding built into this project an idea of how to deal with cybersecurity and protect cybersecurity.
Mr. Natarajan deferred to Mr. Knapp.
Mr. Knapp said this is a countywide project and as part of that cybersecurity is very important. There will be measures put in place for protecting each of the systems, making sure they are isolated from any intrusions, and this will be part of the design process.
Councilmember McCormick said this is an exciting project and it is great all three cities are working together. He worries they will get so much data coming in from 56 signals with real-time data 24 hours a day. In going through the design, it will be important how they figure out the actual pieces and what they do with all the information. He thinks some of the items they can decide as leaders, but they will need the system to guide them.
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It looked like have layers of different kinds of technology being rolled out to put this thing in there. In the implementation, he asked if they will look at one signal and do all of it, or he asked if it will be wave after wave. By definition, these signals are on their trafficcongested roads, and he worries about waves of construction happening as they upgrade the system. So, he asked to think about consistency of construction and consolidation for one signal at one time versus hitting it multiple ways. He asked if this will be decided during design, or he asked if the cities have this.
Mr. Natarajan referred to big data and the systems currently in place which they do not use at the moment use a significant amount of data, but it is also filtered to the cities’ needs. So, it is usually customized in a way and what staff sees at the end is based upon their needs and the qualities they put into it when setting it up. Although the idea is to gather all of the data, when it comes in a more refined manner that is more usable for them, he thinks it is a great point. That is something they will work closely with the designers on when they are in the process of design. One of the things staff from all three agencies have shared with CCTA is the requirement they all be very involved during the design process and be able to provide more input and feedback when going through the process.
As for the implementation, right now this is being looked at as two big projects and the Lamorinda component is already in the early stages of starting the design, but it will likely move quicker than the countywide project because this is 328 intersections versus 56 altogether. So, CCTA is trying to break it down into more manageable pieces. He does not have specifics, but the hope is that they build these projects at the same time when they go into construction. Although the design will not be exactly palatable, there might be some offset between the design phases, but when build as construction, it will be built as one project. There are some economies of scale and efficiency built into these thoughts.
He believes the effects of traffic is something that will be looked at as part of the construction engineering phase of it because the signals will have to be impacted one way or the other, but usually they manage it by phasing it out in a manner that does not disturb traffic significantly. Also, these are individual components that get upgraded, so the actual implementation will depend on exactly what the package is put together and how the contractor approaches that. But there will be good enough controls the cities will be able to put in place to ensure the traffic is not impacted significantly.
Councilmember Hillis said on a regular use basis, many of the things are very technical.
He asked what will residents see in terms of improvement in their travel through the communities and asked how will the smart signals change that.
Mr. Natarajan said the goal is to make traffic flow smoother so they should see less time waiting for signal timing. The current set up is that the signals are timed in a certain manner. Either they are detection based or on a loop type basis. During commute hours, it is mostly on a loop system, so this will allow that to function more on a capacity-based system. This will be seen readily, and the other component is the safety side of it. It is not only looking at vehicles and traffic.
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The system is integrated to focus also on pedestrian, bicycle and other transit commuting.
There are provisions to allow transit vehicles priority and get them through intersections.
There is methodology that will let them proactively know there is the potential for a conflict or an accident and this prepares staff to address that on the fly.
Councilmember Hillis said he knows in other cities fire trucks and police vehicles have the ability to prioritize with the light switch. He asked if this will provide that kind of functionality.
Mr. Natarajan said it will but does not know the exact specifics of the technicalities of how this will be implemented.
Mr. Knapp said most intersections are setting on timed events and when someone pushes a button, it gives a walk signal. It allows a certain amount of time based on a certain speed of a walker to get across. If someone is not progressing or enters the intersection after the button has been pushed and has not cleared the intersection, the signal would recognize people still in the intersection, would still keep a red light to protect them.
Councilmember Anduri said in the report they covered the cost for constructing the system to put it in place. He asked if there is an estimate of what on-going costs will be for the system once in place. The Mayor mentioned Lafayette has a fiscal sustainability issue, and he wonders what the on-going costs will be for the project.
Mr. Natarajan said as far as the physical operational maintenance, this will likely remain the same. Currently, each agency handles that slightly differently. For Orinda, they have a private consultant that helps them with traffic operational maintenance. If there is an issue with the signal, they put in a service ticket and they take care of it. He believes Moraga or Lafayette has a contract with the County to do the same service. This part will likely remain the same even with newer technology because it is maintenance of the equipment and servicing it as needed. On the staffing side, they will know more about what the needs are, but additional staff costs will have to come to the three cities.
Mr. Knapp said initially there might be a savings in maintenance and operation because they are installing new equipment. Much of the equipment in the Lamorinda area is very old, outdated, hard to get parts for, and sometimes they salvage parts from other systems that have been decommissioned and try to patch back systems together. So, it is like asset replacement where you reach the limit of the usefulness of the materials and equipment, and they are replacing it with something that will last longer. Initially, there may be savings but there might be additional costs from an operational standpoint from doing adjustments as they get used to the system and try to make improvements. Again, they are going to try and partner on a regional basis to cut costs so individually, each agency will not have to manage an additional load. Possibly, on a spread out cost they can work with CCTA partners to have it run in the long-term, and they are looking at ways to fund this in the future.
Orinda City Council Minutes Page 18 of 18 05.06.24
Mayor Dawson said she noticed in the first presentation there was consideration for resiliency in the electrification of the network and remote solar facilities was mentioned.
She asked if this can be something to consider for backup here.
Mr. Natarajan said yes, they are looking at multiple systems to provide backup power, whether battery-based, solar-based, and even in situations they have discussed the idea of having a portable generator-based system in extreme conditions so all technologies will be reviewed.
Mayor Dawson said she believes last summer they had some outages in the downtown for no reason and they could not figure it out and signals were out on Mt. Diablo Boulevard and other important thoroughfares, so especially in emergency situations they will need a good backup plan.
Mayor Dawson opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
Vice Mayor Woehleke thanked the team addressing the two opportunities here. In 2018, while campaigning, he walked the entire town of Moraga. One of the top issues he heard concerned traffic, and especially emergency evacuation. The other input he received was the status of their challenged shopping center. Since that time, their emergency responders have done a lot of work planning, testing, and communications, and he commended them for that. But anecdotally he is still hearing a lot of challenges from residents or disbelief that they could really handle a major wildfire. He is really talking about the Emergency Evacuation Study. He suggests they consider the stakeholders to be distrustful or challenging as you move this forward, thinking it will take a bit to give people confidence, at least in the Moraga area where they could pull off a major evacuation.
Councilmember Sos said this endeavor is very consistent with two priorities that all of the cities share on behalf of their residents. One is safety of pedestrians, especially around schools. They are all very focused on that and this goes part in parcel with that. The technology is very exciting. The second is something Vice Mayor Woehleke mentioned which is evacuation and using this technology to support the efforts of their wonderful public safety officers out there to move people if necessary.
She thanked staff for the update, and she thinks the questions about on-going costs are very good but there is an opportunity to take advantage of economies of scale and to have cost-sharing occur not just across their three cities but also across the County to the benefit of all of the jurisdictions. She looks forward to hearing the next update and thanked the great work of staff of all three cities, and she thanked CCTA for their partnership.
Mayor Dawson echoed thanks to staff, CCTA and all partners in this endeavor. It is exciting and coming along, and they are very happy about that. She thanked all Councils for their attendance, all Police and Fire Chiefs.
7. ADJOURNMENT – 8:30 p.m.
Sheri Marie Smith, City Clerk