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Memorandum
Date: December 13, 2022
To: Antonio Gardea, City of Redondo Beach
From: Michael Kennedy & Nico Boyd, Fehr & Peers
Subject: Catalina Village Response to Comments Received Via the Planning Commission Appeal Letter
LB20-0012
Following the approval of the Catalina Village project (Project) at the City of Redondo Beach Planning Commission hearing on September 15, 2022, the decision to approve the Project was appealed by Councilmember Loewenstein, with three (3) comments directed at the transportation analyses that were conducted for the Project. The comments, reproduced verbatim, are as follows:
1. The LOS analysis somehow concluded certain turn movements at PCH and Herondo would DECREASE in the cumulative development assessment from the turn movements today.
There is no explanation of a mitigation or change that would drive such a decrease. This renders the LOS analysis for this key intersection useless.
2. The LOS analysis relies on the application of a housing type (220) that is nothing like cohousing. It is derived from units, not bedrooms or occupants. Thus, trip generation would under-represent the LOS impacts of the project.
3. Due to insufficient details, it is not possible to understand if this trip generation error also artificially lowers VMT analyses.
The following sections of this memorandum provide responses to the transportation-related comments listed above.
Comment 1
This comment refers to the decrease in certain turning movement volumes at the intersection of PCH & Herondo Street/Anita Street in the Cumulative Base scenario compared to the Existing Conditions scenario as documented in the Local Transportation Assessment for the Project.
Specifically, in the AM peak hour, the Local Transportation Assessment (LTA) documented a reduction of 2 southbound left turns and 5 northbound right turns at this intersection. In the PM Antonio Gardea
December 13, 2022
peak hour, the Local Transportation Assessment documented a reduction of 2 westbound left turns at this intersection. Level of Service (LOS) analysis in the LTA is included for consistency with the City’s General Plan, Transportation and Circulation Element policies.
To develop the traffic volumes for the Cumulative Base scenario, Fehr & Peers ran the 2016 SCAG RTP travel demand model and compared the model-assigned traffic on roadways in the City of Redondo Beach citywide between the base year and the forecast year. Because the net change in volumes in the 2016 SCAG RTP travel demand model shows a decline due to transportation infrastructure improvements, land use changes, and policy strategies associated with the RTP and the Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), the use of the average annual population growth rate1 of 0.38% was considered a conservative worst-case analysis because doing so would result in an increase in traffic volumes.
2 While the application of the population growth rate to the Existing Conditions traffic volumes resulted in an increase in all turning movement volumes at the intersection of PCH & Herondo Street/Anita Street in the Cumulative Base scenario, the development of the volumes for this scenario also incorporated a specific development project near the study area (the Foundry). The trip generation estimates presented in the Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Foundry (Attachment A) show a net reduction in inbound vehicle trips in the AM peak hour and a net reduction in outbound vehicle trips in the PM peak hour compared with the existing uses on the site. After accounting for this reduction in vehicle trips in the Cumulative Base traffic volumes, the result was a small decrease in the turning movement volumes described earlier in this section.
However, the addition of Project volumes on top of the Cumulative Base scenario increases volumes across all turning movements. The volume increment is analyzed in the Level of Service analysis.
Comment 2
The Local Transportation Assessment, and the Project trip generation estimates contained within it, were developed using information provided by the City. At the time the Notice of Preparation (NOP) was released for the Project, Fehr & Peers’ understanding of the Project was that it was intended to serve primarily as family housing based on conversations with City staff and the Project applicant.
The project description did not address the intent to implement a co-housing model to facilitate leasing of individual rooms within a given dwelling unit. Considering this, it was determined that Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Land Use Code 220 (Multifamily Residential – Low Rise) was the appropriate housing type to apply for the purpose of estimating trip generation for the Project. Additionally, it should be noted that ITE does not produce trip generation rates for cohousing facilities. As such, ITE Land Use Code 220 is the closest approximation to the proposed
1 SCAG Integrated Growth Forecast available online at:
http://www.scag.ca.gov/Documents/2016DraftGrowthForecastByJurisdiction.pdf 2 SCAG 2016 RTP/SCS is available online at: http://scagrtpscs.net/Pages/FINAL2016RTPSCS.aspx Antonio Gardea
December 13, 2022
Project. If the number of dwelling units were adjusted to account for the atypical number of bedrooms per dwelling unit in the proposed Project, as was done for the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) analysis, the conclusions of the LOS analysis would remain unchanged because the increase in trip generation would be marginal.
Comment 3
The City’s VMT significance thresholds were developed using data from the 2016 SCAG RTP travel demand model, which is the most appropriate tool available for estimating the effects of land use development projects on VMT in the City of Redondo Beach for transportation analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act. To be consistent with the methodology used for developing the City’s VMT significance thresholds, Fehr & Peers conducted the VMT analysis for the Project using trip generation rate and trip length data from the 2016 SCAG RTP travel demand model.
Because the level of service analysis presented in the Local Transportation Assessment and the VMT analysis presented in the EIR rely on different data sources3 and methodologies for estimating trip generation, the trip generation estimates presented in the Local Transportation Assessment have no effect on the Project VMT analysis and therefore do not artificially lower the VMT results. Because the Project would provide an atypical number of bedrooms per dwelling unit compared to the City of Redondo Beach average, the VMT analysis analyzed a higher dwelling unit count than what the Project would actually provide in order to present a conservative estimate of VMT.
3 The level of service analysis relies on data from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) to estimate trip generation, and the VMT analysis relies on data that is internal to the 2016 SCAG RTP/SCS travel demand model to estimate trip generation.