TO: CITY COUNCIL FROM: Mayor Sam Liccardo Councilmember Raul Peralez
Councilmember Dev Davis
Councilmember Pam Foley
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: August 5, 2022
Approved Date
SUBJECT: MOVE SAN JOSE PLAN AND TRANSIT FIRST POLICY
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt the Move San José plan, and Transit First Policy, affirming the City’s commitment to prioritizing walking, cycling, and transit, with the additional direction:
1. Among the “Next Steps” for the Move San Jos Plan identified on pages 9-10 of the Staff memo, Staff should focus on those specific steps that are both (a) within the control and purview of City staff and the Council, and (b) implementable within the next 24 months, namely the items listed under the following strategies:
a. “Safer Streets”
b. “Maintain and Build Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure” c. “Encourage Electric Vehicles”
d. “Encourage and Allow Carshare”
e. “Transportation Demand Management”
f. “Smart Parking Policy”
2. Return in the upcoming budget process with near-term actions and funding recommendations that can advance the goals of the Move San José plan. Additionally, show how future internal budget decisions are aligned with the Move San José plan.
3. Ensure that grant applications at the regional, state and federal level are crafted to align with the goals of the Move San José Plan, and Transit First Policy.
COUNCIL AGENDA: 08/09/2022
ITEM: 5.1 & 5.2
COUNCIL AGENDA
August 9, 2022
Subject: Move San Jose & Transit First Policy
4. Under the EV policy section of Move San José, include the following addition: Identify public-private partnership opportunities to increase EV equitability, affordability and accessibility.
5. Either drop the exploration of any new transportation impact fees (TIF), or prior to consideration of any new fees, staff shall review, and return to Council with analysis of:
a. Experience of the $13-to-15 per-square-foot TIF in North San Jose on development for the last two decades under the North San Jose Plan created in 2005. Specifically, staff should consult local land owners and builders, and our own OED and Planning staff, to understand the extent to which the TIF has inhibited the City from meeting even the very minimal office and industrial square footage threshold articulated in the first phase four-phase North San Jose plan, some 15 years later.
b. The impacts of the recently-imposed Vehicle-Miles-Traveled (VMT) fee on development in economically vital areas like North San Jose and Edenvale, and whether this TIF is intended to supplant or supplement that fee. c. The “cost of development” studies performed by two independent consultants for the City in the last half-decade, and whether any new construction of housing or office is currently deemed financially feasible.
d. The City’s failure to meet even its minimal housing construction goals since the Great Recession, and whether additional fees will help. e. Given the current market reality that only heavily subsidized, affordable housing can get financing in today’s market, provide feedback from affordable housing builders about whether the TIF fee will be borne by affordable housing. f. The stark difference in much more robust industrial, commercial and office development over the last two decades in our smaller suburbs, such as Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View, relative to the paltry development in San José.
6. Staff to report back on key performance indicators outlined in the Move San José Plan to the Transportation and Environment (T&E) Committee on an annual basis.
7. Ensure and specifically reflect in the upcoming Downtown Transportation Plan how elements of the Move San José and Transit First Policy are integrated and implemented, where feasible.
8. When implementing the Transit First Policy, focus “transit first” improvements on corridors with the highest transit use and service corridors, while also considering equity as a major prioritization factor.
9. To help the Council better understand the concrete implications of the Transit First Policy, consult with VTA staff to identify any differences in how the two agencies view the (1) impact of the City's programming of the traffic signals along North First Street upon the operations of light rail, and (2) BRT operations in Downtown San José. Return to Council or the T&E committee with a clear description of those conflicts, and specifically describe whether, in light of this Transit First Policy, the City will alter either its (1) approach to signal prioritization along North First Street, or (2) its parking and roadway operations on Santa Clara Street.
COUNCIL AGENDA
August 9, 2022
Subject: Move San Jose & Transit First Policy
10. Clarify that implementation of the Transit First Policy should:
a. when possible, align with and advance the goals of Vision Zero, b. where appropriate and informed by our Vision Zero goals, the Department of Transportation (DOT) allocate and prioritize road space for walking, bicycling, and transit uses.
BACKGROUND
The strategies detailed in the Move San José plan advance the ambitious goals previously outlined in the General Plan 2040 and Climate Smart San José with respect to mode shift, and also integrate and align with other planning efforts such as Bike Plan 2025, and our Vision Zero planning efforts. The General Plan 2040 seeks a 50% reduction in trips made by single occupancy vehicles and a 40% reduction in per capita vehicle miles traveled by 2040, from 2011 levels, while the Climate Smart San José Plan sets goals of a 73% reduction in single occupancy trips and a 57% reduction in vehicle miles traveled by 2030 from 2011 levels. Simply put, the work ahead will require a steadfast commitment to planning, and ultimately implementation efforts like this.
Advancing this work will require city-level buy-in across all departments, as we seek to align public and private development projects with the strategies outlined in Move San José. This is an important effort intended to move the needle - and fulfill community expectations - on continuing to build a city for people, and transform from a city that has historically prioritized the automobile.
As we work to shift our streets away from automobile dependence to a more people-oriented environment it’s critically important that budget and grant decisions are aligned with the Move San José plan. Additionally, a transportation impact fee (TIF) presents an option to fund the necessary transportation improvements to meet the goals of the Move San José plan; however, any exploration of a TIF must begin with a deep-dive analysis on the experience with the North San José TIF, the impacts of the recently imposed VMT fee, the cost of development studies, and our inability to reach our housing construction goals among other factors that must be considered given the challenges that development faces with increasing construction and labor costs, rising interest rates and a looming recession.
Given the need for EV deployment at scale to meet our ambitious carbon neutrality goals, and the many companies that are seeking to work with cities to accelerate EV infrastructure deployment and adoption, we see an opportunity to engage with the private sector to explore public-private partnerships on EV affordability and accessibility -- and this should be reflected in the plan. Lastly, annual reports to the T&E Committee will keep the City accountable and help ensure that we are measurably moving towards meeting the goals established by the Move San José plan.
COUNCIL AGENDA
August 9, 2022
Subject: Move San Jose & Transit First Policy
The Transit first policy - which nests as one of the policies in the Move San José Plan - should identify key transit-rich/high-use corridors to prioritize investments in. Additionally, to help the Council better understand the concrete implications of the Transit First Policy, staff should consult with VTA staff to identify any differences in how the two agencies view the (1) impact of the City's programming of the traffic signals along North First Street upon the operations of light rail, and (2) BRT operations in Downtown San José.
We’d like to thank the Department of Transportation staff who made this plan a reality, especially John Ristow, Laura Wells, Jessica Zenk, and Ramses Madou. Their steadfast commitment to reimagining how we move has given us the vision of a brighter future for transportation in San Jose. We are also deeply grateful to Latinos United for a New America, Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation, Silicon Valley Independent Living Center, and People Acting in Community Together for contributing their perspectives and input which was integral to the creation of the Move San José plan. It is now the responsibility of our organization and community to commit to advancing this important work.
Brown Act Disclaimer
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member’s staff.