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August 30, 1999 EXHIBIT C TO EL CERRITO CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 99-66, ADOPTION OF REVISED GENERAL PLAN MODIFICATIONS TO THE GENERAL PLAN UPDATE DRAFT, AS DIRECTED BY CITY COUNCIL ON JULY 19, 1999 [ References and directions are stated in italics, with discussion and proposed modifications shown in plain text.] A. CITY COUNCIL-GENERATED MODIFICATIONS: 1. Exhibit B, page 24 recommends addition of a new Policy PR2.6 on Existing Open Space Preservation. Council directed that the word “extraordinary” be substituted for “specific.” In the final text, Policy PR 2.6 will read as follows: “Except where extraordinary circumstances indicate otherwise, ensure that development decisions protect existing....” 2. Exhibit B, pages 34 and 35: Items 7, 11, and 13 repeat the same language, “avoid featureless, monumental , large scale massing....” Council directed that these statements should be consolidated. Appendix C of the draft General Plan provides design and development guidelines for each of the three major business centers along San Pablo Avenue (Del Norte BART Area, El Cerrito Plaza Area and Midtown Area.) For each of the areas a section labeled “Design Details” states the above-noted language, as well as several other paragraphs which repeat essentially identical text. The final text of Appendix C will consolidate the three sections on Design Details into a single set of guidelines, to be applicable to all three business centers. 3. Exhibit B, page 6: Item 6a recommended modification of page 3-10 of the General Plan draft by adding a third paragraph to the discussion of Economic and Fiscal Conditions. Council directed that the following language, as drafted by Mayor Brusatori, be substituted for the paragraph in Exhibit B. The final text of Chapter 3 of the General Plan will include this paragraph: “Typically the Redevelopment Agency is used to assemble small parcels that would otherwise be uneconomic to develop. It can also be used to provide amenities to the community that the private sector is not willing to provide. The process should strive to be as cost-effective as possible and have community support. A project that is highly cost-effective may override neutral support by the community, while a project that has very strong community support may override minimal cost- effectiveness.” 4. Exhibit B, page 26: Item 27 adds an implementation strategy regarding the Fire Hazard Reduction Program. Council directed that the strategy should name the East Bay Regional Park District, in addition to the California Department of Forestry, as an agency with which the City would cooperate in the review and update of the hazard reduction program. The final text of Chapter 6 of the General Plan will include the specified reference to the park district. ---PAGE BREAK--- 5. Council directed that the problem of through, commuter traffic on residential streets be recognized and appropriately dealt with. It was suggested that residential streets which bear cut-through traffic (as measured by up-to-date traffic data) should be given priority for measures to improve the situation that are acceptable to those neighborhoods The General Plan draft (page 5-19) states Goal T3: A transportation system that maintains and improves the livability of the City. Among the polices listed under that goal is Policy T3.3 “Residential Streets.” In the final text Policy T-3 will be modified to read: “To discourage cut-through traffic on residential streets, maintain the existing system of arterial and collector streets. Where necessary, employ traffic management techniques to control the speed of vehicles traveling on residential streets, including residential portions of arterial and collector streets.” In the final text an additional implementation measure will be noted in the column beside Policy T3.3, and will be described on page 5-23 below Neighborhood Management Plan, to read as follows: “Preference for Cut-through Streets. In conjunction with the Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan, neighborhoods along residential streets which bear cut-through traffic (as measured by up-to-date traffic data) should be given priority for neighborhood improvements to compensate for the effects of traffic. In addition to traffic management techniques, such improvements might include amenities such as street tree planting and utility undergrounding”. 6. Councilmember Bartke suggested that the Revised General Plan include a key to the alpha-numerical captions which identify the various statements of goals and policies throughout the document, as an aid to understanding which planning topics the statements address. The following key will be inserted in Chapter 1 of the document, at the end of the introductory discussion of Goals, Policies, Implementing Measures and Strategies on pages 1-3 and 1-4: Key to Goal and Policy Identifications: Chapter 4: LU = Land Use CD = Community Design Chapter 5: T = Transportation Chapter 6: PR = Parks and Recreation CF = Community Facilities, other than recreation PS = Public Services Chapter 7: R = Natural and Historic Resources H = Hazards B. MODIFICATIONS RECOMMENDED BY FEHR AND PEERS: In addition to specific modifications directed by City Council, the following text has been prepared by transportation consultants Fehr and Peers, based on the presentation by Gerard Walters at the public hearing on July 19, 1999. This text will replace the paragraphs on page 5-15 of the General Plan draft, titled “Assumptions” and “Travel Forecasts.” Assumptions Traffic in El Cerrito will continue to be heavily influenced by conditions on Interstate 80 and BART. The influences are particularly marked during periods with incidents on the freeway or delays in BART service. However, on a day to day basis, the majority of traffic using El Cerrito's streets is locally generated, either beginning and/or ending within El Cerrito. Regional traffic access to El Cerrito's BART stations also heavily affects conditions on streets in the Del Norte area and, to a much smaller degree, in the El Cerrito Plaza area. ---PAGE BREAK--- The Interstate 80 Corridor The Interstate 80 corridor consists of Interstate 80, San Pablo Avenue and other north-south streets that provide continuous travel opportunities in El Cerrito. Regional growth forecasts indicate that congestion in the Bay Area is expected to grow significantly. The bulk of this growth will occur in areas with significant new development such as San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. For Interstate 80 through El Cerrito, regional forecasts indicate an average 2.4 percent traffic growth per year through the year 2020. With this level of growth on an already congested freeway, drivers may seek parallel alternative travel routes like San Pablo Avenue. It is important to note, however, that San Pablo Avenue will also become more congested due to development within El Cerrito. In addition, in an effort to reduce the impacts of regional traffic on El Cerrito, no significant capacity enhancements are recommended for San Pablo Avenue. As a result, San Pablo Avenue will become a less attractive route. The result of increased travel demand and congestion on the principal routes within the Interstate 80 corridor is likely to be changes in the times of day that people travel (i.e. peak hour spreading), changes in travel modes (i.e. increased use of transit), and possibly changes in destinations (i.e. elimination of trips within the corridor). The forecasts made for the General Plan build-out assume that the amount of through traffic currently on San Pablo Avenue will increase by at least 15% to 20%. This is based on an estimate that about one-fourth to one-third of the peak hour traffic presently on San Pablo Avenue consists of through trips, neither beginning nor ending in El Cerrito. As a result of this 15% to 20% growth in the through-trip component, the total amount of traffic on San Pablo Avenue will increase by about Traffic will also grow as a result of new development within El Cerrito. This traffic growth is estimated using a detailed traffic forecasting model, representing the potential changes in activity levels in over 20 different sub-sectors of the City. The locally-generated growth is added to adjusted background traffic. Combined, the effects of regional and local growth produce increases in San Pablo Avenue traffic of approximately 50%. BART El Cerrito transportation is also heavily influenced by BART and could change dramatically if BART were to extend service further along the Richmond Line or if a connection were made to BART in Richmond with a commute rail line, making Del Norte BART station less of a regional facility. The General Plan forecasts do not assume a BART extension because no extension has been programmed or funded within the lifetime of the General Plan. Automobile travel to individual BART stations is also heavily influenced by the amount of parking available at or near the Station. Parking supply around both BART stations is decreasing, even when considering the proposed structure at the Plaza station, and no additional parking increases are programmed or funded. In view of the above factors, the traffic forecasts assume a modest five-percent increase in vehicle traffic to the Del Norte BART station. Although modest, this traffic growth assumption is conservatively high, based on the fact that parking supplies at both BART stations is decreasing, and demands from local sources will be increasing as new land uses emerge in El Cerrito in accordance with the General Plan. Travel Forecasts Figure 7 showed the daily traffic volumes on major streets in El Cerrito under General Plan build-out conditions assuming land uses described in the Community Development and Design Chapter. Traffic on most residential streets in El Cerrito will remain constant. Along minor arterials, traffic will grow by five to ten percent, with the exceptions of Eastshore Boulevard and the portion of Fairmount Avenue near San Pablo Avenue, which have projected growth of about 65 percent. Along major arterial, traffic will grow by 30 to 50 percent. For San Pablo Avenue, traffic will increase by an average of about 50 percent, or about 2.5 percent per year. ---PAGE BREAK--- Modeling Methods Traffic modeling is a four-step process consisting of trip generation, trip distribution, mode split, and trip assignment. The modeling effort undertaken as part of the El Cerrito General Plan update includes application of state-of-the-practice modeling techniques using the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) West County Model and a local-area sub-model developed for El Cerrito. The CCTA model was used to derive regional growth and trip distribution assumptions. The sub-area model was used to generate, distribute and assign traffic from developments within El Cerrito. The local area model developed for El Cerrito contains about 20 traffic analysis zones, which is more detail than similar models in other jurisdictions and significantly more zones than are contained within the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) or CCTA models within El Cerrito. The local area model was also validated against highly sophisticated models like the CCTA and MTC models, through the series of reasonableness checks described below. Reasonableness Checks With all modeling efforts, it is essential that model results be reviewed for reasonableness. For the El Cerrito model, reasonableness checks included comparisons of projected growth with: historic growth trends, the CCTA model, the MTC model, and the El Cerrito Evaluation of Interstate 80 Expansion of Traffic Impact. Historic Growth Trends - Over the last 15 years, traffic forecasts on San Pablo Avenue have increased about 0.8 percent per year. CCTA Model - The CCTA model predicts a 1.5-percent per year increase in daily traffic and negligible PM peak hour traffic growth. MTC Model - The MTC predicts a growth rate of less than one percent per year. El Cerrito Evaluation of Interstate 80 Expansion of Traffic Impact (October 11, 1995) - The subject study was prepared for the City and MTC in anticipation of the Interstate 80 reconstruction project. It predicts a reduction in San Pablo Avenue traffic levels between 1990 and 2000 due to expansion of Interstate 80 and a modest increase between 2000 and 2010, with the net result that 2010 traffic volumes would be similar to or even lower than 1995 volumes. It is important to note, that each of the above references reports traffic growth from all sources, including growth and shifts in through traffic and locally generated traffic. Therefore, the range of estimates from these references is a growth rate in total traffic on San Pablo Avenue of 1.5% a year or less. By comparison the El Cerrito General Plan build-out projected a growth rate of 2.5 percent per year. As these reasonableness checks indicate, the General Plan forecast is a worst-case assessment of potential traffic conditions. Although the General Plan forecasts, under worst-case assumptions, considerable traffic growth on El Cerrito arterials, most arterials will have sufficient capacity to accommodate expected traffic growth, but delays can be expected to increase significantly throughout the City. Specific spot improvements required to facilitate acceptable traffic flow are described in the next section. Improvements are specified in a manner that attempts to promote a balance among the competing access and mobility needs of the community. This balance will allow worse traffic congestion on the cities arterials, as long as they: 1) do not violate the City's Level of Service standards, 2) provide a closer balance between congestion on the freeway and congestion on the parallel arterial to discourage traffic diversions from the freeway, and 3) maintain street widths and pedestrian crossing distances at levels that promote walking, bicycling and transit use, rather than placing the primary emphasis on facilitating traffic flow. Notes: ---PAGE BREAK--- California Department of Transportation, Volumes on California State Highways, 1980, 1990 and 1995. West Contra Costa County Transportation Advisory Committee, West Contra Costa County Action plan for Routes of Regional Significance, December 4, 1994. Metropolitan Transportation Commission Regional Model Loaded AM Peak Hour Networks. for 1990, 2005 and 2015, February 9, 1994 and September 3, 1996. C. MISCELLANEOUS MODIFICATIONS TO EXHIBIT B The following items are minor corrections to the text of Exhibit B, Modifications Recommended by the Planning Commission on July 7, 1999, to be made in the final document of the Revised General Plan. These corrections originated with Councilmember Bartke, Planning Commissioner Moore, and a staff reconciliation of the General Plan and the EIR with respect to the numbering of policy statements. 1. Exhibit B, page 14, item 58a.: Policy should be numbered “CD2.8" 2. Exhibit B, page 21, Table 6-1: “RG&E” should be “PG&E.” 3. Exhibit B, page 21, Table 6-1: Creek areas should be aligned with creek names. 4. Exhibit B, page 23, item 8: add the following policy which was inluded in the Final EIR as a mitigation measure but was indavertantly omitted from Exhibit B. (This policy was part of the action plan of the prior Open Space and Conservation Element.) “PR2.7 Wildcat Canyon Park. Open space lands received through dedication adjacent to EBRPD property should be offered to the Park District.” 4. Exhibit B, page 27, item 8: Policy should be numbered “R1.14.” D. ADDITIONAL GRAPHIC MATERIALS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE FINAL DOCUMENT OF THE REVISED GENERAL PLAN 1. Revised Figure 8: draft version did not include all emergency response routes 2. Open Space Plan to correspond to the information in Table 6-1 as shown in Exhibit B. 3. Diagram of examples of Floor/Area ratios to be included in Appendix E, Glossary of Terms. 4. Sketches illustrative of concepts for future improvements of the three major commercial development centers and two neighborhood commercial centers, to be included in Appendix C.