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CC MINS 20081027 ADJ MINUTES RANCHO PALOS VERDES CITY COUNCIL/TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING/JOINT WORKSHOP OCTOBER 27, 2008 The meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. by Mayor Stern at Fred Hesse Community Park, 29301 Hawthorne Boulevard and was immediately recessed into Closed Session. The meeting reconvened at 7:03 P.M. City Council roll call was answered as follows: PRESENT: Clark, Long, Wolowicz, and Mayor Stern ABSENT: Gardiner (excused) Traffic Safety Commission roll call was answered as follows: PRESENT: Bilezerian, Kramer, Parfenov, Wells, and Wright ABSENT: Willens Also present were Carolyn Lehr, City Manager; Carol Lynch, City Attorney; Carolynn Petru, Deputy City Manager; Joel Rojas, Director of Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement; Jim Bell, Director of Public Works; Siamak Motahari, Senior Engineer; Lew Gluesing, Consultant, Willdan Associates; Erik Zandvliet, Consultant, Willdan Associates; and Carla Morreale, City Clerk. FLAG SALUTE: The Flag Salute was led by City Clerk Carla Morreale. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Councilman Wolowicz moved, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Clark, to approve the Agenda as presented. Without objection, Mayor Stern so ordered. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None. REGULAR NEW BUSINESS: Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program (NTCP) (1502) Senior Engineer Motahari introduced the City's Consultant Traffic Engineers Lew Minutes of City Council/Traffic Safety Commission Adjourned Regular Meeting/Joint Workshop October 27,2008 Page 1 of 6 Gluesing and Erik Zandvliet with Willdan Associates. Lew Gluesing, Willdan Associates, provided background information on their company. Erik Zandvliet, City Traffic Engineer, Willdan Associates provided a presentation on neighborhood traffic calming programs (NTCP); consideration of goals, objectives and strategies to achieve a successful NTCP for the entire city; and, the development and implementation of a comprehensive NTCP. He provided examples of the following traffic calming measures: increased law enforcement, signage and lights, parking restrictions, pavement markings and crosswalks, textured pavement and raised intersections, turn restrictions, medians and entry islands, traffic circles, traffic signal timing, and speed humps and tables. He noted that the City's existing NTCP has good basic plan elements, which are currently being reviewed and updated. He provided traffic and collision statistics for the City which illustrated that Rancho Palos Verdes compared favorably with other cities of similar size with fewer collisions reported. Councilman Wolowicz questioned the relevance of the presentation and expressed specific interest in the NTCP update agenda item. Discussion between the Council, Traffic Safety Commission (TSC), staff, and consultants included the following topics: speed humps and technology; radar cameras not being allowed in residential areas; accident data, traffic statistics, and collision rankings for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes compared to 96 cities of similar size; and, the clarification that neighborhood traffic calming plans are not generally used for parking enforcement. RECESS AND RECONVENE: Mayor Stern called a brief recess from 7:46 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. to allow an opportunity for those present to view traffic calming devices on display. Public Works Director Bell summarized the improvements and updates to the NTCP, the streamlining of the application process, and alternatives as provided by the Traffic Safety Commission and staff. Discussion between Council, TSC, and staff ensued. Councilman Wolowicz identified the following specific items regarding the NTCP update: 1) Page 131 (Speed Hump guidelines)—The reference to the 8% grade requirement had been taken out; 2) Page 1-9 —the site review by staff requirement was taken out; 3) The new process excluded consideration by Council; 4) Page 1-10 — Neighborhood consideration percentages need consistency and clarification; 5) Page 1-10 (Traffic calming engineering studies) — Staff removed "from validation of petition" statement; 6) Page 1-32 —the update removed City Council Action from the process regarding the removal of traffic control devices. Councilman Wolowicz also inquired as to the overall Minutes of City Council/Traffic Safety Commission Adjourned Regular Meeting/Joint Workshop October 27,2008 Page 2 of 6 timeline of the processes since that was not clarified in the update and requested the inclusion of the flowchart that was previously in the program. Mayor Pro Tem Clark identified the following specific items regarding the NTCP update: 1) He requested that staff confirm that the NTCP was last updated in 2004; 2) Requested that the TSC consider and provide a recommendation to Council regarding Alternative 3; and, 3) Requested the incorporation of technology items in the revised NTCP possibly in the form of a policy recommendation to the League of California Cities. Mayor Stern stated that the technology issue should be brought up at a separate meeting and ruled Mayor Pro Tem Clark out of order for requesting that a technology study be conducted. Mayor Pro Tem Clark moved, seconded by Councilman Wolowicz, to appeal Mayor Stern's ruling. The motion failed on the following roll call vote: AYES: Clark and Wolowicz NOES: Long and Mayor Stern ABSENT: Gardiner Discussion between the Council and TSC included the following topics: a higher percentage requirement for approval of traffic humps in a neighborhood as a method to reflect the desire of the majority; a suggested proposal to require citizens to pay for traffic calming measures if they wished to expedite the projects in their neighborhood; the effectiveness of speed limit trailers and the use of cameras in traffic enforcement; changes from the previous NTCP to the current program and the suggestion to use the previous NTCP as a template; a preference for Alternative 3; support for technological solutions as a component of traffic calming; funding issues and a request for innovative solutions for the funding of projects; discussion of whether the Council had approved a change to the percentage of neighborhood approval required for the installation of traffic calming measures; removal of references to prioritization; and, inconsistencies in the proposal. Mayor Pro Tem Clark pointed out that a section on technology had been included in the previous neighborhood traffic calming program and that detailed minutes from the last Joint City Council/Traffic Safety Commission Workshop should have been included in the agenda packet as it could have provided answers to some of the questions raised. Mayor Pro Tem Clark moved, seconded by Mayor Stern, to adopt Alternative 3 with a final refinement to return to the Council. Comments from the Traffic Safety Commissioners regarding the recommendation included the following issues: concern that there could be a greater demand for traffic Minutes of City Council/Traffic Safety Commission Adjourned Regular Meeting/Joint Workshop October 27,2008 Page 3 of 6 calming measures than the budget allowed; a suggestion to review the pavement management program prior to installing traffic humps; the importance of the consideration of traffic calming measures other than speed humps; the pursuit of alternative funding from the State and Federal governments for traffic calming projects; and, concern with items in the original program that are not included in the current program, including technology and the importance of technology as a mitigation measure. Discussion between Council and staff included the following topics: an assertion that technology would be agendized in the future; the current status of neighborhood requests for traffic calming measures; and, concern for the creation of a long list of neighborhood traffic calming projects. Mayor Pro Tem Clark clarified that his motion to adopt Alternate 3 included direction to staff to bring back a refined neighborhood traffic calming program document with the inclusion of a section on technology. Councilman Long discussed concern with the following issues: consideration of the most cost effective engineering solutions to be used as traffic calming measures; policy judgments built into Alternative 3 that reflect the viewpoint that the minority rules; excessive spending on traffic enforcement in the past; consideration of engineering solutions prior to consideration of traffic enforcement measures; rewriting the rules while a neighborhood is in the midst of an application process; and, the City's responsibility in the maintenance and installation of traffic calming measures. Councilman Wolowicz stated that it was appropriate for the motion to adopt Alternate 3 to include a section on technology. He proposed an amendment to the motion to include the following additions: a section on technology; a site review by staff; a paragraph including Council approval in the process; the provision of clear definitions regarding percentages of neighborhood approval required for the installation of traffic calming measures; clarification of the start date for installation of traffic calming measures from date of validation of neighborhood petition; reintroduction of the flow chart into the guidelines; and, a clear determination as to which items would be required to be reviewed by the Council regarding the removal of traffic calming measures. Mayor Pro Tem Clark clarified that the motion included all of the elements as restated by Councilman Wolowicz with staff to bring back a refined neighborhood traffic calming program document for final review and approval by the City Council. Additional Council and staff discussion included the following items: whether the document should be reviewed by the TSC prior to submittal to the Council; the use and prioritization of engineering solutions vs. other traffic calming measures; cost effectiveness and the use of a cost/benefit analysis; and, clarification that cities place certain traffic calming measures in front of others in an effort to control costs. Minutes of City Council/Traffic Safety Commission Adjourned Regular Meeting/Joint Workshop October 27,2008 Page 4 of 6 Councilmember Long proposed an amendment to reduce the super majority requirement in Alternative 3 to a simple majority (50 percent) plus one across the board. Councilman Wolowicz seconded the motion for purposes of discussion. In response to Councilman Wolowicz, City Attorney Lynch explained that since speed humps are divisive, it is important that a majority of neighbors are in favor of them. Councilman Wolowicz stated that he was not in favor of a requirement of less than 67% acceptance for traffic calming improvements by the neighborhood. Councilman Long revised his amendment, seconded by Councilman Wolowicz, to reduce the super majority requirements in Alternative 3 to a 60% acceptance for traffic calming improvements in a neighborhood. The motion carried on the following roll call vote: AYES: Clark, Long, Wolowicz, and Mayor Stern NOES: None ABSENT: Gardiner Councilmember Long moved to include in Alternate 3 a policy that if the annual cost of enforcement as a traffic calming measure was going to be twice the cost of engineering traffic solutions that enforcement would be considered disfavored as a policy of the City. The motion died for lack of a second. Mayor Pro Tem Clark moved, seconded by Mayor Stern, to approve Alternative No. 3 of the NTCP, as amended, which eliminates residents' cost sharing for projects, as a policy approach to traffic calming, with the incorporation of changes as discussed, including the following: reduction of the super-majority requirement to a requirement for 60% acceptance for traffic calming improvements in a neighborhood; the addition of a section on technology as another means of potential future enforcement; funding and prioritization; site review by staff; Council approval of final decision; clarifications regarding the percentages to be included as to the various traffic calming solutions; clarification of the start date for installation of traffic calming measures from date of validation of neighborhood petition; reintroduction of the flow chart into the guidelines; Council review of traffic calming measures proposed to be removed from neighborhoods; and, staff to return with the amended NTCP for Council approval in approximately one month. The motion passed on the following roll call vote: AYES: Clark, Wolowicz, and Mayor Stern NOES: Long ABSENT: Gardiner Minutes of City Council/Traffic Safety Commission Adjourned Regular Meeting/Joint Workshop October 27,2008 Page 5 of 6 Mayor Pro Tern Clark moved, seconded by Councilman Wolowicz, to approve the inclusion of additional guidelines recommended by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)to Alternative No. 3. The motion carried on the following roll call vote: AYES: Clark, Long, Wolowicz, and Mayor Stern NOES: None ABSENT: Gardiner Council Members expressed their appreciation to the Traffic Safety Commission for the many months of work on the NTCP since 2007. CLOSED SESSION REPORT: City Attorney Lynch reported that with respect to the first item, the Council moved unanimously, with Councilman Gardiner absent, to continue the item to a Closed Session at 8:30 A.M. on Saturday, November 1, 2008 at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center; and, with respect to the second item, an update was provided but no action was taken. ADJOURNMENT: At 9:07 P.M., Mayor Stern adjourned the meeting to Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 8:30 A.M. at Point Vicente Interpretive Center for a Closed Session, to be followed by an Adjourned Regular Meeting, to be followed by a site visit at San Ramon Canyon/25th Street. 1111 i ayor Attest: -Li City Clerk W:\City Council Minutes\2008\20081027 CC MINS.doc Minutes of City Council/Traffic Safety Commission Adjourned Regular Meeting/Joint Workshop October 27,2008 Page 6 of 6