In early November, consultants for the City of Millbrae held a four-day Charrette to get the resident’s ideas for a Specific Plan focusing on the Grand Boulevard along El Camino Real and Downtown Millbrae along Broadway. Dave Crabbe attended two of the four workshops (presentation materials here) and shared the report below.
One of the workshops included a hands-on exercise where maps of the area were laid out on long tables with 6 to 8 people at each table. We used some cut-out “puzzle pieces” representing various uses and elements of a possible plan such as Residential Development, Commercial Development, Parks, Entertainment venues, plus more specific attributes such as safe pedestrian crossings, bike lanes, traffic lights, etc. to propose various uses on the maps.
The consultants seem to have a good sense of what would help the city make good future planning decisions which they illustrated with lots of real-life examples of places that enliven a city such as active sidewalks, public plazas, at grade retail with mixed-use above, etc.
They strongly recommended the establishment of a Business Improvement District (BID) for the downtown area which would coordinate various non-structural aspects of improving downtown which they called “software” – sidewalk cleaning, special events such as street fairs or music performances, parking coordination, Coordination of storefront uses, plus other activities that are not very expensive to do to energize the downtown.
Finally, they recommend street improvements such as wider sidewalks, attractive paving, benches, lighting, street trees, etc. which they called “hardware” which will require a substantial investment. Â They stressed that many cities put the “hardware” before the “software” and are disappointed with the results.
The consultants asked residents to consider what the “millennial” generation would appreciate as they will be the generation that will mature and grow between now and 2040. Â They see Millennials as interested in a walkable environment with lots of diverse entertainment and social areas.
They felt the community had reached general consensus on the following features for the Plan:
- Design for people aged 8 to 80
- Provide a balance of parking and development
- Provide a spacious pedestrian environment downtown
- Provide shuttles between the BART station and downtown and between the hills and downtown
- Improve safety of pedestrian crosswalks along El Camino Real
- Provide bikeways and bike parking
- Provide cultural amenities
- Provide public plazas and green space downtown
- Provide better sidewalks with a tree canopy in downtown
- Encourage music venues and performances downtown
At the Monday meeting, the consultants presented two concept plans that they felt represented what they had heard during the charrette.
#1 Showed an improved El Camino Real with bike lanes and safer pedestrian crossings; mixed-use housing with retail at first floor within 1/2 mile of the BART station; and various downtown improvements.
#2 Showed an improved El Camino without bike lanes, but included a bike loop around downtown and along El Camino along the frontage road on the West side; included hotels and office development near the BART station; saw downtown as a center for restaurants and dining; and located most new housing at the North end of Broadway more than 1/2 mile to the station.
These were a conceptual reprise of what the consultants heard from the residents and they said these concepts would be further studied and revised at a future date where traffic consultants and others could add to the discussion.
Next Steps are:
- Presentation of draft plan to the Planning Commission
- A Community Open House
- City Council review
No dates are set for these future meetings, which are likely to be in 2017. Â Stay tuned for next steps.
The work on the specific Plan for the El Camino/Downtown area is part of a set of planning activities, including an Active Transportation Plan, and an overall General Plan update. Â The city received a grant from the San Mateo City/County Association of Governments for $500,000 plus $60,000 from CalTrans to do the work.
Meanwhile, there is parallel planning work going on for the Millbrae Station Area to support future high speed rail. This planning is focusing heavily on station access, including connections to downtown, connections among BART/Caltrain/HSR/SFO, pickup and dropoff, parking for cars and bikes, pedestrian and bicycle access and safety, Â and auto circulation (see pages 25/26 for some more detail)
