Tonight in Palo Alto, Tuesday in Mountain View, and Wednesday in Redwood City, city council members and community members will be discussing several opportunities for more sustainable transportation and transit-oriented development on the Peninsula corridor.

Tonight February 27 slated to start at 6:45pm, Palo Alto, City Council is reviewing an update to the Stanford General Use Permit. Stanford’s last agreement in 2000 contained the pioneering “trip cap” requirement that incented the university to reduce its drive-alone rate from over 70% to below 50%.

The development allotment envisioned in 2000 is nearly built and the university is seeking permission to grow in place on its campus.

Stanford plans to maintain the trip cap while adding more university facilities (up to 2.28 million square feet) and residences (up to 3150).   The earlier plan had, and the new plan proposes to continue a linkage between work space and housing.   Also, the new plan proposes to continue a parking cap, with a potential exception of a 2000 space garage (which is not a small exception).

Stanford provides robust transportation demand management programs to help workers and residents make choices other than driving, runs an internal system of free buses, the Marguerite shuttles, and provides a network of bike paths supporting with a double-digit bike commute rate. Unusually in the area, Stanford charges for parking, which helps make sustainable choices price-competitive with driving, rather than subsidizing driving with free car storage on expensive real estate. Interestingly, some of the proposed development is walking distance from Stanford mall in addition to Palo Alto’s well-used University Caltrain station.

The proposed developments are spread out among Stanford’s large, 4,000 acre campus space in Santa Clara County.

The Stanford Campus is located in unincorporated Santa Clara County, so the County has say over the land use decisions.  Tonight’s meeting is for the city of Palo Alto – and interested citizens – to learn in order to provide feedback on the scope of the Environmental Impact Report.

An important technical issue – the state of California is in a transition to using Vehicle Miles Travelled as the main way to measure the transportation impact of a development, which is a much better way to measure environmental impact than auto delay, which measures convenience for users of one mode of transportation used by less than half of Stanford workers. We hope that Santa Clara County will assess VMT per capita for this project, following the new rules.

Come to learn more; you can send comments on the scope of the Environmental Impact Report in writing to Santa Clara County to the attention of David Rader, david.rader@Fln.sccgov.org

Tuesday – Mountain View considers housing on El Camino Real

On Tuesday February 28, Mountain View City Council is reviewing for approval a 204 Apartment Unit Development Project at 2268-2280 West El Camino Real near the San Antonio area. It is a half-mile from El Camino and San Antonio, less than that from a 522 rapid bus stop, and about a mile from the San Antonio Caltrain station.

The development is in line with the city’s goals for transit-oriented development in the El Camino and San Antonio areas. A few outstanding concerns:

• Affordable housing. [This paragraph is updated with the correct number of units] Local supporters of affordable housing would like to see more below-market rate units. The development proposes to include 10 below-market rate units in the project, and providing an in-lieu fees that staff calculates to be the equivalent of an additional 12 units offsite.  The League of Women Voters and other advocates of below-market-rate housing are requesting more onsite units; the League requesting the full 22 units to be added on-site. 
• Joining a Transportation Management Association.  The San Antonio Plan includes a requirement for developments – commercial and residential – to participate in a Transportation Management Association which can manage transportation benefits such as transit pass discounts and shuttles for participating developments.  Mountain View got its TMA up and running starting in the North Bayshore office park, and hasn’t yet extended operations to the San Antonio Plan area, even though developments are expanding in the area.  The Planning Commission recommended and staff included this requirement, which will help residents take advantage of the transit-rich location and reduce traffic from the development.
• Bike lanes on El Camino. Mountain View’s El Camino plan calls for bike lanes on El Camino replacing street parking, especially as new developments remove the need for onstreet parking. City staff is moving forward with a streetscape plan for El Camino Real to improve sidewalks and provide bike lanes – we hope that the city can move forward with these facilities so as not to install parking spaces that will soon be removed.

Later on Tuesday evening, Mountain View is considering a pilot programs to provide discounts on Lyft or Uber rides for people travelling within Mountain View to or from downtown. The goal is to relieve crowded parking. The pilot is being considered at the same time as valet parking which is expected to save additional parking spaces by using space more efficiently.

Wednesday Redwood City Community Meeting – a bike/friendly, pedestrian-friendly future for El Camino Real?

Redwood City is the next city on the El Camino Corridor considering bike lanes. On, Wednesday March 1, also at 7 pm, Redwood City is holding a community workshop to discuss topics including bike lanes, on-street parking, sidewalks, crosswalks, transit, activity centers, economic development, and community benefits.

The goals to improve local business and to provide safer and more pleasant conditions for biking and walking are related.  Many studies show that protected bike lanes can lead to more prosperous retail districts.   The meeting is in City Council Chambers, 1017 Middlefield road.  Click here for more information on Redwood City’s ECR plan.   If you live, work, or visit Redwood City, come and share your thoughts on Wednesday evening. 

Unless, you’ll be at the community forum at the same time in San Mateo, covering a vision for better mobility on the Caltrain/101 Corridor.  There will be later versions of the Caltrain/101 Vision program in Palo Alto and Redwood City, if you want to go to the Redwood City El Camino meeting this week.