CITY OF SANTA MONICA

TASK FORCE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

The meeting was convened at 7:05 p.m. Task Force members in attendance: Tim Carmichael, Bill Selby, Susan Mearns, Sandy Grant, Bobby Rees and Mark Gold. Santa Monica City staff in attendance: Susan McCarthy, Suzanne Frick, Brian Johnson and Dean Kubani. Recreation and Parks Commissioner Lori Nafshun, MWD Board member Judy Abdo, Mike Fitts, James Rojas, Louisa Fish, Laurel Roennau, and two other members of the public.

Minutes

The minutes from the meeting of July 16, 2001 were unanimously approved.

Welcome to New Task Force Member

Newly appointed Task Force member Bobby Rees was introduced and was welcomed by the Task Force. Bobby is an architect with the Santa Monica based firm Marmol Radziner and Associates. He has expertise in sustainable design and construction and is currently project manager and designer for TreePeople’s Center for Community Forestry, a 19,000 square foot project being designed to achieve a LEED platinum rating.

Transportation / Traffic Indicator Discussion

Mark Gold noted that the Sustainable City Program currently does not adequately address traffic and transportation issues. This discussion is intended to identify traffic and other transportation/mobility issues in Santa Monica, possible responses to them and possible indicators to measure existing conditions and effectiveness of responses.

The Task Force invited outside experts Mike Fitts, a land-use planning attorney with expertise in transportation indicators, and James Rojas, a transportation planner with MTA, to participate in the discussion.

Mike Fitts noted that transportation and traffic are related to land use planning. In an older, built out city that has been retrofitted for automobile use, you are destined to have traffic and transportation problems of one sort or another. However, there are ways the city can address these problems. He discussed four primary variables that influence people when choosing transportation options: 1) economics (parking costs, vehicle costs, etc.), 2) safety (lighting on sidewalks and bus stops, perceived safety of pedestrians and cyclists, etc.), 3) infrastructure (availability of wide sidewalks, bike racks, clean buses, etc.) and 4) critical mass (juxtaposition of amenities including shops, restaurants, desirable destinations, housing, and jobs in localized areas). He noted that the City can influence the cost and location of parking; improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and bus riders; provide infrastructure to support alternatives to single passenger car trips; and can somewhat influence the mix of amenities in the city through long range planning. These can all be done in such a way to encourage people to use alternative modes of transportation.

James Rojas described his work on a pedestrian team at MTA. His focus is to increase funding for projects that promote pedestrian use. He discussed examples of pedestrian projects in Budapest, Copenhagen and Portland, OR. He noted that pedestrian projects typically attract interest and funding from public health agencies interested in promoting walking as a way to combat obesity and lack of fitness among the public.

Planning Director Suzanne Frick discussed the Circulation Element of the city’s General Plan. It was written in 1984 and is currently being updated. The Circulation Element provides guidance for all city policies related to transportation. She suggested that the Task Force forward its recommendations to the Planning Department by the end of the year for inclusion in the draft updated element. She noted that the City’s Downtown Parking Task Force is currently studying transportation and traffic issues in the downtown area and will be formulating recommendations in October or November 2001. A draft of the updated Circulation Element is scheduled for completion in 2002 and is scheduled for adoption in 2003.

The Task Force discussed current major issues related to transportation and traffic that exist in Santa Monica. These include:

1). Traffic congestion and limited parking, particularly in the downtown area. Suzanne Frick noted that the downtown area is typically congested throughout the day, seven days per week. Residents have complained to the city that this limits their mobility and negatively impacts their quality of life.

2). Lack of mobility within the city. Residents (and, to some extent, visitors) have expressed concern about lack of mobility due to perceived (or actual) lack of options. Traffic congestion makes it difficult for people to get where they want in their cars; buses often aren't convenient (ie people don't want to wait for a bus to arrive) or are slowed by traffic congestion; distances are often too great to make walking viable; walking is perceived to be unsafe in some parts of the city; cycling is perceived as dangerous in many parts of the city; and the Tide shuttle is of limited usefulness because it currently serves only one area of the city and its limited hours often make it impractical.

3). Overflow traffic running through residential areas. This negatively impacts residents' quality of life due to increased noise, pollution and reduced pedestrian safety.

4). Air quality - increased vehicle trips create increased emissions of greenhouse gases, CO, NOx, SOx, and particulates. Impacts could be reduced by promoting the use of alternative fueled vehicles, ridesharing, and alternate modes of transportation (bus, cycling, walking). Tim Carmichael noted that reducing or eliminating diesel emissions would have the greatest positive impact on local air quality.

Regional transportation problems that affect Santa Monica were also discussed. These include the inability for people to live close to where they work, which leads to more traffic, and the traffic congestion due to visitors to the city. Recommendations for various indicators were discussed, including: measures of pedestrian and bicycle safety and level of service; resident and visitor awareness of transportation alternatives; and a measure of the average distance traveled by residents to get food, household goods, etc. Several people mentioned that it would be good to look at data that shows where visitors to Santa Monica are coming from, what they are coming for, and how they are getting here.

Dean Kubani indicated that he would compile a list of major transportation and mobility issues in Santa Monica and forward it to Task Force members via email. This list will be used as the basis for continued discussion at the September meeting.

Report on the Sustainable City Program Update Process

Dean Kubani provided the update. He reported on preparations for the first meeting of the Sustainable City Working Group on September 11 (note: This meeting was cancelled and has been rescheduled for October 8) and discussed the agenda and goals for the meeting.

Metropolitan Water District Update

MWD Board member Judy Abdo provided the update. MWD recently completed an assessment of land values for the area it serves. Santa Monica’s assessed value was $13,434,099,232, which represents and increase of 9.8% over last year. MWD’s assessment is used to provide weighting for the votes of each director on the board. Based on assessed land value, Los Angeles’ 4 directors have approximately 20% of the total vote while Santa Monica’s director has about 1% of the vote. Judy also reported that MWD has not taken a position on SB 221, which would require housing developers to ensure that they have sufficient water resources available to supply their project prior to construction.

Public Input

Laurel Roennau reported that the Neighborhood Council has prepared a letter to City Council requesting that they direct the Task Force to review implementation of the City’s Community Forest Plan. Regarding the discussion of traffic and transportation issues, she recommended that the Task Force include “noise” in their discussion as it relates to this. She also recommended that the city should look into providing free parking for alternative fueled vehicles. And she strongly encouraged the Task Force to include information on average daily traffic counts as a measure of congestion in the Sustainable City Program update.

Recreation and Parks Commissioner Lori Nafshun recommended that the Task Force should do what it can to encourage more use of the Tide shuttles and work to expand the hours of service and service area of the shuttles.

One other member of the public recommended that the City should track levels of telecommuting and consider providing incentives to businesses to promote telecommuting.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 pm.