ITEM 9-A
COUNCIL MEETING: December 8, 1992 Santa Monica, California
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Staff
SUBJECT: Recommendation To Authorize The City Manager To
Negotiate And Execute A Contract Not To Exceed $77,933
With Michael Brandman Associates To Prepare The 93-94
Update To The City Master Environmental Assessment
INTRODUCTION
This report recommends that the City Council authorize the City
Manager to negotiate and execute a contract to prepare an update
to the City's Master Environmental Assessment (MEA). As part of
the update, the Council is being asked to decide whether to use
the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) trip generation
rates or the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) rates in
the traffic analysis of the MEA.
BACKGROUND
In March, 1991, as part of the commercial moratorium work
program, the City Council directed staff to prepare a citywide
Master Environmental Assessment (MEA). The purpose of the MEA is
to provide baseline data for environmental impact reports as well
as provide background to project and policy related documents.
In order to keep all information current for purposes of
environmental review, the MEA must be updated annually.
In January, 1992, the City Council approved the first MEA
document and provided staff with a list of additional issues to
be addressed in the MEA update. Staff has recently issued a
Request for Proposals for the update and has selected the
consulting firm of Michael Brandman & Associates to conduct the
update.
Scope of the Update
The February, 1992 MEA analyzes existing conditions pertaining to
specific environmental issues such as traffic conditions,
population, seismic, water quality and employment. Where
feasible, the document quantifies the environmental conditions by
using the list of development projects that are currently under
construction or that have pending planning permits. The impacts
of the pending or approved development projects are then added to
the environmental conditions that exist today. This provides
baseline information that is used to determine the environmental
impact of future development projects.
The MEA update will follow the same format as the existing MEA
but will provide more current information, where available. For
example, the most recent air quality data will be provided;
recently released 1990 census data will be included; and,
additional information will be added concerning the City's sewer
system.
Several new tasks have been included in the MEA update based upon
previous direction from the City Council. These tasks include
the following:
o Update the cumulative projects list (e.g., list of pending
or approved development projects).
o Provide a list and map of alcohol outlets by alcohol
license type as well as a list of pending alcohol CUP's.
o Incorporate relevant information from the draft Safety
Element.
o Evaluate the impact of traffic congestion upon emergency
response times.
In addition to the above tasks, new tasks have been included
based upon recommendations from the Planning Commission and
staff. These include:
o Data regarding the location and existing service
capacities of local health care facilities.
o Document the capacity and condition of existing water
and sewer infrastructure, where feasible.
o Document the proportion of students in the Santa
Monica-Malibu Unified School District who are Santa
Monica residents.
o Update the list of approved traffic mitigation measures,
and identify and resolve any inconsistencies in these
measures.
o Update the traffic model to include the most current
cumulative projects list.
The cost of preparing the update to the background sections is
smaller than the cost for updating the traffic analysis. The
overall costs for the background update total $31,518 while the
parking and traffic analysis totals $46,415.
Traffic and Parking Related Items
The majority of the update consists of updating the citywide
traffic analysis. This involves conducting new vehicle counts at
the 170 study intersections. The counts, both summer and
non-summer are then analyzed and translated into Level of Service
(LOS) factors for each intersection. In order to keep up to date
baseline traffic information for environmental impact reports, it
is necessary to conduct new traffic counts and prepare a new
analysis.
An update to the Third Street Promenade Parking Study was not
previously included in the MEA, however, based on City Council
and Planning Commission direction, an update to that study will
be included in the MEA update. This update will include an
inventory of existing parking supply of private and public
structures and facilities; an assessment of the number of permit
parked cars; an estimate of the future demand for public spaces
based on forecasts of projected growth and development in the
study area; and, a utilization survey conducted between 9 a.m. to
12 midnight on a Thursday and Saturday.
The traffic analysis for the update will use the same traffic
methodology as the adopted MEA, the Highway Capacity Method
(HCM). However, concern was expressed that some of the
assumptions used in the analysis over-stated future traffic
impacts. Therefore, staff is recommending that the following
changes be made to the traffic assumptions:
o The traffic model will be modified to include assumed
trip generation rate changes associated with the
implementation of the city's TMP ordinance for projects
on the cumulative list.
o A new retail land use trip generation rate will be used
that more accurately reflects "pass by" trips. The
original MEA included a reduction of 25 percent for
pass-by trips. However, this is considered to be a very
conservative estimate. SANDAG (San Diego Association of
Governments) has not done any research regarding retail
land use trip generation rates. However, ITE has done a
national survey which provides the only large scale
research on this issue. They have found that a 50%
reduction for pass-by trips for retail land uses is an
appropriate factor to use. Therefore, instead of the
25% reduction, the revised analysis will use the 50%
reduction factor.
As part of the adoption of the MEA, Council directed staff to
look at the accuracy of the 1.5 percent ambient growth rate used
in the MEA. The ambient growth rate is an important component of
the traffic analysis because it reflects the traffic growth
associated with those development projects not included in the
cumulative projects list and also general growth in traffic due
to changes in neighboring communities which cannot be accurately
modeled. An ambient growth rate of 1.5 percent was used in the
adopted MEA and has been used for various project EIRs. Concern
has been expressed that this factor is too high and therefore
over estimates the amount of traffic that will be added in the
future.
As part of the MEA update, the consultant will evaluate the 1.5
growth factor by comparing the ambient growth rate of other
cities, analyzing the amount of traffic growth over the past ten
years, and comparing the traffic growth with the amount of growth
due to cumulative projects constructed over that time period.
Once this analysis is complete, staff will inform the Council of
the findings and the recommended ambient growth rate to be used
in the MEA analysis.
As in the adopted MEA, summer traffic counts will be included in
the traffic analysis if they are greater than the non-summer
traffic counts. If the summer traffic counts are lower than the
non-summer traffic counts, only the non-summer traffic analysis
will be conducted. The new traffic counts were conducted this
past summer and fall.
Trip Generation Rates
On June 11, 1991, Council directed staff to use the San Diego
Association of Governments (SANDAG) Trip Generation Manual as the
primary source for trip generation estimates in the adopted
Master Environmental Assessment. For land uses that are not
covered by the SANDAG manual, the Institute of Transportation
Engineers (ITE) trip generation rates were to be used. At the
same time, Council directed staff to assess the feasibility of
developing localized trip generation estimates for Santa Monica
in order to provide more accurate information on expected trips
generated by proposed projects within the City.
Trip generation rates are an important component of traffic
analysis because they represent the number of automobile trips a
development is projected to create. The number of automobile
trips generated are then used to calculate levels of service at
study intersections. A higher trip generation rate will likely
lead to more severe traffic impacts in an EIR analysis.
The consulting firm of Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc. was
retained to perform a test-case study to verify the trip
generation rates provided by SANDAG and ITE. Two categories of
land uses were selected for the study:
o Office buildings 10,000 to 100,000 gross square feet
o Office buildings over 100,000 gross square feet
The survey of these land uses included:
o Three sites from each land use;
o Counts taken from all driveways at each site. Sites
were chosen that were isolated and dependent upon
on-site parking structures so that costly pedestrian
interviews would not be required;
o Pedestrian interviews were conducted at one site to
verify vehicle counts and test for on-street parking,
transit use, carpooling, or other alternative means of
transportation. Information at the site was also
obtained regarding employee density and vacancy of lease
space in the building.
The survey revealed that the selected local office sites generate
significantly fewer trips than both the SANDAG and ITE data. The
local trip generation rates are 41 to 55 percent lower than
SANDAG data and 15 to 22 percent lower than ITE data. (See
Attachment A).
Based upon the survey results, the consultant concluded that
local "optional" trips (i.e. meetings, errands) are not being
made to the extent they are supposed to occur according to SANDAG
and ITE trip generation rates; instead, mainly the essential home
to work trips are occurring. Since the ITE trip generation rates
do not vary as greatly from the local survey results, the
consultant believes that future traffic projections for
developments in Santa Monica can still be conservatively, but
more accurately analyzed using ITE trip generation rates.
On April 15, 1992, the Planning Commission reviewed the results
of the trip generation study and asked several technical
questions of staff. One of the questions asked was whether
switching to the ITE rates would create a different number of
significant impacts. It is not known without performing the
actual model runs as to what the results of a different trip
generation rate would be. However, it is possible that the ITE
rates will show fewer significant impacts than the SANDAG rates
since they provide for fewer trip generations. After the
discussion, the Planning Commission adopted a motion to recommend
the use of ITE rates in the update of the MEA.
As part of the update of the MEA, staff recommends using the ITE
trip generation rates. The ITE rates do not vary as greatly from
the local survey results, and future traffic conditions for
office development can be analyzed more accurately using these
trip generation rates. The additional cost to the MEA update of
switching to the ITE trip generation rates is $960.
Items Not Included in the Update
Some items were recommended for inclusion in the MEA update but,
due to budget constraints, have not been included. These include
the following:
o Analyze operational characteristics of bus routes to
determine capacity.
o Develop significance criteria for CEQA issues areas such
as air quality, energy, utilities, and public services.
o Incorporate neighborhood traffic plans (e.g Sunset Park
and Mid City) into Circulation section (this will be
done once the City Council approves a specific plan).
o Provide information regarding water quality in local
aquifers.
In addition, some members of the public recommended that the MEA
include an evaluation of the public health and public service
impacts of alcohol outlets. However, staff believes that such a
study is highly specialized and is not appropriate for the City's
Master Environmental Assessment.
Consultant Selection
In selecting a consultant to prepare the update, staff issued a
request for proposals to eight consulting firms and received
three proposals. Upon review of the proposals, it was determined
that the proposal submitted by Michael Brandman Associates (MBA)
was the most detailed, thoughtful, and cost-competitive.
Accordingly, staff is recommending the contact be awarded to MBA.
DEVELOPER FEE TO DEFRAY COST OF MEA
Because the information contained in the MEA is used to prepare
environmental impact reports for development projects, and thus
substantially reduces the amount of research and analysis
required for each EIR, the cost of preparing the MEA effectively
represents a subsidy to project applicants. For this reason,
staff will be establishing a pro rata fee on new development to
at least partially defray the cost of updating the MEA. Staff
will return within six months with a resolution establishing such
a fee for services.
BUDGET/FINANCIAL IMPACT
Without the optional item involving the switch from SANDAG to ITE
trip generation rates, the fee for preparing the MEA update is
$76,973. However, staff recommends inclusion of the optional
trip generation rate item at a cost of $960, bringing the total
recommended scope of work to $77,933. These funds are available
in account 01-210-267-00000-5506-00000 and have been budgeted for
this purpose.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council:
1) Direct staff to use the ITE trip generation rates in the
traffic analysis.
2) Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a
contract with Michael Brandman Associates in the amount
of $77,933 to prepare the MEA update.
Prepared By: Paul Berlant, Director of LUTM
Suzanne Frick, Planning Manager
Tad Read, Associate Planner
Paul Casey, Transportation Planner
Land Use and Transportation Management Department
Program and Policy Development Division
Attachments: A - Trip Generation Rate Study