item 9-A

Council Meeting: August 17, 1999 Santa Monica, California

TO: Mayor and City Council

FROM: City Staff

SUBJECT: Recommendation to Review and Approve the Preliminary Design of the Santa Monica Transit Mall Project and Authorize the City Manager To Execute a Modification of the Contract for the Design of 4th Street Pavement Rehabilitation

This report recommends that the City Council review and approve the preliminary streetscape design for the Santa Monica Transit Mall Project and authorize the City Manager to execute a modification of the contract with Amphion Environmental, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $77,000 for design of the 4th Street Pavement Rehabilitation project.

In 1998, the City contracted with the consulting firm of Amphion Environmental, Inc. to prepare a streetscape design for the Santa Monica Transit Mall Project which covers Santa Monica Boulevard from Ocean Avenue to 7th Street and Broadway from Ocean Avenue to 5th Street. A conceptual Downtown Urban Design Plan was approved by the City Council in 1997. The Steering Committee that directed that plan guided the development of the streetscape design. Through a series of six public Steering Committee meetings, two community workshops, and other presentations including discussions with business groups, a preliminary streetscape design was developed that reflects the original intent of the Urban Design Plan.

The preliminary design consists of the components outlined briefly below.

The streetscape design proposes widening most sidewalks in the project area and replacing the dense Ficus and the other existing street trees with large deciduous street trees.

Sidewalks in the project will be widened from eleven (11) feet to nineteen (19) feet on both sides of Santa Monica Boulevard from Ocean Avenue to 5th Street and between Ocean Avenue and Second Street on Broadway. From 2nd Street to 5th Street on Broadway the sidewalks will be widened to sixteen (16) feet on the North side and will remain at twelve (12) feet on the South side.

Lighting in the project area will feature a contemporary two-tiered light fixture.

Transit shelters are one of the major three-dimensional elements of the project. Five transit shelters featuring an arbor-like design will be located at the transit stops along both Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard. Additional arbors are envisioned for the central portion of the project. They will be similar to the transit shelters but feature less glass in the roof and will be planted with vines. Three arbors are proposed on Santa Monica Boulevard in the block east of Third Street, and on Broadway in the block west of Third Street, for a total of six arbors. The arbors feature accent lighting and seating.

Street furniture includes contemporary wood slat chairs and benches with cast metal arms. The chairs will be used under the transit shelters and arbors. Matching benches will be used in other appropriate locations along the sidewalk.

Team artist Robin Brailsford has influenced the aesthetics of the entire project – creating the "seamless integration of art and architecture" called for in the Urban Design plan. She has designed five specific art components: mosaic tile pavers, fused copper colored glass for the roof in the transit shelters/arbors, mosaic greenery for bollards and news racks, colorful geometric enriched aggregate intersection designs and quotations by famous Santa Monica residents which will be etched in the pavement.

Transit priority lanes will be located adjacent to the curb on the south side of Santa Monica Boulevard between Ocean Avenue and 5th Street, and the north side of Broadway between Ocean Avenue and 5th Street. With this circulation pattern, the priority lanes will be adjacent to the widest sidewalks. The nine foot sidewalk "transit zone" reduces congestion related to people waiting for transit. Transit patrons will also have direct access to and from the Third Street Promenade, without having to cross Broadway or Santa Monica between the bus stops and this popular destination.

Two-way vehicular traffic will be maintained throughout the area. Where feasible, turn pockets will be provided for right-hand and left-hand turns. Access lanes will be provided to and from Parking Structure #7, which is the largest parking facility along the route, serving Santa Monica Place.

Following approval of the preliminary design concept, a detailed plan will be developed for loading and drop-off of passengers and goods in the downtown area. Careful management of loading and drop-off will significantly improve the operating efficiency of downtown streets. Preliminary work has been done on alley circulation, potential valet, taxi and passenger loading areas as well as plans for commercial loading. Truck loading, taxis and valet zones, passenger drop off and loading areas and short term parking are envisioned for the north side of Santa Monica Boulevard and the south side of Broadway with signs posted indicating the type and hours of use.

The City will be working with the Bayside District and the Chamber of Commerce to identify loading zones and schedules which optimize the use of the alleys. To better manage available valet parking in the downtown area, the City will establish a centralized valet system utilizing most of the existing zones. A detailed plan incorporating the input of affected businesses and property owners must be developed concurrently with the development of construction documents for the Transit Mall.

To ensure that operational and loading issues are fully addressed prior to construction, Planning and Community Development staff will convene a working group including

Downtown business representatives,valet and taxicab operators and the Police Department. This group will meet monthly for four or five months and resolve these issues before the Council is asked to approve the construction contract.

The owners of Broadway Deli at the northeast corner of Third Street and Broadway were not supportive of the proposed transit circulation because it removes the valet parking and loading zones from the north side of Broadway. In order to minimize the impact to their business, City staff proposed to provide Broadway Deli with their own valet zone in the alley (Mall Court East). Broadway Deli hired Linscott, Law & Greenspan, Traffic Consultant, to investigate the possibility of reversing the transit circulation. The report identified two options (Attachment A). The first option is to move the transit lane to the south side of Broadway and the north side of Santa Monica Boulevard. The second option is to construct the Transit Mall on Santa Monica Boulevard only. These options would allow the valet and parking zones to remain on the north side of Broadway. Crain & Associates prepared the City’s response to the Linscott Law & Greenspan’s report (Attachment B). The major concern with Alternative A is the conflicting movements of buses and passenger cars. Eastbound buses on Broadway would interfere with the flow of traffic into and out of Parking Structure 7. In addition, Alternative A would require westbound transit passengers to cross both Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway in order to access Santa Monica Place. The largest design issue with Alternative A not addressed by the LL&G report is the location of the sidewalk widenings along Broadway. Under Alternative A, in order to allow for the transit improvements, the widening would need to be shifted to the south side -- across Broadway from the Promenade and adjacent to a parking structure and the outside of the mall. Alternative B will not improve transit access to Santa Monica Place, and will not help to reduce congestion and improve circulation in this area. Alternative B would also have adverse consequences for the design plan. Santa Monica Boulevard would lose all of its passenger loading areas and force the removal of the taxi zone on Santa Monica Boulevard adjacent to the 3rd Street Promenade.

Many issues were raised during the design process regarding downtown circulation including the number of travel lanes, the width of the sidewalks, auto circulation patterns, access to and from Parking Structure #7 at Santa Monica Place, and access to the Interstate 10 Freeway from the downtown area. These issues, which had previously been studied at length as part of the Downtown Urban Design Plan, were revisited at several meetings as well as in reports by Linscott, Law and Greenspan and Crain and Associates commissioned by local businesses. The design ultimately recommended by the Transit Mall Steering Committee reaffirms the decisions made by the Council and embodied in the Downtown Circulation Plan.

The design team investigated options for providing public restrooms on the Transit Mall. The company JC Decaux United Street Furniture provides a vandal resistant, self contained, self-cleaning unit currently used in downtown San Francisco and San Jose. The Decaux units are not for sale, though they are potentially available through a twenty-year lease agreement. The rate for the Bay Area where the company is established is $61,500 per unit per year. Preliminary discussions indicate that the cost would be substantially higher for a Southern California city like Santa Monica. Decaux estimates that the area would require about ten units and approximately one million dollars a year in revenues for the company to establish a Southern California presence. No other manufacturer that produces self-cleaning units that could be accommodated within the enlarged sidewalk areas of the Transit Mall was identified. Decaux designs, builds, installs and maintains these units in exchange for advertising rights on newstands, newspaper dispensers, and flower stand kiosks provided as part of the package. Santa Monica has not embraced bus bench or newsrack advertising and unless a policy change is made, this restroom option is not viable.

The Steering committee unanimously approved the design and recommended forwarding it to the City Council for approval. In addition, during the design process a number of potential projects were identified or proposed that are beyond the scope of the Transit Mall project but which merit future consideration:

The alleys are going to play an increasingly important role in the downtown area. They need to be designed for increased pedestrian use through improved signage, lighting and paving treatments. One possibility is to add strings and shapes of seasonal lighting across the entries.

Temporary large images could be projected (video) or hung (vinyl-dot matrix) on the blank facades such as the Robinson-May Company and the Home Savings Bank to make the area more festive.

Applying Transit Mall features such as the fused glass and tile mosaic elements to more distant transit stops could promote the theme within Santa Monica.

In addition, the Steering Committee requested the following design changes: 1) a simple but attractive custom designed bike rack; 2) a custom designed drinking fountain; 3) inclusion of "art glass" in the arbors; and 4) enriched aggregate paving in the 2nd and 4th Street intersections. These changes have been incorporated into the design as reflected in the Final Design Report herein attached (Attachment E).

The 4th Street pavement shows extensive cracking and local subgrade failure in areas close to the curb lanes between Colorado and Wilshire Boulevards. In addition, portions of the sidewalk and curb and gutter have been damaged due to tree roots and/or deterioration of the concrete. The design and reconstruction of 4th Street to solve these problems can be coordinated with the design and construction of the Transit Mall project. Amphion is best equipped to design and coordinate this work since they are responsible for the Transit Mall design and grade changes at 4th Street and Broadway and 4th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard Intersections. They will perform the additional services for approximately $77,000.

The Transit Mall design will incorporate sustainable principles. Environmental enhancements will be incorporated into the project through the use of canopy trees which will be installed at relatively narrow spacing, recycled material in the pavement and as base material, energy efficient light fixtures, inserts in the catch basins to reduce pollution of storm water runoff, and rubber tires recycled in the asphalt mix.

It is anticipated that the final construction drawings and specifications will be completed by the end of 1999. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2000.

FUNDS REQUIRED

Fourth Street Design Services $77,000

Fourth Street Design Contingency $10,000

Total $87,000

Funds in the amount of $87,000 for design of the 4th Street Pavement Rehabilitation project are available in CIP account number C20052396., "4th Street Reconstruction."

Staff recommends that the City Council:

Approve the preliminary design for the Santa Monica Downtown Transit Mall and complementary tansit amenities furniture throughout the City;

Direct the staff to work with the businesses in the downtown area to develop a comprehensive loading and unloading plan for the downtown area including alley improvements, commercial loading zones and hours, passenger loading zones and hours, taxicab loading zones, valet loading zones, a possible centralized valet program and an enforcement and management program; and,

2. Authorize the City Manager negotiate and execute a modification to Amphion's contract in an amount not to exceed $77,000 for the design of the 4th Street Reconstruction project.

 

ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment A: Traffic Study by Linscott Law Greenspan, Broadway Deli's Traffic Consultant

Attachment B: Response to Greenspan Study by Crain and Associates

Attachment C: Letter of Conditional Approval from the Bayside District

Attachment D: Letter of Conditional Approval from the Chamber of Commerce

Attachment E: Final Design Report of the Downtown Transit Mall

Prepared by:

Craig Perkins, Director of Environmental & Public WorK Management

Suzanne Frick, Director of Planning & Community Development

John Catoe, Director of Transportation

Anthony Antich, P.E., City Engineer

Lucy Dyke, Transportation Planning Manager

Bill Zein, P.E., Civil Engineer