HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 09122000 - SD3 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
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FROM: TRANSPORTATION, WATER AND INFRASTRUCTURE •`.%'" Costo
COMMITTEE
County
DATE: July 24, 2400
SUBJECT: Report on Downtown El Sobrante Revitalization Effort and related planning
activities in EI Sobrante
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATIONS
Accept report. Request the Transportation, Water and Infrastructure Committee
continue to apprise the Board on progress made on the planning efforts described
herein.
FISCAL IMPACT
None to the General Fund at this time. These planning efforts may result in
recommendations for amendments to the General Plan and related regulations which
would require Board authorization and allocation of funds.
BACKGROUND/REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
The Board of Supervisors previously authorized a grant application for $50,000 from
the Metropolitan Transportation Commission "Transportation for Livable
Communities" program, and authorized staff to use the grant funds for a Downtown
El Sobrante Transportation and Land Use Plan. The Board already has been
informed that the grant was awarded on July 12.
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES
RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
APPROVE OTHER
,,:,
SIGNATURE(S): 2UPERVISPOR JOHN GIOIA U R S ALE B. UILKEMA
ACTION OF BOAR&Y ON APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE
UNANIMOUS (ABSENT �) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN
AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE
ABSENT: ABSTAIN: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE
Contact: John Greitzer (925/335-1201) SHOWN.
cc: Community Development Department (CDD) ATTESTED
I BATCHELOR, CLERK OF
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
sAadv-tran\Committee Board Order Shelf.doc
BY DEPUTY
F
911
Report on Downtown EI Sobrante Revitalization Effort and related planning activities
July 24,2000
Page 2
In late October the Board will be asked to authorize a consultant contract to
develop the plan. In advance of that request, the Transportation, Water and
Infrastructure Committee wishes to inform the Board about the pending
Transportation and Land Use Plan, and other planning activities that are in
progress in the EI Sobrante Valley.
Downtown EI Sobrante Revitalization Effort
The County in July was awarded a $50,000 planning grant from the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to obtain consultant
services for development of a Transportation and Land Use Plan for
Downtown EI Sobrante. The downtown area of EI Sobrante is defined as the
commercial area along the half-mile stretch of San Pablo Dam Road
between EI Portal Drive and Appian Way. The grant is funded through
MTC's "Transportation for Livable Communities" program. The grant
application was co-sponsored by the County and the 94808 Task Force (a
community group named for the El Sobrante zip code).
The Transportation and Land Use Plan will be a key part of the Downtown
Revitalization Effort (see Exhibit A). It will develop both a plan and an
implementation program for improvements that integrate mobility and land
use changes in the downtown area.
When the Transportation and Land Use Plan is complete in 2001, the Board
likely will be asked to adopt amendments both to the General Plan
Circulation Element and General Plan Development Standards as they
pertain to EI Sobrante. Zoning designations for Downtown EI Sobrante may
need to be revised. These amendments may result from the Transportation
and Land Use Plan to be developed by the consultant. The plan will
develop recommendations for new transportation facilities and a land use
plan for mixed-use development, including combined retail/residential space
and a public park or plaza in the downtown area.
New transportation facilities suggested by the community include pedestrian
and bicycle facilities, bus turnouts or possibly a bus transit center, a new
road parallel to San Pablo Dam Road on its south side, a traffic circle or
roundabout to enable motorists to turn around on San Pablo Dam Road,
and a pedestrian bridge from San Pablo Dam Road over San Pablo Creek
to a nearby residential street (Mozart Drive), among other suggestions. The
advisability of these improvements has not yet been evaluated. The
Transportation and Land Use Plan will determine which of these or other
improvements should be implemented, and how such improvements should
be phased and funded over time.
The plan will help the County and the EI Sobrante community address long-
standing concerns about loss of economic vitality in the downtown area as
well as traffic concerns about San Pablo Dam Road — particularly the
difficulties of circulating within the downtown area, whether in a motor
vehicle, a bus, or on foot or bicycle. The amount of through-traffic on San
Pablo Dam Road often makes it difficult to make left turns into or out of
businesses along the road. The road also lacks a convenient place for
motorists to turn around if they need to. For pedestrians, there are
crosswalks of San Pablo Dam Road at El Portal Drive and at Appian Way,
Report on Downtown El Sobrante Revitalization Effort and related planning activities
July 24,2000
Page 3
but only two other crosswalks in the half-mile stretch between those two
intersections. Aesthetic improvements such as streetscaping also are
sought.
In addition to transportation, land use, streetscape and design concerns, the
Downtown EI Sobrante Revitalization Effort also includes a business
attraction/retention program to strengthen the business base in the
downtown area. Staff is exploring ways to finance an economic analysis of
the downtown area to determine the potential for retail and commercial
development.
Exhibit A is a flowchart that illustrates the Downtown EI Sobrante
Revitalization Effort, indicating progress made to date and tasks that remain
to be completed.
Exhibit B includes excerpts from the request for proposals (RFP) that was
sent out to solicit consultant services to develop the plan and an
implementation program. The RFP was written with the help of community
members from the 94803 Task Force. Proposals from interested
consultants are due on September 29. Staff anticipates seeking Board
authorization to enter a contract approximately one month later.
Relation of the Downtown Revitalization Effort to Other Planning Activities
There are linkages between the downtown Revitalization Effort and other
EI Sobrante planning efforts. One such effort is a project to develop more
parks in EI Sobrante. The Parks Master Plan is co-sponsored and jointly
funded by the County and the City of Richmond. A consulting firm, Vailier
Design Associates, is working with the community and jurisdiction staffs to
develop the parks plan. An inventory of potential park sites has been
developed, including several sites in the downtown area that could be
incorporated into the downtown Transportation and Land Use Plan.
The County also is nearing completion of the San Pablo Dam Road
Alignment Study, which will develop improvements for the eastern portion
of San Pablo Dam Road between Appian Way and Tri Lane. This project
was undertaken as a result of community concerns about high traffic
speeds, pedestrian and bicylist safety, motorist safety, and the difficulty of
turning onto San Pablo Dam Road from side streets due to traffic volume
and speed. The County Public Works Department has developed a
preliminary list of improvements including sidewalks, crosswalks, median
landscaping and narrowing lanes in certain portions of the road where lane
widths currently exceed the County's 12-foot standard. The list reflects
comments made at several public meetings. Since some of the concerns
raised during the Alignment Study are similar to concerns expressed for the
downtown portion of the corridor, staff of the Public Works Department and
Community Development Department are coordinating the two efforts.
It is likely that implementation of the improvement projects to be
recommended for the western part of the Alignment Study area — San Pablo
Dam Road near Appian Way — will wait until completion of the Downtown
Transportation and Land Use Plan. This will provide a chance to ensure
consistency between the improvements for the San Pablo Dam
Report on Downtown El Sobrante Revitalization Effort and related planning activities
July 24,2000
Page 4
Road/Appian Way area and the improvements in the downtown portion of
San Pablo dam Road. The final project list from the Alignment Study likely
will be brought to the Board for approval in November or December, after
review by WCCTAC and the City of Richmond.
Funding for El Sobrante Improvements
The recommended improvements that emerge from all of the EI Sobrante
planning activities will cost millions of dollars in total. Costs could include such
items as purchase of downtown land for right of way and construction of a new
road and sidewalks in the downtown area, purchase of land for parks,
modifications to San Pablo Dam Road and some of its intersections, new
streetlights and tree plantings, and maintenance of these and other items.
Staff is working with community groups in El Sobrante to explore possible
financing mechanisms for these kinds of improvements. Suggestions to date
include the creation of a business improvement district, creation of a landscaping
and lighting district, and creation of a redevelopment area in EI Sobrante. More
information will be brought to the Board as these discussions progress.
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EXHIBIT B ,-,� -
EXCERPTS FROM.:
Request for Proposals
Downtown El Sobrante Transportation and Land Use Plan
(A part of the Downtown El Sobrante Revitalization Effort)
Sponsored by:
• the 94803 Task Force;
• the El Sobrante Chamber of Commerce; and
• Contra Costa County.
Funded by:
• A"Transportation for Livable Communities" grant from the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission;
• the El Sobrante Chamber of Commerce; and
• Contra Costa County
Key areas of expertise needed:
• Transportation planning and engineering
• Land use planning
• Urban design and landscape architecture
• Environmental analysis
Contract amount:
$70,000 Maximum
Project completion:
May 2001
Send proposals (eight copies)to:
John Greitzer
Contra Costa County
Community Development Department
651 Pine Street—N. Wing, 4' Floor
Martinez, CA 94553
Deadline for submittal of proposals:
12 o'clock noon, Friday, September 29, 2000
Downtown El Sobrante Transportation and Land Use Plan
Contra Costa County
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Community groups and Contra Costa County are working together on the revitalization
of Downtown El Sobrante, a commercial area along a half-mile stretch of San Pablo Dam
Road between El Portal Drive and Appian Way. The project area is located in an
unincorporated area in the western part of Contra Costa County(see map and photo on
following pages).
Once a thriving commercial area, Downtown El Sobrante has lost retail businesses and
economic vitality over the years due to a number of factors. The Downtown El Sobrante
Revitalization Effort seeks to reverse these trends through programs aimed at business
attraction and retention, circulation and parking improvements, land-use changes, and
improvements to streetscapes,building design and other visual elements of the downtown
district.
Consultant services are now sought to develop a transportation and land use plan for
Downtown El Sobrante that will meet the community's vision in the following ways.
restoring the business district as a vital community center; improving circulation within
the business district for motorists,buses,pedestrians and bicyclists; enhancing the visual
appearance of the downtown area; and improving the mixture of downtown businesses
and land uses, including residential development for all income ranges and attractive
public spaces.
The plan must accomplish a vision that has been articulated by the El Sobrante
community for its downtown area(described below). The community and County staff
have worked together to develop a menu of strategies on which to base the plan. The
consultant's task is to use these strategies—and others that the consultant may
recommend—to develop a plan that meets the community's vision.
The consultant also must develop an implementation program,providing a step-by-step
guide for turning the plan into reality. In addition, the consultants must perform a scan o
likely environmental issues that may arise from plan implementation, for use by County
staff in performing subsequent environmental review.
The sponsors of this project include a community group called the 94803 Task Force
(named for the El Sobrante zip code and consisting of concerned residents and business
people in El Sobrante); the El Sobrante Chamber of Commerce; and Contra Costa
County. The County's Community Development Department and Public Works
Department both will be involved in the project.
Following are the vision statements developed recently by two committees of the 94803
Task Force-- the Landscape and Design Committee, and the Transportation and Traffic
Committee. These vision statements will provide the overall direction for the
Transportation and Land Use Plan.
Page 2 of 15
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Downtown E1 Sobrante Transportation and Land Use Plan
Contra Costa County
Vision Statement of the 94803 Transportation and Traffic Committee
"We envision the creation of a friendly, attractive, village-like downtown, through:
• Improved circulation and parking within the downtown area,
• Slower traffic,
• Increased pedestrianlbicyclist safety, and
• Alternative transportation.from neighboring areas. "
Vision Statement of the 94803 Landscape and Design Committee
"To help restore the business district as the vital core of the community and a destination
offering a diversity of activity, business, and points of interest, incorporating outdoor
settings that invite people to linger. To initiate this plan we will:
• Install and maintain attractive litter receptacles at bus stops and major intersections
• Honor businesses that are contributing to the beauty and vitality of the area with
awards and publicity.
• Work with business owners and a certified arborist to replant trees which add beauty
downtown without obstructing storefronts.
• Acquire park sites to beautify and enhance the downtown shopping experience.
• Work with business owners and code enforcement officials to faeiltiate a visually
pleasing standard for signage that will attract customers.
• Commission public art to add to the charm and beauty of downtown. "
The 94803 Task.Force vision also holds that the business district must be:
"...an attractive, inviting, lovely place to visit for a variety of community, civic, cultural,
entertainment, recreational as well as commercial activities, a vital core that is the heart
of El Sobrante Valley...Walkways, open public space, visual and aesthetic vistas, biking,
etc., will be apart of this oasis.
"The configuration or reconfiguration of large monolithic buildings that stand out like
islands in a sea of asphalt must be of concern to the consultant. Either they should be
moved up to the street(sidewalk) or they must be changed so the parking lot has new
stores, walkways, landscaping, open spaces, etc.
"We want to be a full service downtown, with all the other amenities that result from
streetscaping, landscaping, traffic calming,public open space(i.e. civic, cultural,
entertainment, recreation, etc.)"
Due to a concern about crime, the community would like the plan to avoid or minimize
secluded or hidden spaces.
Page 5 of 15
Downtown El Sobrante Transportation and Land Use Plan
Contra Costa County
The Task Force and its committees have developed menus of specific techniques to help
accomplish their visions. These are listed later in this document. These techniques
should form the basis of the plan to be developed by the consultants. However,
consultants should feel free to suggest additional techniques or strategies which,based on
their experience, they believe would be effective in meeting the community's vision.
In addition to the Landscape and Design Committee and the Transportation and Traffic
Committee, the 94803 Task Force also has created a Business Committee,which is
working on strategies to unify the downtown business community and develop services
and programs to attract and retain more businesses.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The revitalization of Downtown El Sobrante has been a concern in the community for
many years. Like many older commercial districts, Downtown El Sobrante lost some of
its economic vitality as new retail and commercial development went to outlying areas
that offered large sites of relatively inexpensive land close to freeways. While there is
still commercial and retail activity in the downtown area, there is less now than there
used to be. The downtown area is characterized by many small businesses and small
shopping centers with large(and largely unused)parking lots around them. There is no
uniformity or pattern to the size, siting, or design of the buildings and lots.
From a transportation standpoint, it is easy to get to Downtown El Sobrante,but
circulating within the downtown area is difficult whether one is in a car, on a bus, on
foot, or on a bicycle. The downtown area has a"main street"in San Pablo Dam Road, but
there is no circulation system within the downtown area. San Pablo Darn Road—which
is designated as a"route of regional significance"in the region's transportation plan--
serves as a de facto expressway for commuters between Central and West Contra Costa
County, and for other motorists trying to avoid congestion on I-80 and Highway 24. This
through-traffic causes conflicts with local traffic attempting to access local businesses
and services, particularly when local motorists need to make left turns into or out of those
businesses across oncoming traffic.
Limited pedestrian facilities, combined with relatively high traffic speeds along the road,
exacerbate the problem. There are only two designated crosswalks in the half-mile
stretch of San Pablo Dam Road between El Portal Drive and Appian Way, which are the
boundaries of the project area. This not only limits pedestrian access and circulation in
the downtown area,but also may dampen bus ridership, since bus patrons have difficulty
walking along or across San Pablo Dam Road to get from the bus stop to local
businesses.
In response to requests from the community to address these issues, the County allocated
$40,000 in Community Development Block Grant(CDBG) funds in 1998 for a
Downtown El Sobrante Revitalization Effort. The El Sobrante Chamber of Commerce
and the County sponsored this effort. The CDBG funds financed two key steps—a
baseline inventory of downtown parcels, parking supply, and other data conducted by the
Page 6 of 15
Downtown El Sobrante Transportation and Land Use Plan
Contra Costa County
UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development in 1999, and a Downtown
Visioning Process for the community that was conducted by a planning and facilitation
firm in January and February 2000. The Chamber of Commerce will use the remaining
CDBG funds to help pay for the consultant contract that is the subject of this request for
proposals.
The Downtown Visioning Workshop led to the creation of the 94803 Task Force,with a
consensus that the Task Force should focus on improving the business climate, improving
the parking and circulation system, and improving the visual appearance of Downtown El
Sobrante. The new 94803 Task Force then partnered with the County and the Chamber
of Commerce to apply for a$50,000"Transportation for Livable Communities" grant
from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to finance a plan for Downtown El
Sobrante. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission awarded the grant in July 2000.
The grant,plus $15,000 in County funds and $5,000 in CDBG funds will finance this
$70,000 consultant contract.
RELATED PLANNING EFFOR'T'S
Several other planning efforts are underway in El Sobrante that are related to this effort,
although they are separately funded and are on their own timetables. These include the
San Pablo Darn Road Alignment Study and the development of an El Sobrante Valley
Parks Master Plan.
The San Pablo Dam Road Alignment Study deals with a portion of San Pablo Dam Road
to the east of the downtown area, between Appian Way and Tri Lane. The study's
purpose is to calm traffic, improve pedestrian safety along the San Pablo Darn Road
corridor,make aesthetic improvements to the roadway, and improve access for vehicles
entering San Pablo Dam Road from side streets. Led by the Contra Costa County Public
Works Department,the study will determine specific improvement projects.
The Parks Master Plan will guide park development in the El Sobrante Valley. Co-
sponsored by Contra Costa County and the City of Richmond, the Parks Master Plan is
being developed by Vallier Design Associates. The consultant is working with the
community on priorities for types and locations of parks. One of the community's
interests is a public space in the downtown area for social and cultural events. The
consultant hired through this RFP should address this in the downtown plan.
Public input on these efforts has been obtained through the El Sobrante Valley Joint
Planning Effort and the El Sobrante Coordinating Council. These are monthly,multi-
jurisdictional meetings dealing with a variety of issues.
Another community interest is to make San Pablo Creek an integral feature of the
downtown. The creek is almost entirely on private residential property, so direct access
to it may not be possible. However, interest is high in finding a way to include the creek
in the Downtown Transportation and Land Use Plan.
Page 7 of 15