The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About4/20/2021 Item 10, Carpenter Wilbanks, Megan From:dlcslo < 11 AM To:E-mail Council Website Cc:Johnson, Derek; Schwartz, Luke Subject:April 20th City Council Meeting, Item #10 Re: Johnson Ave - San Luis Drive to Bishop Dear Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers, I am writing to encourage you to move forward in the 21-22 budget cycle with a limited road diet and reinstatement of on-street parking on the east side of Johnson Avenue between San Luis Drive and Bishop Street. Decades ago parking was removed which resulted in increased traffic speed and the gradual denigration of this unique residential neighborhood of single and multi family residences. Calming measures of various forms have been implemented over the years, however the livability has been compromised with the southern end of town build-out and increased regional pass thru traffic. The residental neighborhood in this five block section of Johnson has continued to evolve to now include; *Two Master List Historic Residences (Judge's House & Old SLO High School Classroom), *Infill seven single family residences behind the Judge's House. *Del Rio Terrace, 41 - 1 bedroom affordable senior and disabled housing units. *Extension of Fixlini Street to Johnson Ave. - including infill of 12 new single family homes. *Bishop Street Studios (formally Sunny Acres Orphanage) - 33 units of permanent supportive housing for mental illness and low income residents. This is the only section of Johnson Avenue with significant residential presence that does NOT have on-street parking. Other arterials with road diets (South Street, Laurel Lane, Pismo Street) all have on-street parking resulting in traffic calming & neighborhood preservation. This section of Johnson has many amenities we see in successful residential neighborhoods including medical services (French Medical Center), churches (Renovate Church), schools (SLO Christian School), etc. This past year COVID has brought life to the large Renovate Church parking lot between Ella & Bishop Streets. Sunday mornings their congregation gather under a large tent and serenade the neighborhood with appropriate live music. The unintended result has brought neighbors out into 1 their front yards again to reconnect....something on-street parking would contribute to. I'm hoping that re-establishing parking on the east side & instigating a road diet in the southern direction will enhance the livability with these safety measures. I think we can all agree that safe neighborhoods increase the quality of life in our beloved community. In conclusion, this neighborhood has grown organically in spite of the compromised safety challenges from increased speeding traffic. Please consider this relatively minimal cost re- striping project in your 21/22 budget as many neighbors join me in this recommendation. Respectfully, Dan Carpenter Lifetime resident of SLO -----Original Message----- From: dlcslo < To: emailcouncil@slocity.org <emailcouncil@slocity.org> Sent: Tue, Mar 23, 2021 2:32 pm Subject: Fw: RE: RE: Intersection of Johnson and San Luis Drive Dear Council, Thank you for your service to our community. I know it can be thankless at times, so I appreciate your commitment and tenacity. I’ve attached a conversation between your Transportation Manager Luke Schwartz and myself regarding a section of Johnson Avenue between San Luis Drive and Bishop Street. I hope you will read it and consider prioritizing this work project in the near future as it appears to be something staff would support. I’m well aware you have limited resources and must prioritize based on overall community needs. Best to all of you, Respectfully Dan Carpenter P.S Most of you know I’m an avid walker around town and constantly on the lookout for opportunities to enhance the quality of our neighborhoods. Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS Begin forwarded message: On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, 9:48 AM, Schwartz, Luke <LSchwart@slocity.org> wrote: Hi Dan, I really like the way you’re thinking--I’ve also had ongoing frustrations with the high traffic speeds along the Johnson Avenue corridor, which has a truly negative effect on the livability for residents, pedestrian and bicyclists. I do think some form or lane reductions would help in terms of speeding. The reason this has not been supported in the past is that the future traffic volumes would exceed the capacity of a 2-3 lane roadway during peak commute periods, so a road diet would have triggered a significant impact under CEQA. With recent changes in CEQA shifting away from measures of congestion to measures of vehicle miles traveled, this type of project would no longer trigger an environmental impact under CEQA, 2 but would still require Council approval to accept local policy deficiencies with future auto congestion exceeding our adopted standards. I do think exploring something like this has value, but we likely would not be able to elevate this item to our current work program unless (a) specifically directed by the Council during budget planning, (b) this roadway is scheduled for resurfacing, or (c) changes are recommended to address safety/collision issues identified in our Traffic Safety Report. You are certainly welcome to reach out to the current Council to suggest that they elevate this priority in the upcoming 2021-23 Financial Plan. Otherwise, our team will continue to look for opportunities to study this further. Thanks, Luke Schwartz, PE Transportation Manager Public Works Transportation Planning/Engineering 919 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-3218 E LSchwartz@slocity.org T 805.781.7190 slocity.org From: dlcslo < Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2021 7:35 AM To: Schwartz, Luke <LSchwart@slocity.org>; Johnson, Derek <djohnson@slocity.org> Subject: Re: RE: RE: Intersection of Johnson and San Luis Drive This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. Hi Luke & Derek, Hope all is well and you’re staying safe. Thanks again for the protected bike lane on Johnson. We’re approaching a year and my observation is positive. Most vehicles respect the separation, vehicles have slowed down, and bicycle/pedestrian traffic is much safer. I wanted to bring up a something Jake Hudson and I talked about some 5+ years ago regarding Johnson Avenue. I recognize Johnson is an neighborhood arterial, however some discussion was had on extending the road diet that currently exists under the UP overpass. From all accounts that implementation has been successful on calming traffic and protecting bicyclists and pedestrians. Based on the fact that the east side of Johnson Avenue between San Luis Drive and Bishop streets is almost exclusively residential, I would like to see on street parking returned to that side. It was removed several decades ago which I believe the neighborhood dynamic and sentiment has evolved. My unprofessional opinion on how to accomplish this would be to extend the one lane road diet south from San Luis Drive to Bishop, keep the center turn lane, keep the two lanes in the north direction (accommodating morning High School traffic), keep the bike lane, and then ADD parking to the east side. I apologize if I’m oversimplifying it, but it seems logical. It would help calm traffic in both directions and accommodate the parking needs of the residential neighborhood. I believe this is consistent with the direction Council is currently taking to reduce the impacts of traffic in our neighborhoods and encourage alternative transportation. 3 I believe this would involve minimal costs as no construction would be involved, and the positive results would be significant. If this is a possibility and you would like to meet and discuss it further, I’m open to that. Thanks for taking the time to consider my suggestions. Thanks Dan Carpenter 895-704-8567 4