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BPC 03-17-04 -. CUPEIQ1NO THE REGULAR MINUTES OF THE BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN COMMISSION Wednesday March 17, 2004 City Council Chamber Cupertino City Hall 10300 Torre Avenue Cupertino, CA 95014 MINUTES ATTENDANCE Mr. David Greenstein, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Staff: Mr. Goepfert Commissioners: Present: Mr. David Greenstein, Mrs. Hua Julia Fu, Mr. Geoffrey Paulson. Absent: Mr. Joe Walton Vacancy: one Citizen: Anne Ng, Dorothy Stow, Gloria Sherman, Peter Kalnay, Nelson Dennis, Robin Wilson, Fari Aberg, Harunori Yoshikawa, total of thirteen. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS- APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Minutes of February 18, 2004 was approved. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS- OLD BUSINESS- I. Appoint secretary -Mrs. Julia Fu is the secretary for the day 2. Regnart Creek Trail - Mr. Goepfert played a video presentation before he showed the map on a transparency to indicate the section of trail in discussion. He pointed out that this is the third public meeting to collect public input. This item is for the Commission to consider recommendation to City Council about this segment of trail. Presently there are no funds for planning, designing, or constructing the trail. Chair Greenstein asked about the possible sources of funding. Mr. Goepfert indicated that the grant from Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) has been identified as the first competitive grant to acquire. The next cycle of SCVWD grant will come at the end ofyearlbeginning of the next year. Using San Thomas/Saratoga Creek Trail as reference, the estimated cost for this demonstration trial of 0.45 miles is $400,000. Mr. Goepfert also addressed the issue ofmaintenance. Citizens were given 3 minutes to voice their opinions. Dorothy Stow indicated that City Council has already made up its mind, so her neighbors don't want to come to this meeting. She had a lot of problems before the present fence was put up by the SCVWD. She asked why the SCVWD wanted the trail. If the trail is there, who will be liable, what kind access will there be to the trail? Another attractive nuisance for kids is ducks in the creek. Gloria Sherman is in support of the trail. She thinks that the elderly who had no place to walk would enjoy it very much. Peter Kalnay believes that many adults and children are very likely like to use the trail. Safety concerns need to be addressed. He thinks the creekside bike trail is a lovely bit of nature. Nelson Dennis agrees with what Dorothy said. He is against the trail. But if the trail is going to be there, he wanted it to be done right and provide funds to do it right. He recommends that any project have walls to isolate the nearby residents and to protect trail users during high water season. Robin Wilson feels that her privacy and peacefulness is invaded if the trail is in her backyard. She thinks people should walk and have pleasure in more beautiful parks. Fari Aberg agrees with Nelson and Robin. She has called the Sheriff several times to check on kids hanging out over there in summer. If there is no budget, why push this trail now? There were problems before the fence; there are problems now. Harunori Yoshikawa chose his property due to the privacy of the creek. He hopes not to devalue the property. When people walk by, dogs bark. He wonders why there is a meeting if the City has made up its mind. He raised the question about the equal weight of votes. All commissioners appreciated the input from the residents. Commissioner Paulson discussed the concept of debate and the concept of the greater good. The general consensus among the commissioners is that we may not have all the answers or may not be able to please everyone, but there are things we can do to ease the burden, mitigate the concerns and problems. After further discussion about whether to support this demonstration trail, how to proceed, what to do before the opening of the trail and how to take residents input into design phase, a motion was made by Commissioner Paulson "to recommend to the City Council to include trail development along the portion of Regnart Creek between Blaney and Pacifica in the City Capital Improvement Prognun, pending the acquisition of grants from the SCVWD to plan, design, and construct trail improvements, and the approval of City Council that the City supply any required match funds. The recommendation should include the section of creek running westward from Campo de Lozavo to Rodrigues Ave. as a demonstration project. The recommendation also requires that commission stay involved through at least one field trip with neighborhood and city council to view the project site and provide further input to design process". The motion was seconded by Commissioner Fu. The motion was approved with the vote 3 to O. 3. Mary Avenue Footbridge Mr. Goepfert gave a report to the Commission. He will have meeting with Caltrans and the city's design consultants to determine exact location and clearance of the foundation of the bridge. This will get us further along with the project study report. The current project schedule calls for finishing the design prior to Summer 2005, beginning construction thereafter and completing the project around October 2006. The planned April 27 Type Selection meeting will be concerned with Caltrans' formal acceptance of the unique bridge type. At that point, the project should be at about 35% design. The first plan sheets will be assembled. That will be the 1st milestone. The project is on track. There is a reasonable timeline for flow of funds. Weare on line to make it all work. 4. Cupertino Senior Center Mr. Goepfert reminded us that there was a thought to present this access and walkway issue to the Senior Commission. He recommended engaging the Senior Commission to resolve this and work with them as needed. Commissioner Paulson recommended considering this if another development project comes up around that area. 5. Walk/Bicycle to School- Commissioner Fu reported that the survey was sent to CUSD and got approved. Commissioner Greenstein arranged for the City to print over 7500 copies. The surveys were sorted and bundled according to instructions and shipped to CUSD as of yesterday. The only thing lacking in the survey is that we did not have a place for people to indicate which school they are from. The Commission discussed ways of sorting the survey from different locations. We will need to correlate the data after we get the surveys back. 6. Bicycle and Pedestrian Guidelines Mr. Goepfert said that it is a long-term project. The Commission has not assigned anyone to take a comprehensive look at this. Ex-Commissioner Levy had been interested in correcting document as it was. But the Commission might want to look at the things that need to be changed and the timeline for doing it. Maybe at the next meeting the Commission could decide the game plan to update the Guidelines. Commissioner Paulson proposed to wait until the General Plan update is finalized before we do anything to the Guidelines. He recommended taking this item off the agenda until the General Plan bigger issues are resolved. NEW BUSINESS- I. General Plan Update - Circulation Element Chair Greenstein reported the two points he made in the General Plan meeting. The first is about the Commission's wishes to retain all the pedestrian emphases in the General Plan. The second point is in response to Council member Wang's concern about traffic around schools. Chair Greenstein thinks that our road has the capacity to transport kids to school if we use alternative methods, such as carpooling, drop off points and walk to school. One kid in one car will cause gridlock in our roadways. 2. Plan for future meetings April meeting: Will cancel April regular meeting. Scheduled April 14 as a special joint meeting date with Public Safety Commission. Mr. Goepfert will confirm with Linda Crabill for the Street Smarts presentation. Possible agenda for next meeting: pedestrian safety on the roadway, safety around Kennedy, road crossing near Collins School. June meeting: Mr. Goepfert will not be available in June. His proposal is to either find someone to replace him, or move the meeting to early in the month or cancel the meeting. Commissioner Fu may be away for a month after June 15. Commissioner Paulson suggested to hold field trip with residents on Regnart Creek that month. 3. Reports from Commissioners Commissioner Paulson distributed a flier from Traffic Safe Community Network about a satellite broadcast and encouraged everyone to participate. ADJOURNMENT - There being no further business or public comment; Chair Greenstein adjourned the meeting at 9:5Op.rn. Respectfully submitted, ÆJ; Ma (#y ~ Þ Julia Fu, Commissioner and Secretary of the Commission