Recommend Approval of the AC Transit Service Expansion Plan’s Buena Vista Avenue/Line 19 Alternative. (Public Works 310)
Regulation recommendation to approve the AC Transit Service Expansion Plan, Buena Vista Avenue Line 19. Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. I am Gayle Payne, the city's transportation coordinator. And this agenda item is pertains to AC Transit Service Expansion plan and we are in a fortunate position and that AC Transit can fund one additional bus line in the city of Alameda. And they have provided us with three options. And the city the city staff, as well as the Transportation Commission, recommend city council approval of the Buena Vista Avenue. That's one of the three routes. And we had Transportation Commission. They actually approved this last week. And so verbally, we're providing you with their responses. And the second bullet and the third bullet pertained to two additional requests for your approval. And one has to. The second bullet has to do with funding. Should stay local. If in the future AC transit were to cut and a bus line in Alameda. Then those savings should be placed into an addition. And only within the city of Alameda. The last bullet has to do with transfers between bus lines are no longer free. And so to cost out what it would take to have free transfers for Alameda is for clipper card holders. So those are the two additional requests that the Transportation Commission requested last week of you. So I'm giving that as a verbal. And so I just want to step back a little bit and just provide a brief a brief overview of the service expansion plans, goals, AC transit. With this expansion plan plan, they want to increase frequency, increase reliability. And keep in mind that back in 2010, they were forced to reduce bus service because of the economic downturn. So now we are in a very fortunate position with the passing of Measure B in November 2014, it increased the transportation sales tax from half cent to one $0.01. And so that allows this service expansion plan to occur. AC Transit staff drafted a plan. They held community meetings, one in Alameda in October of last year and then in November held public hearings. They were going to AC Transit Board was going to be requested to approve this plan in December. They did postpone that until this January. And it turns out they did approve the service expansion plan. However, they did vote to postpone the three Alameda alternatives to allow for the city of Alameda time to provide our highest priorities as a formal votes for a transportation commission. They did that this week, and that's what we're asking you to do tonight. And then the transit board, they will approve in spring. And then this additional bus line will run either starting in summer or in December. What is he transit board did do? They did approve the service expansion plan. A few items did pertain to alameda. One is to maintain the existing line o alignment on santa clara and also to modify line 31. And this map shows that line 31, which is the west end line would. Travel in Alameda landing. And it also would be changed to go to Lake Merritt Bart and Laney College. And that allows for students traveling between College of Alameda and Laney College to just take one bus line to get between the two schools. And that happens quite frequently. Students take classes at both schools. The third change for line 31 is now it goes directly to Highland Hospital, and that's our trauma center. So that's really important here in East Oakland. So that's that would be. City of Alameda is one and only direct bus line to Highland Hospital. Back to the postponed alternatives. There are three alternatives options that AC transit has presented us. We need to choose one and the first two pertain to across island connections to the Main Street Ferry terminal. The second one pertains to restoring line 19 along the northern waterfront property development area. I was going to go real quickly through the three maps. This alternative number one is the first Main Street ferry terminal Cross Island connection. And it starts will start here at Main Street Ferry Terminal. It goes right. It would run down stargell, Webster Street and then go by with school in the shoreline area where the dense housing is. And then Fruitvale Bart. The second Main Street Ferry Terminal, Cross Island Connection. Again, it would start. Main Street Ferry terminal. Instead of going stargell webster. It would go. Main Street. And by the academy. And in front of internal high school and central. And then loop down to Fruitvale. Bart. The third and last alternative is the Northern Waterfront Alternative Restoring Line 19 along Buena Vista Avenue. And it would start instead of Main Street Ferry Terminal. It would start in downtown Oakland, where the downtown Oakland BART is run along Buena Vista Avenue to Fruitvale Bart. No staff and Transportation Commission. We we do recommend city council approval of the alternative number three, which is appoint a Vista Avenue alternative. We feel like it has more potential to relieve congestion because of all the connections in downtown Oakland, Easy Transit connections as well as downtown Oakland BART. And there's also partnership opportunities with the developers. So AC Transit has they have enough money for a 30, 30 minute frequency with potential developer contributions. During peak periods, we can increase that frequency to say 20 minutes. And so that's a true public private partnership and that's much better we see than a bunch of different private shuttles that only are are meant for the individuals living in the new developments and for the street crossing shuttle right now. STAFF We go after grants every year, every other year to keep that shuttle running. It's we're really cobbling money together. It's not a long term solution to a better long term solution, we feel, is to hand pass the baton over to AC Transit. We do support the creation of a Cross Island connection to the Main Street Ferry terminal. We do look forward to continued partnerships with AC transit as well as the ferry folks, the Water Emergency Transportation Authority, to continue to look for revenue sources and to really figure out what that route should be. Because there's we've had several requests from the Academy School and Tunnel High School and would school to have a Cross Island connection. And maybe there's a way to to meet all of their needs. The budget comes from Measure B, B and potentially developer contributions. If we can get that frequency up during the peak periods, that's that's how that could happen. And then the city would pay for the cost of restoring those bus stops and also making them accessible. And again, the recommendation, city staff recommendation, along with Transportation Commission requesting city council approval of that Cannabis Two Avenue Northern Waterfront development route with the additional Transportation Commission requests to have the funding stay local and also to cost out free transfers for Alameda. And that's the end of the report. If you have questions. I also wanted to say Jennifer. She is the management staff on this has been supporting me as well as Andrew Thomas. So we've been working together as a team on this effort. We have Robert Del Rosario of AC Transit here in the audience. He is available to answer questions. He's the planning director. Thank you. Thank you. A staff, do we have any speakers on this? All right. I have. A question. Vice Mayor. A a question on the BP moneys that are funding this extension or this addition, are those Al Alameda City designated moneys? Okay. So district wide, what AC transit has is enough money for a 14% increase district wide. And so what what that provides in the city of Alameda is one additional bus line running at a 30 minute frequency. So it's not that funding wasn't specific for Alameda, but the proportion that the money provided in additions. This is our portion of that. Correct. And this will start, if I understand correctly, in the summer cycle when they make the route change. Early in the summer cycle. And then it could be. And that's why we have to meet now, make the decision now so that they can hit that window. Correct. And not defer it to the fall cycle. That's that's what we're trying to do. Thank you. Real quick. As my understanding, the vice mayor and member de SOG are council members that serve on this committee. So they were able to weigh in on this plan. Right. And so we do have an inter liaison committee between city council member representatives, as well as the transit board member. And we've had a October meeting and January meeting. We talked about this item. Yes. And Madam Mayor, just to fill you in, because I think you were on your way to Washington. I gave the report. Is that councilmember disorganized? And I were both at the liaison committee when AC Transit made the request to Alameda to make a decision on the three options and a staff had. Had arranged it so that the Transportation Commission could do their review and make a preference so that it could come to us before that deadline that AC Transit had of March, so that we could get in the summer cycle because they do route changes in the summer, in the fall. And if we missed that window, we would miss out on our 14% of Measure B money for like six months. So without it. When you're speaking says, is this something that this is what you wanted. This is what we. Would be asked. To take back to this this council to make this decision? Yes. So this was your because I know you go to these meetings. This is why I want to just confirm that this was the last one. Yes. All right. 19 council member days. Well, thank you. Right. Let's see. I just want to begin by saying a big thank you to AC Transit staff member who is here, Mr. Dela Rosa Rosario, as well as the board members, Mr. Chris Peoples and and and Mrs. Ortiz on the board on inter liaison on board with Alameda and AC Transit. And I also believe, I guess officially winter the water transit is there to or at least to attend the meetings. So we really appreciate them giving us this time to go over these three items. Back in, I believe, late fall staff presented this issue earlier, the recommendation of which was to go with the the bringing back the 19 line. At that time, I felt that I agreed with staff. And let me just make sure to say that tonight I still agree with staff. I recognize that residents would like to see the two lines that go towards the shuttle. But my understanding is at least one of the lines isn't a new line altogether. But it's it's it's an enhancing a line that that's already there. But it's just, you know, change, maybe modifying the route and giving it more frequency. But nonetheless, we wouldn't be taking away that line. But the challenge, though, is along the northern waterfront, there was a light line 19. And in my opinion, this is an area that is underserved when it comes to bus transit. In addition, as we all know, development is contemplated in that area and we will need to have reliable transit solutions. So on that note, two quick two related questions is one is. The 19 lines. Should it be re re done? Will it altogether relieve the developer of, say, the Del Monte Project or its now terminals or any other projects in that area? Relieve them of providing a physical shuttle, but instead have them contribute towards this new line. 19. A And the related question, follow up is B. I see that you're you're referencing a 20 minute headway, which is better than a 30 minute headway. But is there any calculations as to what it would take to get us to a 15 minute headway on 19? If the 19 is to be renewed. So thank you. Okay. So let me take the first question about the developers and that they have requirements, transportation demand management requirements, program requirements. Each development is a little bit different in the northern waterfront area, and yet they all have a transit requirement, so to provide some type of transit. And so the idea is that instead of providing their own shuttle peak period shuttle, that they would contribute to an AC transit and improve the AC transit route and to be in partnership. And we think that for the money that they're providing for the shuttles and it's just during their district wide peak period and that they we can get up to 20 minute frequency and and this they still would need to work with AC transit and now together with a memorandum of understanding with them to do that. But they we do have one letter of support from Tim Lewis and that says that we look forward to partnering with AC Transit to make this line a success. So we and they're the developer for the Del Monte Warehouse Project and it's an all terminals property. Let me just quickly say, while I would love to see a 15 minute headway, I'm not tonight going to suddenly, you know, demand that we have a 15 minute headway. But I just want to know that that that perhaps that's something to consider if there's a funding or when it comes to negotiating further with the developers. The final question is the maps that you had as the night. If the 19 is to be renewed, does it go up Webster Street after cutting through or does it go up constitution? So we're that's one request that we did provide to the is to AC transit is that line 19 we would want it to restore to go through marina village and so that we could try to capture more potential development monies and developer requirements there. And that's also where Calder of Alameda they have an annex and so to try to connect keep the connection between valley MI two annex and college of Alameda. That would be a goal as well. Thank you. We were cautioned. We were cautioned that we're not tweaking these plans. This is not a hearing to redesign the route. This is a hearing to pick one. Member Ashcraft. Thank you. And so I think you may have answered the question that councilmember did suggest that. I notice that on page eight of the staff report talks about an opportunity exists to pursue a partnership between AC transit, the city of Alameda in the northern waterfront PDA developments whereby the developments would provide operating funds for the line to increase frequency to 20 minutes. So that's what you're talking about, which I think is good. And also, when you talk about Marina Village, we all heard the exciting news recently that cost Plus is moving its headquarters from Oakland in about a year from now, I think, and bringing with it 400 jobs. And so, you know, presumably some of those folks will be will be riding the bus. I hope they'll decide to live in Alameda, too. Or maybe they already do. I you know, this is one of those items where you wish there were more money because all of the alternatives sounded good. However, I place huge stock in what our transportation commission, our council members on the liaison committee are recommending. I know that, you know, if there were more money, it would be nice to be able to serve some of these school routes, the ferry terminal, certainly. But I do recognize that the Northern Waterfront and Buena Vista are are not currently served by busses. And we do have new development already going in there. A long way to Vista. So I think that this can help alleviate some of that traffic. And I also want to just extend a thank you to AC Transit staff, Mr. Del Rosario and the two AC Transit Board members, as Ortiz and Mr. Peeples, who came to Alameda several times to meet with the different council members and answer all of their questions. So I am certainly prepared to support this this recommendation for the staff's choice and Transportation Commission's choice of the Restoring the Line 19. Thank you. Everybody. Thank you. Just a couple quick questions for you. So can we where can we clarify with this encompassing the existing estuary crossing shuttle service actually means to the estuary shuttle? I mean, is it going away then or. Right. So right now it's been in operation since 2011 11. Yeah. And it goes between Lake Merritt Bart and West Alameda and it turn it and Marina Village and it turns around at Wind River. Wind River does contribute 20,000 a year towards that shuttle. And the majority of that money, which is about 200,000 a year budget comes from grants. And it's it's always we're always cobbling together to try to fund that shuttle. And it's been a great way to close the gap in that area and to provide better service for bicyclists because there's ten we retrofitted the bus, so ten bikes can be on board at one time. And yet it's. It's not the best long term solution and that the air district is no longer looking to fund shuttles as much as they have in the past. And that's where a lot of our moneys have come from. So this line 19, the route would be very similar and on the west part and within we're hoping within Marina Village. So it would capture those riders that are currently using it and the Wind River monies would go into increasing the frequency of that restored line 19. So are they going to have a goal that the 20,000? Is that a commitment or is that a maybe or. For Wind River, you mean? So that's a special situation that happened a long time ago. That Wind River is required as part of their transportation demand management moneys to provide us about 20,000 a year to the city directly. So it is up really up to us how we want to use that money. Yet we want to work with Wind River. So we we want to sit down with them and see if they want to maybe be part of a of an upcoming transportation management association and maybe have their moneys go to that entity that would then fund fund to improve a. Improved peak service, AC Transit, peak service and restored line 19. So that's one option or it's or the city could provide those monies directly. So there's there's options moving forward with that money from winter. So I think I understood from my colleagues that questions that there would be contributions from the developer to help with this line too. So it doesn't hurt overall this line 19 restore cause less for AC transit because if you put wind river money in there if you put. Right so all these developer that's a that's a good point is they have enough money in transit to fund one additional bus line at 30 minute frequencies. If we have developer moneys that would improve that and we're thinking for peak periods, say up to 20 minutes is what we're hoping to achieve. So that's what the developer money is would do is to improve the frequency during peak periods. And one more question. This is more for AC transit, because one thing that concerns me about this alternative recommendation is that we're not servicing the ferry terminal. So, I mean, there's kind of a wishy washy, washy comment in the staff report that we asked them to continue to commit staff resources to plan across island connection to the main street ferry terminal to make what what is AC transit willing to commit on that today. Okay. Good evening, Robert De Rosario, Director of Service Development. So all these you translate has that we can't commit financially is to the additional one route for shall be can't commit to two other things but we're happy to explore funding. Options with city of. Alameda with we to look at different policies that we can encourage more revenue to be generated maybe from parking or some other revenue sources. So I mean, not to be harsh or anything. So then staff request that you commit staff resources on transit side to plan. I mean, is this basically. Sorry, we don't have the funding and we're not going to do that. I mean, the operating funds. Do not exist for easy transit to do. Although we love all three options, we do not have the revenue right now to do all all three. So we are asking the Council to select. One or even two to continue to plan this Cross Island connection. Oh, we're constantly in coordination with Alameda staff on planning efforts. So yes, we would. We are committed to actively, actively planning and refining plans to figure out a way that we can serve the free, but we don't have the operating dollars to actually provide the bus on the road. Okay. Thanks for clarifying. I mean, just add to that is that we are trying to come up with some funding options and one of which on us is how to generate money, additional moneys. And so we're we're looking and that's what we're brainstorming right now actively with them. And one could be charging for parking to try to generate that revenue. And and then we can brainstorm a little bit more about what else to do on that. Okay. But just that should be a priority of AC transit if we're going to adopt the restore of line 19. Everyday. So two quick points on the very interestingly on my office after the farmers market on Saturday, this past Saturday, I have the last Thursday of the month at Blue Danube Cafe on Park Street and also at the Saturday following Saturday. Interestingly, there were four separate occasions when persons approached me about the ferry and and for the most part, I guess for whatever reason, there's a really big concern about the ferry down by along the estuary about parking. So that seems to be a hot button issue. And in talking about busses, not everyone, but I think two of them mentioned that their experience with busses in the past is that sometimes the busses are on such a tight schedule. I mean, it is just the way it is. And sometimes it doesn't necessarily work for the or the persons there. So if there were to be busses that go to this to the ferry, that one of the things that needs to be considered is making sure that bus drivers kind of understand that ferry people don't just come on and go off. And so so but the second issue I'm. Sorry to interrupt, I need to make have this motion made before 1030 and that clock is actually wrong. 1031 So, so we need a motion to consider. We actually have these remaining items 60 for the environmental cleanup, 6fa conveyance, six g rent and then we have two referrals and we need four affirmative votes. We have a motion moved. So all those in favor of. How many of these are mandatory? Correct. And I appreciate that. How many of these do we need to have heard tonight? So we have existing. That could be. Moved. We have a guest on 66 F is. Virginia. We need to do that and we have to do rent stabilization. If you want to continue on the 16th and the referrals are probably the only thing that. What about the referrals. We can we could, we know. Use a. Referral. I. I, i. Okay. There we. All right. The second point that I want. To mention, Karis, thank you. You know, unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. The second point that I want to raise is that in mentioning the bus going up Webster Street, it wasn't because I, you know, want to see a redrawn route for the 19 if it's to be adopted. I was just wanting to mention that, you know, as many people know, one of the things I've been doing since August is kind of tracking how long it takes to go through the tube at various points in times and videotaping it. But one of the things that that works incredibly well is the bus lane. I mean, for example, you know, if you get to the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Webster Street and going towards the posi tube at 755, more than likely it's going to take you 10 minutes to go from there to to get to the highway onramp. 880. But as you're in the lot, the largest part of your wait is really not through the tube. It's really queuing up along Webster Street in the direction of the tube. So it does work when suddenly you see the bus go by. And and for those persons who are taking mass transit, I think it's appropriate that, you know, they're getting the this benefit. So that was the reason why I was mentioning Webster Street. That's a good point. Thank you. And I have a question. We received an email in regards to. Having the busses connect to BART or Ferry and will this route connect to any of those? Yes. So it will connect on both ends on the southern southern end or eastern ideal connected through our station, then in northern western. And it'll go into downtown Oakland. Connected to Wall Street by station. And actually I kind of misspoke because their question went went to why does the line have to go all the way across the island? Can there be other busses that are shorter taking you up Broadway, for instance, or down, down Webster as opposed to having to go across the island? Yeah, I saw the email as well. It's I mean, I think when you think about the the planning of of routes within Alameda, you're probably most efficient ways to go from east to west because you can capture so much of the neighborhoods and so many of the neighborhoods and then get and get the passengers off of the island or to other destinations. I think if we did it the North-South way, we'd probably have to have a bunch more routes and it'd be less efficient. Okay. So I appreciate that. And then in regards to connecting to the ferry, I thought there was discussion at some point just as trying to figure out as a city how to connect to Webster is something to connect to the ferry. And I do think it's important that we try to figure out a way to offer the bus service of the ferry, because that also connects to the shortage. We have not enough parking spaces. Um, so I appreciate that too. That being said, I also want to commend our council members who serve on this. I appreciate you representing representing our city there. And we have a motion. To move. That recommendation. All those in favor. I motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Next Item six. EA Presentation on Status Report of Environmental Conditions and Cleanup at Alameda Point. And I'm sorry, I get your paraphrase. That's all. Right. Good evening, Mayor. Councilmembers. I'm going to make a quick introduction. I know we're have a big agenda. This will make this quick. But because we're coming with the conveyance item, we usually every year also come to the council and to the community to give an update on the environmental program. And I'll make the point. So we're going to make it fast. And I guess the good news and you'll hear from our expert, the city's independent consultant, Peter Russell, that, you know, we are starting to we made the Navy's made a lot of progress and we're receiving a lot of land. And so there are the issues that are left to resolve are diminishing, which is good news. But the ones that are left are some of the harder ones, too. So Peter Russell is here to give you a quick update to answer questions. And then our next item is on the conveyance of phase two. So they are somewhat related as well. Thank you. Very much. Wonderful. Thank you. It evening mayor spencer city of alameda council members and it is peter russell. I'm an environmental consultant for the city. And I my job is to engage with the Navy and the regulators in the decision making for the environmental cleanup. Mm hmm. The the interest they have in working with me is that they want to know well in advance the ramifications of their decisions on cities ability to reuse the land. In addition, since I started working on this project in 1997, I've been there longer than any of the regulators and any of the Navy people that are working on it. So they usually give me a call when they don't know where to find something. And then finally I have the experience and the education to work on it. I have a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Berkeley, and I worked on other large bases in Tustin and Fisker, Ford and other large, obvious projects like Mission Bay in San Francisco and the rail yards in Sacramento. So I am going to breezed through this rather quickly without reading every word because of the late hour. If you want to slow me down or ask questions, I guess that's fine. But the outline of the presentation is to go over the background history of the base a little bit and then discuss the various but the two important environmental programs that are being used to clean the base up. The status of the clean up and the transfer and land use covenants to restrict the land where that's necessary, where