Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt a Resolution certifying Environmental Impact Report (EIR 01-17) making findings of fact; adopt a Statement of Overriding Considerations for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project (State Clearinghouse No. 2017011072); and, authorize City Manager, or designee, to adopt Final Plans and Specifications for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project.  (District 2)
Okay. Thank you. As our regular agenda goes, we take the hearing first. So we will take hearing out of number 1/1 and then we'll go right into concern, public comment and the regular agenda. So we have one hearing for tonight. Let's hear the first hearing. Report from Public Works recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and adopt a resolution certifying IIR 01-17 Making Findings of fact adopt a statement of overriding considerations for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project and authorize the City Manager to adopt final plans and specifications for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project District two. Mr. WEST. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff report will be given by Eric Wood Strahan, our traffic engineer. Good evening, Mayor, vice mayor and council members. I'm here requesting that you adopt a resolution certifying the Environmental Impact Report and adopt a statement of overriding consideration for the Alamitos Avenue Complete Streets Improvement Project. This project will reduce the cross section of Alamitos from two lanes each direction to one, traveling in each direction with a two way left turn lane and protected bike lanes from Ocean Boulevard to Seventh Street. It will continue the Rhode Island saw last year from Seventh Street to Pacific Coast Highway. This proposed cross section will improve safety for all users in the corridor. The no recross section will calm auto traffic, reduce the crossing distance for pedestrians crossing Alamitos Avenue, and provide a safer bicycle facility for bicyclists traveling along Alamitos Avenue from 2012 through 2016, there are 29 collisions involving people on bicycles and people walking on this segment of Alamitos. There are also a total of 205 collisions. During that same time period, the project will add 23 parking stalls during the peak hours by removing the existing peak hour parking restrictions at a time of day when residents have a high demand for on street parking and will remove five all day parking stalls. The road died on Alamitos Avenue from seventh Street. North Pacific Coast Highway has worked well from a traffic safety and operations perspective and has resulted in fewer traffic collisions, with the collision rate dropping nearly 50% since its implementation, bicycle ridership has also increased after the roadway was installed. This project is consistent with the Bicycle Master Plan update unanimously approved by council in February as the Orange Artesia Corridor is a key North-South connector connecting Central and North Long Beach communities to downtown. And the beach is also consistent with the Vision Zero principles unanimously adopted by Council in May 2016 by improving multi-modal safety. This concludes my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Kate Thank you. And we, as per the hearing, we open up for public comment on the hearing. KFC. No public comment. Council member, please. Hello. My name is Raymond San Miguel. I reside on Ocean Boulevard. I haven't been involved in a lot of this city council and street alterations, but I did grow up here, went to Naples Elementary, Rogers Middle School, graduated from Wilson, went to Cal State, Long Beach. But it seems that we're we're just creating so much congestion with all of these bicycle lanes. I understand that we're trying to make it safe for bicyclists. But what we did on Vista with all these the bicycle boulevard and the turn about, you know, I have a friend that lives there and we worked on his yard for 8 hours and I didn't see one person ride a bike down that street. And now we set up, what, over $4 million on Sixth Street has a bike boulevard. We have streets that need repair. We have gutters and sidewalks and and roadways that need repair. And we're I just feel we're just throwing away money on these. I know we want to be a bike friendly city, but it just doesn't make sense. The congestion the traffic congestion that we're creating is just out of control. We took away two lanes from Temple to Alamitos and made this huge median, but didn't take into account that if we would have taken two feet from each side of that median and gave the cars that parked on that street a little buffer to open up their door and not get hit by passing cars. I don't understand why we have that. And then reading in this thing that I saw last night, we're going to continue that from Alamitos down Broadway, from Alameda down to Temple. I mean, we if we're going to do that, I understand that we need to move traffic. We have to synchronize the lights. So traffic continues to move. While I was younger back in the seventies and eighties and nineties, if you caught a green light from cherry going towards the 710 Freeway and you stay between 25 and 30 miles an hour, you got a green light all the way to the freeway. You don't have that on these streets anymore, you know, and we have the technology to synchronize these lights. So traffic moves through. You've added all these signaling lights on Ocean Boulevard right there at Bluff Park, where I live. And and there's so much congestion or in the rush hours that synchronize the lights. So we move traffic along and don't create all this congestion. Those are my thoughts on this. I think we should, you know, take a pause, consider this and really make it safe and move traffic along and and ease up on the congestion that we're just creating around the city. Thank you very much. See no other public comment on the hearing. I will turn this back. I will close the hearing by turning it over to the council and Councilmember Pearce. Great. Thank you so much. I really want to applaud staff for finishing this project. I know that this is something that we've talked about in the bike mobility plan. We've been doing this works for, let's say, October 2013. We talked about the mobility element and the general plan. And looking at this corridor and being able to say one is that we have traffic incidents and I believe the number was 67 serious injuries that require some type of medical attention just in between seventh and ocean, just in that small area and that we need to be able to do something to address and getting to Vision Zero. And so I applaud you for being able to think creatively about this stretch of street and being able to do bikes and also add 23 parking spaces, which is not easy to just make up parking spaces out of thin air. And so I know that there's been some concerns around traffic flow. And I took Alamitos yesterday from PCH all the way down and the lights were synchronized. I drove a steady 30 miles an hour and everything was smooth. So I am excited about this. I believe that when we look at the the transition between downtown and our neighborhoods, we need to be able to have a safe space where people feel like, if I live in Alamitos Beach, I can walk to downtown, I can take my bike to downtown, and that there is a vision for that. I think doing this is going to get a lot more people out of their cars as well and hopefully getting to places like Mola, which I appreciate you guys for being here tonight. And so to address any of those concerns, I think that you guys have done a fantastic job. And I also want to applaud you for working with the new developments that are coming online to find creative ways to fund not only the plan that's in front of us, but new traffic signals, street lights and things that we'll talk about down the road. So I'm just thankful for continuing this project down past seventh. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Yes. Thank you as well, Eric, for your hard work and public works. I know that change in this respect is never very easy and easy to think about, but I know this is all in good a good vision for the next few years. And in addition to what Councilmember Pearce said, I know gun buyer park, that area was a horrible area, worst traffic situation in the city and that really lessen the issues, as you've mentioned, as well as this beautiful intersection that is in between two amazing museums, both more LA and Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum. I think there is room for bikes to travel through there that could, you know, flow easily with with cars. But I do have a few questions. I know it has been in the report. It mentioned AMPM peak hours. What do we do? We see any major significant change in those peak hours. With this plan. We will see increase. Thank you for that question, Councilmember. You will see increased travel times of up to 77 seconds in the AM peak hour and up to 70 seconds in the peak hour. So that's common when you convert a road to a road that narrow the streets. But we do feel that we will be able to mitigate some of that increased travel time by retiring the traffic signals. When a study of this nature is done. Traffic engineers are generally pretty conservative. If we look at, you know, try and take into account every conceivable development that's coming. Look at potential growth in traffic. And then also look at how the intersections are working together. But as we put this type of plan into operation, we would look at taking a fine grained look at how those traffic signals are operating adjacent to each other and retain the corridors. We have the opportunity as pedestrians are making, have a shorter distance across. Now we would take signal time, take time away from that that crossing and put more of that time into green time on the corridor. Okay, great. And then I know in that area, I know Councilmember Pearce and I as well are also talking in and length about, you know, new development coming to the area and a lot of new changes happening. Parking is golden everywhere. But, you know, in that area, we hear it quite a bit. And so I know that there's going to be a overall decrease of five spaces, but an overall increase of 23 spaces. Is that. Correct? That's correct. It's a5a loss of five spaces over the entire day, but an increase of 23 during the AM peak hours. Okay, perfect. That is great. 23 spaces. Wonderful. And then last question. I know it was addressed semi addressed in the in the memo one which unified school district. I know a lot of the parents addressed concerns with pick up drop off traffic congestion. And I don't know that we necessarily can do anything about that in general. But, you know, there's that discussion. So do you have an answer to that or how can we I don't know if this helps that in any way. I think I just say that, you know, all of our schools experience congestion around, pick up, drop off time. And I think the more we can encourage parents to, the more we can provide safe facilities for kids to get to school by some other means than being driven. I think that's a better improvement. And I think that improving of providing a calmer corridor for parents and other motorists to travel on will be a benefit to to kids walking to and from school and for parents driving to and from school. Okay, great. And we will have signage and all of the appropriate. Okay, wonderful. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. I yes, just on the question around Franklin, I know that we are making some changes to some crosswalks around the area as well. So I just want to clarify that we are doing some of that work. I don't know if you can report on that. Not specifically on Franklin, but as we will be making improvements. Yes. Great. Thank you. That's what I'm gonna go. To Taylor on to Councilwoman Gonzales this point. A lot of the schools have better pick up and drop off than others. And I feel that a lot of the parent groups have really stepped up. I know that the principals rotate often, but the parents are there for the long term. They've done some drop off programs where the dads and certain sons open all the doors for everyone in the morning. They pull in cars in a more quick way. The schools in my district that have those have been significantly better. I appreciate that we want people to bike. I just don't know that we're at a place where biking is actually a commutable option. And so in my experience and what I've discussed with my residents, we are not in favor of removing a lane, but we are in favor of getting to a safer community. And so there have to be ways that we can do that without removing lanes. I recognize you've done an extensive amount of work on this, but I'm going to just make sure to stick with my community on this. Thank you. Okay. Please cast your vote to members. Motion carries. Kate Moss. In case with that, we move on to the hearing is over and we're moving on to the consent. Minus item number 12, please. Can I get a motion in a second? I'm going to motion in a second and all minus item 12.