Hello Ross, This item is now on the city council agenda this Tuesday, 11/14/17 at 7 pm. Thank you to Menlo Park Staff for coming to work on your day off to get an amended agenda out. I really appreciate it. Best regards, Kirsten Keith, Mayor On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 4:40 PM Ross Wilson > 10 November 2017 > Upper Woodland Avenue > > Dear City Council, > As you know, the Willows traffic situation is becoming unbearable. Please > do something immediately to reduce the *volume and speed* of cut-through > traffic in our neighborhood *as a whole*. Sound levels are very high, > safety is impaired, and quality of life and property values are degraded. > In the attached document is a photo of traffic on Woodland and Middlefield > taken at ~9 AM on 3 November. Similar congestion often exists on other days. > > Speed bumps are NOT the answer, nor are the platitudes of ‘increased > enforcement’. What is urgently required is to make transit through the > Willows more time-costly than use of the main arterials, and to block the > high volume of trucks short-cutting through the area. I’ve on two occasions > seen large 10? vehicle commercial transporters using Woodland Avenue. > > Please … don’t beg off the problems with statements like ‘when the 101 > intersection is finished, things will be better’. Development in the works > on El Camino and at Stanford and Facebook will greatly increase traffic, > countering any temporary lessening occurring at intersection completion. > > You also need to attend to the dangerous intersection at Woodland / > Middlefield. Besides often being blocked by cars, automobiles round the > low-sight-lined-corner from Palo Alto at high speed and are a hazard. On > several occasions, we have nearly been hit. > > The underlying cause of the traffic woes is Council’s (and neighboring > cities’) approval of massive building projects grossly incompatible with > existing roadway capacity; and the gridded street layout of Menlo Park’s > older neighborhoods. Why has not this council / city manager been > forthright with residents about the traffic consequences of out-scale > development so that elective decisions can be made? > > Clearly, some traffic figures are buried in EIRs, but these > developer-sponsored documents never convey the full impact of their > projects (or else they are approved with ‘mitigating circumstances’). > Between work and family obligations, who has time to wade through them? > What is needed is a simplified accounting to all residents, of the > consequences of any major development project, perhaps through > easily-digestible mailers. > > I realize that Council does not bear sole responsibility for these > problems: the City management is equally culpable; and in my opinion > performance reviews and tenure should reflect the mess this team has > visited upon our residents. > > Besides being pro-active and not shifting the burden of mitigation onto > residents, you also need to show your commitment to residential quality of > life by reforming the NTMP structure: how can you in good faith claim to be > concerned about traffic problems and retain the No-Returned-Ballot == > No-traffic-mitigation rule in NTMP surveys? > In its current form, NTMP potentially sets street against street, > effectively paralyzing mitigation. Of course, that was its goal. > Have you even considered or planned in advance for traffic impact of the > likely ‘redevelopment’ of the apartments on the eastern side of the > Willows, and factored this into your future plans ? > > Sincerely > Ross Wilson > -- Best regards, Kirsten Keith, Mayor of Menlo Park Received on Fri Nov 10 2017 - 19:08:55 PST
