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Home My WebLink About05-08-2002 - Minutes TC cir�r oF oRArv�E - CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION - Minutes of a Regular Meeting: Mav 8, 2002 I. OPENING A. Flag Pledge B. Roll Cali: Present— Commissioners: D. Yarger, J. Fortier, F. Sciarra, F. Petronella, M. Burkhardt Present— Staff: R. Hohnbaum, C. Glass, Sgt. J. Burton, D. Allenbach, W.Winthers, P. Then C. Approva! of Minutes: ♦ April 17, 2002—Approve as published by the Recording Secretary. MOTION: F. Sciarra SECOND: M. Burkhardt AYES: Unanimous II. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Request for the installation of additional red curb markings easterly of the driveway servicing the Fletcher Avenue Condos. Yvonne Avila Gold Coast Enterprises 1518 W. Taft Ave. Orange CA 92865 Oral presentation is based on the written staff report; p/ease refer to your copy. Chairman Yarger opened the pub/ic hearing for the following discussion. Amanda Jones, Manaqer of Fletcher-Wood Townhomes (a� 725 W Fletcher Ave #105, Oranqe — Opposed to request. There is such limited parking on that street. As there is no parking on Batavia St. all the employees of the woodworking business park on Fletcher from 7 am —4 pm and if you take away one more parking space it really has an impact. Chairman Yarqer—A legal parking space is 22 ft. and this area is 14 ft. if Police issue a citation to someone parking in this "illegal" space an argument could be made for entrapment; and� also the need for improved sight distance for people exiting the driveway. �•�,,, Tape#CTC-22.04 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. ,.� Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)7445536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated. Ios- �Printed on Recvcled Paver §'�<� " �.". �,�>. �`;::.:��>:��::�, �: `��=~ �..�::�� :;;?;;�..:::-.::.... .w>�:::__.,...y.�_.._ ��•��::��?�:��r�� Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Tra�c Commission—May 8,2002 Pg. 2 Chairman Yarger closed the public hearing and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. ACTION: Approve the installation of additional red curb markings easterly of the subject driveway. MOTION: D. Yarger SECOND: J. Fortier AYES: ` Unanimous B. Request for the installation of red curb markings at the intersection of Shattuck PI. and Palm Ave. Arlene Minor 384 N. Shattuck I'I. Orange CA 92866 Oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy. Chairman Yarger opened the public hearing for the following discussion: Richard Meadows —444 N. Shattuck PI. - In favor of request. Our concern is the safety entering Palm from Shattuck. If there are cars parked in front of that STOP sign oncoming traffic is not visible. We think this is a safety hazard not being able to see the STOP sign. Arlene Minor - 384 N. Shattuck PI. — In favor of request. Our big problem is that people are parking on both sides of the street up close to the STOP sign. I spoke to a police officer and he told me people may park right up against the sign. You cannot see around a whole bunch of trucks and particularly motor homes. I've almost been hit a couple of times trying to make a right turn onto Palm because I couldn't see the oncoming traffic with these vehicles parked here. Ross Kline—306 N. Shattuck PI. —Opposed to request. I feel I am being singled out. In the last couple of months there has been a lot of construction on our street; 2 neighbors put in pools requiring heavy equipment so there has been a parking problem. I used to own a motor home and I parked it in front of my home because I had it up for sale, it's gone now,and that problem has been solved. 1 have a trailer in my back yard behind a gated fence with a block wall. There is a speeding problem with westbound traffic on Palm, I was hit once taking my baby out of the car. I agree with the situation that has been described by my neighbors but I think the problem has been alleviated because my motor home is gone, and there are no other vehicles obstructing views. I own one truck, and one car, only. I can park in my driveway now because I have widened it. The driveway at my home is only 10 ft. long and my vehicles hung out over the sidewalk, so I widened it so I can park my cars at a 45 degree angle and keep the sidewalk clear. I have one neighbor in a wheelchair, and she doesn't have any problem getting by. There is no parking available on Shattuck any r�ore. Across the street on Palm there is a half- way house and on Sunday's when they have meetings they fill the whole street with cars, leaving the rest of the neighborhood without street parking. �,..��, Tape#CTC-22.04 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. ;.� Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated. , � �Printed on Recvcled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Traffic Commission—May 8,2002 Pg. 3 If the curbs are painted red it will downgrade my house, I've improved it so much from when I moved in. My next door neighbor parks his motor home on the street or in his driveway, he also has a high-profile 4-wheel drive truck so my point is that if between the 3 neighbors understand that nobody should be parking that close to the STOP sign in a high-profile vehicle and there are only 3 homes affected. Commissioner Burkhardt—You enlarged your driveway to compensate for your truck so its no longer on the street, and your motor home has been sold? What direction does your front door face? Ross Kline — Yes, I have sold the motor home. My door faces the corner of Palm and Shattuck on an angle. Chairman Yarger closed the public hearing to the audience and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. Chairman Yarger — Don't we have an ordinance or directive outlining that if we have sight distance problem that we install the red curb for motorist safety? Dave Allenbach, Transportation Analvst —The policy of installing red curb in advance of STOP signs is an unwritten policy of the Traffic Engineering Division for the last 15 years. The basis is to keep that 30 ft. of area clear in advance of the STOP sign so a high profile vehicle does not obscure that sign or the legend so motorists can see there is a STOP sign and act accordingly. Whether you and your neighbors have an agreement not to park in front of the sign, sooner or later someone else will, because it will be the only available spot. Therefore we are recommending that 30 ft. of curb be painted red. Vice-Chairman Fortier— I've heard from several people that it's not just the motor home but when you are approaching Palm Ave. you have a sight problem. Even though its an unwritten policy generally, when we re-stripe areas we put in the red curb, especially if there is a sight distance problem. I think the existing conditions represent a safety hazard. Commissioner Burkhardt— Did staff know the property owner spent money making these improvements in order to be able to park in his driveway? Vice-Chairman Fortier — What does that have to do with a sight distance problem? ! admire that Mr. Kline made these improvements but it absolutely has nothing to do with the existing sight distance problem. Commissioner Burkhardt — He made these improvements to his property to enhance safety by parking his vehicles in his driveway. You're right, you don't want cars parking at the corners, but as I see it that is an enforcement issue. Vice-Chairman Fortier — Without red curb it's not an enforcement issue, they can park there. ,��,,. Tape#CTG22.04 of this City Traffic Cominission meeting is available for your review. `� Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance norice is appreciated. �Printed on Recvcled Paver Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Tra�c Commission—May 8,2002 pg.4 Roqer Hohnbaum. Asst: City EnQineer— No we are not aware of the expense Mr. Kfine has invested in his property. As stated earlier, now that Mr. Kline is no longer parking on the street and is using his driveway, someone else can park on the street in fronfi of the STOP sign. Mr. Kline also stated earlier that parking may be at a premium at times because of some of the uses up and down the street, so if we don't protect this area with red curb someone else may park there, and they may park a vehicle that obscures the sign. We're not singling out any individual we are singling ouf a location, and this location needs to be protected for the benefit of all people using the street so they can see the sign when they come to the intersection. Commissioner Burkhardt—This is public parking isn't it; you don't own it just because it's in front of your house? Roqer Hohnbaum, Asst. City En iq neer—Technicall� no, you do not own the curb or any part of the street. ACTION: Approve the installation of red curb at the subject intersection per - site sketch. MOTION: J. Fortier SECOND: F. Petrone{la AYE�: Unanimous �� End of Consent Calendar �� „ Tape#CTG22.04 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. `� Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance norice is appreciated. �Printed on Recvcled Paner Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Traffic Commission—May 8,2002 pg.5 111. CONSIDERATION ITEMS 1. Request for the instaltation of an "All-Way" STOP control device at the intersection of Holly St. and Maple Ave. Julia Ariza PO Box 10992 Santa Ana CA 92711 Oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy. Chairman Yarger opened the item for discussion. Debbie Schneider—250 N. Hollv St. — In favor of request. Speed and illegal U turns are � factors that need to be considered. My daughter and 2 other residents of the neighborhood are handicapped. Before I came to this meeting I called the Police �ept. to get my fact straight, it is not illegal to park in front of the access ramps. Parking Control officers have issued warnings to motorists but they have not issued any citations in this area. Because there are no STOP signs in front of the handicapped access ramps cars often park there and the bus has to stop out in the street, then I have to get my daughter down off the curb and push her around this parked car to where the bus is waiting. It's worse when the reverse occurs and I try to get her up over the curb and onto the sidewalk. I would like to see red curb painted at the access ramps. We are adjacent to both an middle and elementary school, we carry a considerable amount of traffic often speeds are in excess of 35-45 MPH on Maple. Vice-Chairman Fortier — Would the proposed red curb alleviate your problem? Where do you live in relationship to the corners? Debbie Schneider— If it's on the ramps yes. I live 2 buildings backe Dave Allenbach. Transportation Analvst — If you approve the installation of the `2-Way' STOP, because we would have a control point at this location, we could paint crosswalks across Holly on both sides of Maple. This gives another 10 ft. buffer adjacent to the access ramps. Technically, because we have sidewalks on both sides of the street and typically we do not paint curb returns red in a residential area because you are technically parked within a crosswalk, which is illegal whether it is a painted crosswalk, or not there is one implied. We don't like to paint crosswafks unless there is some positive type of control. Debbie:Schneider — I think the STOP sign needs to be turned around to stop traffic on Maple Ave. instead. There is a pretty long stretch of roadway before the next STOP sign and people get going pretty fast through there. Vice-Chairman Fortier — STOP signs do not control speed. So when you say put the sign here because cars are speeding has no merit because we don't use the signs that way. Speed contro! is an enforcerr�ent issue. �.,, Tape#CTG22.04 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. ��' Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)7445536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated. �Printed on Recvcled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Traffic Commission—May 8,2002 pg,g Roger Hohnbaum—The STOP sign has been found to be unwarranted on Maple, it does meet the warrants for Holly St. If we were to place an unwarranted sign on Maple Ave. most likely what we wou{d get is non-conformance to some degree. If you are pulling out on Holly and you think someone on Maple is going to stop, they may not. This sets up the potential for an accident situation and for this reason we are not recommending a "4-Way" STOP. We don't want to set up the potential for someone blowing a STOP sign and running into a car that believes it has the right-of-way, that's also why we don't use them for speed control. Liliana Carbaial —247 N. Holly St. — In favor of a STOP sign. There are a lot of chi(dren in this neighborhood and they skateboard and ride their bikes and I'm concerned about the traffic. I think a crosswalk would help because 1've seen a few kids alrr�ost get hit trying to cross the street. There is a speed problem. When we're pulling out of Holly onto Maple it's really hard to see oncoming vehicles because of the way cars are parked you really have to pull out into traffic. Kristine Haqa —236 N. Holly St. — I am in favor of the `2-Way' STOP sign with the crosswalk and painting the curbs red will help improve visibility of oncoming traffic. There have been 3 accidents involving tenants pulling out of the driveway onto Maple so I think these things will help. Chairman Yarger closed the pub/ic hearing and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. Commissioner Burkhardt — I like the crosswalk idea, I think it will improve safety here. This is a high density residential neighborhood with lots of cars so I believe the STOP signs, the crosswalks and the red curb will definitely improve safety here and should be implemented. Chairman Yarger closed the public hearing and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. ACTION: Deny the installation of an "All-Way" STOP control device at the intersection of Holly St. and Maple Ave. MOTION: F. Petronella SECOND: F. Sciarra AYES: Unanimous � ACTI�N: Approve the installation of a "2-Way" STOP control device for north and southbound Holly St. at Maple Ave. with the appropriate vision zones a painted crosswalk, and to install red curb at the wheelchair access ramps. Approve the installation of the "WATCH OUR CHILDREN" signs on Maple Ave. MOTION: F. PetronelEa SEC�ND: F. Sciarra AYES: Unanimous ,,.�.�„ ' Tape#CTC-22.04 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for pour review. ,,. `� Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated. ��,�.! �l+Printed on Recvcled PaUer Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Traffic Commission—May 8, 2002 pg.7 2. Request for the instailation of speed humps on: Pampas St. between Lincoln Ave. and Brookshire Ave. Brentwood Ave. between Pampas St. and Glassell St. Stacy Germain 2723 N. Pampas St. Orange CA 92866 Orat presentation is based on the written staff reporf; please refer to your copy. Chairman Yarger opened the item for discussion. Dick LonQ — 127 W. Brenfinrood Ave. — Not opposed to speed humps, I doubt they will do any good but you can give them a try. I have another suggestion. I walk a lot and in the morning I see a lot of cars coming off Lincoln Ave. down Brenfinrood and over to Glassell; and I mean there is a lot of them. The majority of residents leaving this tract exit via Pampas north to Lincoln Ave. but most of the southbound traffic were coming from Lincoln to begin with. I believe you should install turn diverters where you can only make a right turn onto Lincoln from Pampas and you cannot make a left turn from Lincoln into Pampas. Dave Allenbach, Transportation Analvst—As this point the only thing we can address is the speed humps because that is what was on the petition. However, either street would not meet the minimum criteria to install turn diverters in the RNTMP, as it is based on traffic volume. Both Pampas and Brentwood had about the same number of vehicles a day, about 900, The minimum volume for diversion strategy is 2,500 vehicles a day. Chairman Yarqer — I spent some time in this neighborhood earlier today and I'm guessing that your traffic occurs in the morning and late afternoon peak hours because there was absoluteiy no traffic to speak of while I was there. I did see one car come off Lincoln, and i followed him to see where he was going, and he turned into one of the driveways; so this leads me to believe that it's primarily neighborhood traffic going through there. Jim Weatherford —233 Brentwood Ave. — In favor of speed humps. There is not a lot of traffic out here during the day but in the evenings it is a whole different story. What is the next step after the trial phase has concluded? Dave Ailenbach —At the end of the 3-month period we will again notify all the residents listed on the petition, in addition any of the other neighbors on the adjoining streets who were not a part of the petition would be notified. We will present some follow-up data to see if the humps are working for you. At that point if the majority of the residents are in favor of keeping the humps then we will remove the temporary rubberized speed humps and install perr°nanent asphalt speed humps. If they are not working and you don't want them we just pull them up and they go away. Laurine WhitFill — 214 W. Brentwood Ave. — In favor of speed humps. The traffic here is horrific. It's my understanding that the speed limit in a residential neighborhood. ,,«„ � Tape#CTC-22.04 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. �� Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)7445536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated. ��.�,! �1�'Printed on Recvcled Paber Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Traffic Commission—May 8,2002 pg g Chairman Yarger closed the public hearing and returned the item to the Commission for further discussion and a motion. ACTION: Approve the installation of speed humps for the 3-month trial phase outlined in the Residential Neighborhood Traffic Management Program. MOTION: F. Sciarra SECOND: F. Petronella AYES: Unanimous �� End ofConsideration Calendar �� IV.ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS Informational report on modifications to the protected left-turn lanes on Chapman Ave. at Prospect St. Dave Allenbach, Transportation Analyst Traffic Engineering Division We wished to advise you of something we're going to be doing at the intersection of Prospect St. and Chapman Ave. in the coming weeks. With the closure of Spring St. as a result of the construction of Grijalva Park right now we have had a significant increase in left-turn demand for eastbound Chapman onto northbound Prospect. In the evening peak hour we're not cfearing the left-turn pocket, traffic is queuing out into the number one lane -and it's overall hurting the efficiency of the intersection. We are proposing, and the left-turn volume during the peak hour is in excess of 650 vehicles (4:30-5:30 pm), and that is triple the minimum warrants for the volume to put in a double left- turn pocket. What we are going to do is implement a double left-turn pocket on eastbound Chapman Ave. onto northbound Prospect St. We wilf readjust some loops, narrowing the curbside lanes to accommodate this. Westbound left-turn will remain a single left-turn pocket but we will feather it. Basically the way the striping is configured at the intersection of Tus�in and Collins is what the intersection of Prospect and Chapman is going to look like. The turn pocket will be 200 ft. long but since it's a double left-turn it gives us storage capacity for 400 ft. This allows us to maintain a manageabLe green phase for the protected left-turn. The cost of this modification, including the sandblasting, is about$10,000.00. If you should receive any calls in the next few weeks complaining about the Level 4f Service of this intersection, we are addressing it and this should be in place within the next 2 months. ��... Tape#CTG22.04 of this City Traffic Cominission meeting is available for your review. ��` Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance norice is appreciated. � �Printed on Recvcled Paper Minutes of a Regular Meeting—City Traffic Commission—May 8,20�2 pg,g V. ORAL PRESENTATIONS None this month. \/1. ADJOURNMENT After discussion of today's Agenda items of the City Traffic Commission was concluded, and as there were no further requests for action under Oral Presentations, the Chairman adjourned this session of the City Traffic Commission. The next regular m�eting of the City Traffic Commission is scheduled for Wednesday — June 12, 2002. Respectfully submitted, ClTY OF ORANGE Phyllis Then Recording Secretary Traffic Engineering Division CITY OF ORANGE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS TRAFFIC ENGINEERING DIVISION 300 E. CHAPMAN AVE. ORANGE CA 92866 PH: (714)744-5536 FAx: (714)744-5573 �May-Minutes[C:1MyDoclThenpj � .,s�„ Tape#CTC-22.04 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review. ��' Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance norice is appreciated. �I,�f.! �1�'Pxinted on Recvcled Paper