San Bruno Council Item - Red Curbs - Blue Curbs

Article Source: City of San Bruno CA

DATE: August 22, 2017

TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council

FROM: Jimmy Tan, Public Works Director/City Engineer

SUBJECT: Adopt Resolution Approving the Installation of Blue Curb Striping in Front of 1600 Santa Lucia Avenue, Red Curb Striping at the Intersection of San Mateo Avenue / Kains Avenue, Red Curb Striping on Linden Avenue near the City Hall Fire Station, Red Curb Striping on Linden Avenue near the City Hall Parking Lot, and Red Curb Striping on Shelter Creek Lane near SFPUC Electrical Equipment Cabinet

BACKGROUND:

Pursuant to San Bruno Municipal Code 7.08.040, the Traffic Safety and Parking Committee (TSPC) is tasked with reviewing and recommending to the City Council areas in which parking is prohibited or restricted on streets within the public right of way. The recommendations of the TSPC on curb striping are based on evaluation conducted by the Public Works Department staff or consultants. The evaluations take into consideration whether the designation of restricted parking zones would improve public safety and the impact of parking reduction in the neighborhood.

Property owners affected by restricted parking zones requests within their neighborhood are notified by mailers and encouraged to attend the TSPC meeting to provide feedback to the committee members. Staff then presents the information along with the recommendations to the committee and the committee provides their input and recommendations to take back to City Council.

The following requests for restricted parking zones have been preented to and recommended for approval by the TSPC.

DISCUSSION:

Blue Curb Striping in front of 1600 Santa Lucia Avenue

St. Andrews Episcopal Church, located at 1600 Santa Lucia Avenue, has requested that the City extend the existing on-street blue zone in front of their building by one vehicle length (see Attachment 2). The church serves not only Sunday service patrons but also an additional afternoon Sunday church group, three Alcoholics Anonymous groups and a preschool that operates Monday through Friday. This extended blue zone would allow the church to better serve their patrons as some of their patrons have impaired mobility. The church is bordered by residential properties consisting of detached single-family homes with 2-car garages and 2-car driveways of sufficient length to accommodate standard vehicles.

The Traffic Safety and Parking Committee (TSPC) considered the request and determined that there was no on-site ability to provide handicapped parking to the church entrance and that there were no concerns over parking loss as the neighborhood has ample on-street parking (See Attachment 3). There were no concerns from the public regarding the conversion of one unrestricted parking space to an accessible parking space. The TSPC is recommending the installation of one additional blue zone parking space along the church frontage.

Red Curb Stripinq at the intersection of San Mateo Avenue and Kains Avenue

The San Bruno Police Department has identified concerns related to the roadway configuration of northbound San Mateo Avenue immediately south of Kains Avenue being unable to accommodate northbound traffic in conjunction with curbside parking. The current configuration is a result of the San Bruno Grade Separation Project that reconfigured the intersection from two separate three-way intersections (see Attachment 4) to a single four-way intersection with a left turn pocket for southbound San Mateo Avenue (see Attachment 5). With the inclusion of this turn pocket, a centerline median was painted on the south leg of the intersection in order to align northbound San Mateo Avenue traffic across the intersection. This centerline median also has the effect of tapering the northbound travel lane from 18 feet in width at the start of the median down to 15 feet at the intersection with Kains Avenue. The Police Department requested that the TSPC review installation of red curb south of Kains Avenue to the start of the centerline median. The requested red curb would prevent vehicles from driving on the centerline median as they approach the intersection to avoid parked vehicles.

The TSPC considered the impact of parking loss on this neighborhood based on staffs evaluation that the requested red curb would result in the loss of approximately three parking spaces. While there were no concerns from the public regarding the installation of red curb striping at the intersection of San Mateo Avenue I Kains Avenue, the committee was concerned that parking removal in a commercial district could make it more difficult for nearby businesses to receive customers. The recommendation from the TSPC was to install 20 feet of red curb striping on northbound San Mateo Avenue immediately south of Kains Avenue and for staff to evaluate whether it would be feasible to convert the remaining two parking spaces to allow for diagonal motorcycle parking while still maintaining sufficient width for a travel lane. Motorcycle parking was evaluated for 45 degree parking with a stall length of 7 feet to accommodate a typical motorcycle. Installation of these stalls would require a roadway width of approximately 8 feet due to unusable diagonal space in the front of a parked vehicle inherent to angled parking. Based on this evaluation, diagonal motorcycle parking requires the same amount of roadway width as parallel parking by cars. As diagonal motorcycle parking is infeasible without encroaching into the travel lane, staff is recommending the installation of 60 feet of red curb on northbound San Mateo Avenue immediately south of Kains Avenue to provide sufficient travel lane width.

Red Curb Stripinci on Linden Avenue near the City Hall Fire Station

The San Bruno Fire Department has expressed concerns related to emergency vehicle access to Fire Station 51 from Linden Avenue. To enter the fire station, emergency vehicles heading south on Linden Avenue drive along the curbside in order to make a sweeping left turn movement due to the large turning radius of the emergency vehicles. Currently, a portion of the curb segment near the fire station driveway is unmarked and vehicles are often parked and blocking the necessary driving path taken by fire department personnel (see Attachment 6). This causes the emergency vehicle to swerve to the right once past the obstruction and then immediately left into the fire station. These movements in conjunction with an uneven pavement surface caused by a steep roadway crown creates a large amount of torsional stress on fire department vehicles and places increased wear and maintenance service requests for those vehicles (see Attachment 7).

The installation of red curb as requested by the Fire Department would result in the loss of• one parking space. Parking along Linden Avenue in the vicinity of the fire station is time-limited to one hour during weekdays between the hours of 8 AM to 5 PM. Due to the location of the requested red zone and the time-limited parking restriction, the installation of a red curb at this location would not impact nearby residents. No property owners within the vicinity of the requested red zone attended the TSPC meeting. The TSPC is recommending the installation of red curb striping near the fire station driveway entrance to facilitate emergency vehicle ingress.

Red Curb Striping on Linden Avenue near the City Hall Parking Lot

City staff has requested the installation of red curb on Linden Avenue near the City Hall parking lot due to concerns related to parked vehicles prohibiting PG&E from accessing a vault housing high voltage equipment. This vault, located on the sidewalk immediately north of the parking lot's southern driveway, is a vital component of City services as it is responsible for providing power to San Bruno City Hall. The City's communication network is housed in City Hall and any power disruption to this location results in interruption to the communication network for all City services including the communication network utilized by emergency services.

In the month of May during the midnight hours, the Police Department noticed that they were unable to receive incoming or place outgoing calls as their phone lines were down. The City's Information Technology Manager was immediately dispatched to perform troubleshooting of the communication network. The City's network provider was contacted and it was determined that San Bruno was offline due to a power outage. During power outages a backup generator located within City Hall would normally immediately detect the power drop and automatically turn on to provide contingency power. In this instance the backup generator failed to turn on and the network was left without power.

PG&E was contacted and determined that the transformer providing power to City Hall experienced a failure. While PG&E was able to repair the transformer failure, in order to restore power, the high voltage equipment located within the sidewalk vault near the City Hall parking lot had to be reset. Upon arrival, the PG&E technician was unable to access the vault as a vehicle was parked partially on the sidewalk over the vault. This is a common occurrence on Linden Avenue because residents tend to park partially on the sidewalk due to the narrow street width (see Attachment 8). While the technician was eventually able to locate and request that the owner of that parked vehicle move off of the PG&E vault, having to ring doorbells and wait for a response exacerbated the length of time that City Hall was without power. During the time that it took to restore power, the general non-emergency business phone line (650-616-7100) to the Police Department was offline for approximately one to two hours. The emergency phone line (911) remained unaffected as emergency calls are not routed through the City's network.

Parking surveys of the unrestricted parking spaces were conducted on Thursday, May 25th in the morning and afternoon hours to determine what effect the removal of one parking space would have on the nearby residents. There are approximately 31 unrestricted parking spaces on Linden Avenue. The results of that parking survey indicate that 21 parking spaces were being utilized during the morning hour of 9:00 AM and 20 parking spaces were being utilized during the afternoon hour of 4:30 PM. While these parking surveys were conducted during the non-peak occupancy period, with residents away at work resulting in a reduction of parked vehicles, the City Hall parking lot and the time-restricted parking spaces near City Hall become available when the residents return home in the evenings and on weekends. The installation of red curb to provide access to the PG&E vault would not significantly impact the nearby residents as there is sufficient on-street and off-street parking in the nearby vicinity. The TSPC is recommending the installation of tow-away red zone adjacent to the vault to ensure that PG&E has access during power outages (see Attachment 9).

Red Curb Stripinq on Shelter Creek Lane near SFPUC Electrical Equipment Cabinet

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has requested the painting of a minimum of six feet of red curb in front of a cabinet located across from 8300 Shelter Creek Lane. The cabinet contains electrical equipment that is part of a cathodic protection system that helps prevent a water pipeline from rusting. The cabinet also includes monitoring equipment that sends alerts to SFPUC engineers. The cabinet was installed around the year 1988.

SFPUC staff stated that they recently experienced difficulty accessing the cabinet due to a car parked in front of the cabinet. The car prevented SFPUC staff from fully opening the cabinet doors and forced them to work in a very tight space. SFPUC is requesting the red curb in order to provide easier access to the cabinet and to increase safety by providing more room for their staff while they work on the electrical equipment inside the cabinet.

The SFPUC cabinet is located on the east side of Shelter Creek Lane approximately 650 feet from the intersection of Shelter Creek Lane and Jenevein Avenue. Currently there is space for approximately 167 cars to park on Shelter Creek Lane, 105 cars on the east side and 62 cars on the west side. Fewer cars are able to park on the west side due to the presence of driveways, fire hydrants, and loading zones. Street parking on Shelter Creek Lane is heavily used. Creating a 6 feet long red zone in front of the SFPUC cabinet may result in one less car being able to park on Shelter Creek Lane.

City staff explored the possibility of providing SFPUC staff with encroachment permits to temporarily restrict parking on an as-needed basis as an alternative to permanently removing parking. However, temporary parking restrictions require the posting of signs 72 hours in advance of the restriction going into effect. SFPUC staff indicated they sometimes need to respond to alerts from the cabinet on short notice and in those situations it is not feasible for them to post signs 72 hours prior to accessing the cabinet.

The TSPC recommended installing 6 feet of red curb in front of the SFPUC cabinet (see Attachment 10).

FISCAL IMPACT:

The estimated cost to install blue/red curb striping is approximately $250. Sufficient funds are available in the Streets Division operating budget to fund the installation of the various curb striping.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Do not approve the proposed parking restrictions.
• Approve a change to the staff recommendation for parking restrictions.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt resolution approving the installation of blue curb striping in front of 1600 Santa Lucia Avenue, red curb striping at the intersection of San Mateo Avenue I Kains Avenue, red curb striping on Linden Avenue near the City Hall fire station, red curb striping on Linden Avenue near the City Hall parking lot, and red curb striping on Shelter Creek Lane near SFPUC electrical equipment cabinet.

FULL Council Agenda Packet WITH Staff Reports can be viewed and downloaded from:

https://sanbruno.ca.gov/gov/elected_officials/city_council_minutes_n_agendas.htm

This document should be available late Friday before the Tuesday Council Meeting

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Robert Riechel

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Photo Credit: San Bruno CA Patch Archives

Source Credit: San Bruno CA City Council

Web Site: https://sanbruno.ca.gov

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