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HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/9/2005CITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING OF JUNE 912005 CALL TO ORDER: Chair Pincher called the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m. in the South Coast Air Quality Management/Government Center Hearing Board Room, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, California 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Shah led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Chair Pincher, Vice Chair Torng and Commissioners Morris and Shah. Commissioner Virginkar was excused. Also Present: David Liu, Director of Public Works; Fred Alamolhoda, Senior Engineer; Sharon Gomez, Senior Management Analyst; Kimberly Molina, Assistant Engineer and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Assistant. I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Minutes of Regular Meeting of April 14, 2005 — Approved as presented with C/Morris and VC/Torng abstaining. B. Minutes of Regular Meeting of May 12, 2005 — Approved as presented with C/Shah and Chair/Pincher-abstaining. II. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None Offered. III. CONSENT CALENDAR: None IV, ITEMS FROM STAFF: A. Traffic Enforcement Update — Received and filed on the following items: 1. Citations: May 2005 2. Collisions: May 2005 V. OLD BUSINESS: A. Neighborhood Traffic Management Program Progress Report - Received and Filed. PWD/Liu reported that to date staff had conducted twelve (12) community workshops within the five residential districts. Residents' primary concerns include speeding motorists as well as traffic volume and school related issues and they felt those items needed immediate action. Staff is also seeking input on how to move forward with the school traffic related issues as to whether it should be a focus or an element of the program. Staff plans June 9, 2005 PAGE 2 T&T COMMISSION to bring recommendations to the Commission in July that staff believes will serve as mitigation tools based on input from the residents, the consultant and staff. He noted that the proposed Capital Improvement Program sets aside $25,000 per district for improvements within each of the five districts. The next step for the Commission is to discuss the proposals with staff prior to going back out to the community with possible pilot programs. C/Shah felt that money could be moved from one district to another depending on the severity of the need for mitigation. C/Morris agreed with C/Shah and said he felt the School Safety Study should be included in the report for budgetary purposes to deal with such issues as morning cut -through traffic. He felt strongly that it would be fiscally {prudent to deal with the issues at Prospectors Road and Golden Springs Drive and at Sunset Crossing Road =rid the off -ramp from the SR -57 by including center median improvements to discourage freeway traffic from making right turns from the SR -57 freeway. VC/Tomg agreed with C/Morris. He hoped that the consultant had conducted his own research rather than relying on input from the residents because he viewed this project as one that should improve the City's overall calming by incorporating a global rather than a local view. Instead of separating the project into districts the City should take this opportunity to at least provide a grand scale proposal and budget the necessary funds for future mitigation. V1. NEW BUSINESS: None VII. STATUS OF PREVIOUS ACTION ITEMS: None VIII. ITEMS FROM COMMISSIONERS: C/Shah congratulated staff on the right turn on red extinguishable sign installation at the Diamond Bar Center. He believed that the design was very appropriate to the field condition. He asked for an update on the City of Industry's plan to widen Grand Avenue and asked if the City planned to install cameras for purposes of monitoring traffic. He said he noticed too many vehicles turning left from Grand Avenue onto southbound Diamond Bar Boulevard in the early hours of the day. He also said he found it difficult to make a right turn from southbound Diamond Bar Boulevard onto westbound Grand Avenue because people make U-turns and it creates a conflict when pedestrians are trying to cross Diamond Bar Boulevard. He wondered if it would be possible to consider a protected right turn in order to avoid the conflict. C/Shah asked if Caltrans indicated they would be widening the Grand Avenue overpass of the SR 57/60 interchange. PWD/Liu said that there is further analysis prepared and impacts must be taken into consideration before any work can June 9, 2005 PAGE 3 T&T COMMISSION proceed. The City of Industry will pay for the cost of the consultant to develop the plans and for the environmental documents for the project. C/Morris informed staff that the French drain on Golden Springs Drive east of Ranchena Road at the edge of the Northminster Presbyterian Church property is covered with algae and needs to be cleaned. He said that one of his meetings at his school in Phillips Ranch was canceled because residents were at the Pomona City Council to discuss a potential low cost housing development in the Elephant Hill area between the Humane Society and Temple Avenue and should such a development occur the homeowners/residents would look to Diamond Bar for services. C/Morris said he would plan to attend the July Commission meeting and would be on vacation and away during the August 2005 meeting. Chair/Pincher said she agreed with C/Morris about Sunset Crossing Road. It is a gateway to the community and not a cut -through. Also, it seems that some residential areas are more impacted by school traffic than others on a daily basis so in her opinion, the school issue should be included in the study. She thanked staff for the excellent report and looked forward to learning about the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program recommendations. VC/Torng said he received a complaint from a resident who felt that it took too long to turn from Mt. Laurel Way onto Diamond Bar Boulevard. VC/Torng said he noticed that a left turn signal was included on the Capital Improvement Project list and felt that might solve the problem. He said he would report back to his friend. He noticed that there is a lot of U -tum and left turn activities at Pathfinder Road and Brea Canyon Road. He suggested that because of the SR57/60 improvements it was placing undo burden on the area. Some individuals have suggested two left turn lanes to avoid the yield for the left turn on green. PWD/Liu responded to VC/Torng that staff has been studying the Pathfinder Road and Brea Canyon Road intersection and that the initial request was to add a second right turn from westbound Pathfinder Road to northbound Brea Canyon Road, When the study is completed there may be a change from protected permissive to left turn green arrow at the intersection for eastbound Pathfinder Road to northbound Brea Canyon Road- Chair/Pincher spoke about the Caltrans on-ramp to the southbound SR57. When stopped in the left -tum pocket traveling west on Pathfinder Road waiting to turn onto the on-ramp, the arrow turns green and if you are lucky there are no cars coming from eastbound Pathfinder Road and flying onto the on-ramp. When initiating a left turn onto the on-ramp it puts the vehicle immediately into the carpool only lane. If there are a lot of vehicles traveling from southbound Brea Canyon Road to eastbound Pathfinder Road and drivers from westbound Pathfinder road tum left onto the on-ramp there is no way to move over to be legal. In her opinion, there should be two regular traffic lanes rather than one regular traffic lane and one carpool lane, June 9, 2005 PAGE 4 T&T COMMISSION Chair/Pincher felt that the on-ramp was very short and the competition from the drivers coming off of Brea Canyon Road onto the on-ramp off of Pathfinder Road were gaining momentum and did not want to merge. Once on the freeway one has to accelerate very carefully due to the pitch and curve of the freeway. C/Morris said that the SR60 on-ramp going eastbound at Diamond Bar Boulevard also has a carpool lane and he believes the carpool lanes are relatively useless. He felt that carpool lanes on on -ramps could serve a purpose but to have them just for the sake of having them puts drivers at risk when they are the only person in their vehicle because they become "stuck" in the carpool lane and risk citations. He suggested that the issue should be re-evaluated by Caltrans. PWD/Liu explained that the City had attempted for many years to work with Caltrans on the issues brounht for! :-ard by the Commissioners. He said that almost all on -ramps have the same issues. One way to get Caltrans to respond might be to ask them to make changes based on the current construction activities. C/Morris suggested that the elected officials at the state level might be able to assist with these issues. Another Caltrans issue was the striping on Phillips Ranch Road from the underpass to Diamond Ranch Road. Chair/Pincher said she was concerned about jaywalking at Diamond Bar High School on Brahma Blvd and wondered why there was no crosswalk. SE/Alamolhoda said that during the project design, due to the timing of the three signals along Pathfinder Road, it was determined it would not be installed so as not to conflict with the traffic flow. Last year the Sheriff's Department ticketed a number of jaywalkers and the problem stopped and staff will ask the Sheriff's Department to again monitor the area when school commences in the fall. IX. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: A. Proposed FY 2005/06 Capital Improvement Program PWD/Liu referred the Commissioners to the list that includes street improvement projects, traffic control improvements, parks and recreation improvements and miscellaneous expenditures for a total of approximately $8.4 million. The funding sources include General Fund, Prop C and federal and park funds. This year staff included decision packages totaling approximately $569,000 that requires City Council approval. Included are landscape improvement projects for Prospectors Road and Sunset Crossing Road Parkway improvements and Prospectors Road from Sunset Crossing Road to Golden Springs Drive. June 9, 2005 PAGE 5 T&T COMMISSION B. Caltrans 57/60 Freeway Construction Project SE/Alamolhoda reported that last week Caltrans cleaned up a considerable amount of graffiti. There were no major project changes to report since the May meeting except that Edison had completed relocation and installation of a new facility at the location of the new on-ramp to SR60 at Brea Canyon Road. The project continues to move forward ahead of schedule. Chair/Pincher felt it would be beneficial to place someone in the construction area at night to catch the graffiti perpetrators. SE/Alamolhoda responded that the Sheriffs Department was looking into the matter and that they believed it was the work of a Rowland Heights gang. C/Shah said it was very difficult to catch individuals in the act. C/Morris said that some jurisdictions offer rewards and that it has spawned a mini bounty hunting opportunity. Individuals get pictures of the perpetrators, get license numbers, etc, so that they can claim the reward when the offenders are arrested and restitution is sought. C/Shah said the only way to stop graffiti was to clean it up as quickly as possible. C. Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP) SMA/Gomez updated the Commission on the last four neighborhood meetings. Consultant Joe Faulter proposed parking lanes, speed cushions and raised medians along Gold Rush Drive, Fountain Springs Road, Cold Spring Lane and a portion of Crooked Creek Drive. These areas were reviewed with traffic speed and volume counts and the consultant reviewed and surveyed the streets and monitored the traffic in every district at various times of the day. Due to limited funds one or two streets will be chosen for mitigation in each of the five districts. Staff will take the Commission on a virtual tour of the five areas in July 2005. Chair/Pincher recalled that the residents were in favor of stop signs at Prospectors Road and Sunset Crossing Road and there was a discussion about traffic problems and a suggestion that a median be installed to slow the traffic. As she recalled those in attendance at the Commission meeting were very much in favor of the installation. X. SCHEDULE OF FUTURE CITY EVENTS — as adgendized. XII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS: None June 9, 2005 PAGE G T&T COMMISSION ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to come before the Traffic and Transportation Commission, Chair/Pincher adjourned the meeting at 8:28 p.m. Respectfully, Div'id'- Geliu, Secretary