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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/10/2016 Minutes - Regular MeetingCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION MEETING MARCH 10, 2016 Public Works Director Liu called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Diamond Bar City Hall Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, California 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Mehta led the Pledge of Allegiance. ADMINISTRATION OF OATH OF OFFICE FOR TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSIONERS — Administered by Tommye Cribbins, City Clerk ROLL CALL: Commissioners Mahendra Garg, Surendra Mehta, Shokoufeh Mirzaei, Ed Pechy, Cynthia Quan Also Present: David Liu, Public Works Director; Kimberly Young, Senior Civil Engineer; Christian Malpica, Associate Engineer (Traffic); John Beshay, Associate Engineer; and Debby Gonzales Administrative Coordinator. REORGANIZATION OF THE TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION - Selection of Chair and Vice Chair C/Mehta nominated C/Pechy to serve as Chair of the Traffic and Transportation Commission. C/Mirzaei seconded the nomination. With no other nominations offered, C/Pechy was unanimously elected to serve as Chairperson of the Traffic and Transportation Commission by the following Roll Call vote: C/Garg Yes C/Mehta Yes C/Mirzaei Yes C/Pechy Yes C/Quan Yes March 10, 2016 PAGE 2 T&T COMMISSION Chair/Pechy opened nominations for Vice Chair of the Traffic and Transportation Commission. C/Garg nominated C/Mehta to serve as Vice Chair of the Traffic and Transportation Commission. Chair/Pechy seconded the nomination. With no other nominations offered, C/Mehta was unanimously elected to serve as Vice Chairperson of the Traffic and Transportation Commission by the following Roll Call vote: C/Garg Yes C/Mehta Yes C/Mirzaei Yes Chair/Pechy Yes C/Quan Yes 11. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: A. Minutes of the January 14, 2016 Regular Meeting — Continued to April 14, 2016. Ill. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Kevin Mok congratulated Chair/Pechy, VC/Mehta and new Commissioners on their appointments. He had 10 great years on the T&T Commission serving as a Commissioner, Chair and Vice Chair. When Mayor Lyons asked if he would move on to the Planning Commission, it was with mixed feelings he agreed to do so. He told her that if he could do both, he would because the T&T Commission is a great group of people and it was a pleasure working with everyone. He felt guilty leaving the relatively new Commissioners; however, with such a professional group there are no concerns. Before anything comes before this Commission, Commissioners can rest assured that it has been thoroughly researched and when it comes to the Commission for consideration it is correct. He said he looked forward to seeing everyone at the City Birthday Party, the State of the City and the exciting Ethics Training. IV. ITEMS FROM STAFF: A. Receive and File Traffic Enforcement Updates for: 1. Citations: December 2015, January & February 2016 2. Collisions: December 2015, January & February 2016 3. Street Sweeping: December 2015, January & February 2016 C/Pechy moved, C/Quan seconded, to receive and file the Traffic Enforcement Update reports for December 2015 and January and February 2016. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: March 10, 2016 PAGE 3 T&T COMMISSION AYES: NOES: ABSENT: V. OLD BUSINESS: V1. AM NEW BUSINESS COMMISSIONERS COMMISSIONERS COMMISSIONERS None =3 STATUS OF PREVIOUS ACTION ITEMS: Vill. ITEMS FROM COMMISSIONERS: Garg, Mirzaei, Chair/Pechy None None None Quan, VC/Mehta, C/Quan said she noticed that couple of traffic lights at the intersections of Diamond Bar Boulevard and Palomino Drive and, the intersection close to the freeway ramp were not working properly. AE/Malpica explained that the ramp signal is maintained and controlled by Caltrans. The downside is that Caltrans responds only when they have the time. Typically, staff immediately reported the situation and continued to follow up until the traffic lights were fixed. The Diamond Bar Boulevard and Palomino Drive signal has been fixed. C/Quan asked What number she and other residents should call to report such an occurrence. AE/Malpica responded that they can call the Public Works Department. PWD/Liu said that such incidents can be reported to any Public Works staff member by phone or email. C/Garg noticed on Page 5 of the T&T Handbook, the Traffic and Transportation Commission meets on the second Thursday of each month in the SCAQMD Hearing Board Room. PWD/Liu said the manual needs to be updated to reflect the meetings are held in the Windmill Community Room at City Hall. Chair/Pechy said he noticed on Diamond Bar Boulevard a concrete barrier across from the Sycamore Canyon Park entrance that is protecting the hillside. He also noticed a spontaneous memorial at that location and wondered what had occurred at that location. PWD/Liu responded that the attached Traffic Enforcement Update indicates one fatal accident toward the end of February that occurred at that location. C/Mehta said he and a resident had observed that when proceeding north on Golden Springs Drive to Temple Avenue drivers attempting to make a left turn at High Knob have a difficult time making the turn because drivers traveling on Golden Springs Drive come up the street at a really high speed and felt something should be done about the left turn signals. SCE/Young stated this issue has been discussed with the Sheriff's Department and they are working closely at monitoring traffic in that area as well. The City has one traffic sergeant who is dedicated to traffic enforcement and the Sheriff's Department is working on implementing the black and white vehicles to begin doing traffic enforcement throughout the City as well to address key areas such March 10, 2016 PAGE 4 T&T COMMISSION as this that have been brought to staff's attention by residents. Staff will relook at this particular intersection and further engage with the Sheriff's Department. C/Mehta further stated that only one car at a time can safely leave the turn lanes only after coming to a full stop because cars are coming at them at a very high speed. AE/Malpica said the signalized intersection is actually a permissive left -turn, not a protected left turn which means that drivers can make left turns when it is safe to do so. He said it was the first time he had any complaints related to the intersection because the intersection usually runs in free mode which helps drivers to exit the side street easily. The speed limit is 45 mph. AE/Malpica said he would look at the timing of the two signals. If vehicles are traveling too fast it becomes an enforcement issue and staff will be working very closely with the Sheriffs Department to have them address that issue. C/Mehta said that the height of the problem is between 4 and 7 pm when people get off at Temple Avenue and turn onto Golden Springs Drive. PWD/Liu said that staff will make note of C/Mehta's concern and convey the information to the Sheriff's Department. PWD/Liu stated that over the years, staff has looked at various numbers of signalized intersections and changes can be made accordingly. Traffic conditions change and sometimes improvements evolve as well to ensure that they are meeting the current and actual conditions. Chair/Pechy requested that for the benefit of the new Commissions that staff reports include a brief description of each project. A. Traffic Signal Infrastructure Upgrades Project— AE/Malpica described the project and reported that for Item B, staff is working with the City's Traffic Consultant to develop an RFP within the next three months. The RFP will include a request for a consultant to work closely with staff to develop a system suitable for the City. B. Adaptive Traffic Control Signal System — RFP (see above) C. Grand Avenue Beautification Project — Before accepting the final project, staff walked the project and requested the contractor to replace four of the 30 foot high manufacturer defective traffic signal poles at Grand Avenue and Diamond Bar Boulevard. The contractor replaced two poles yesterday and today, the last two poles.' Staff will move forward with the final walkthrough and follow up with final acceptance of the project. March 10, 2016 PAGE 5 T&T COMMISSION D. Morning Canyon Roadway Rehabilitation Project— PWD/Liu provided the project background and stated that at this time staff is working with the utility companies and especially the water company which has a waterline under the street and staff wants to make sure that based on the ultimate location of the curb and gutter locations as well as location of fire hydrants the water company understands where the ultimate improvements will be located and if they have any concerns this would be the time to voice those concerns. E. Area 4 Road Maintenance Project—AE/Beshay provided background on this project and stated that the project objective is to complete 4.4 centerline miles of residential and collector streets, with slurry and chip seal. The total fee for the design and construction management is about $120,000 and the total budget for Area 4 is about $1.7 million. City Council awarded the project to Onward Engineering for design and construction management on March 1St F. Willow Heights Construction Update — AE/Beshay stated that street improvements are required as part of the new development conditions for Willow Heights at the corner of Diamond Bar Boulevard and Brea Canyon Road such as installation of new signal lights at Cherrydale and Diamond Bar Boulevard (completed), installation of new decorative poles at Diamond Bar and Brea Canyon Road, construct new art and install decorative components to match the Grand Avenue Beautification Project. Some of the sidewalk along Brea Canyon Road has been constructed and installation of three new decorative poles has been completed including rewiring portions of the Brea Canyon Road and Diamond Bar Boulevard intersection. Lennar, the developer, has been working very closely with the utility companies to complete the relocation of their equipment and lines. Once relocation has been completed, the remainder of the sidewalk and the new curb ramp will be installed. G. Lemon Avenue Interchange Project= SCE/Young stated that this proposed new interchange located on Lemon Avenue along the 60 freeway will be a partial diamond interchange (three-legged), a westbound onramp, an eastbound off ramp and eastbound onramp. The westbound off ramp was not considered because of the amount of right-of-way it would have required and right-of-way takes from all of the residential properties along that side of the freeway as well as, the school district property. The existing eastbound on and off ramps at Brea Canyon Road (hook ramps) located by the McDonald's and Jack-in-the-Box will be permanently closed when this interchange is constructed. The City has been working on this project for several years in cooperation with the City of Industry and Caltrans. It is partially funded by grants in an approximate amount of $11-12 million obtained by the City of Diamond Bar and the City of Industry will pay for the remainder of the project as a mitigation measure to their development north of the SR60. March 10, 2016 PAGE 6 T&T COMMISSION Recently, staff attended a project development team meeting at Caltrans. The latest on this project is that it is nearing final completion for an RTL (Ready to List) date with Caltrans which means that once the project is listed it will go to headquarters in Sacramento for approval, advertisement and award and staff anticipates award of construction contract this summer with construction to begin shortly thereafter. The project is scheduled to be completed in 18 months. C/Quan asked why one ramp was being closed and another being opened. PWD/Liu responded that in short, after much study, the need is there. The current on and off ramps at Brea Canyon Road, the hook ramps next to McDonalds, are very, very close to the City's intersection of Brea Canyon Road and Golden Springs Drive which creates a traffic bottleneck. Secondly, there is a significant amount of truck traffic entering or exiting the freeway. Those ramps were poorly designed. As an example, if one wants to go to eastbound 60 or southbound 57 and one uses that on ramp to the eastbound 60, one has to weave across two lanes to get to the eastbound 60. Again, it was poorly designed and in addition, shortly after incorporation, the City found out that in 1968 there was an agreement between the County and the State to build the Lemon Avenue Interchange. As a result, the City began to aggressively get the state to own up to the problem and Diamond Bar would work with its neighboring cities to get the funds to resolve the issue. Chair/Pechy asked if staff anticipated any street closures at Brea Canyon Road or Lemon Avenue during this project and SCE/Young responded that there were no full street closures anticipated, however there would be minor lane closures for restriping the roadway as construction proceeds along Golden Springs Drive to close the hook ramps and along Lemon Avenue to construct the ramps. H. SR -57160 Confluence Project — SCE/Young provided historical information regarding this project and stated that next week Mayor Lyons, Mayor Pro Tern Lin, Council Member Herrera along with CM/DeStefano and PWD/Liu will head to Washington DC to continue lobbying efforts for additional funds for this regional project. PWD/Liu stated that, as SCE/Young mentioned, this is a project of regional and national significance and the City, City of Industry and a regional coalition of municipalities have been working diligently to gain support and funding for this project which has resulted in obtaining county funds as well as a $10 million TIGER grant. $250 million is estimated for the four phases and currently, the funding shortfall is $205 million which means that there is approximately $45 million available to move forward with phases 1, 2 and 3. From the beginning, this project was intended to be implemented in phases as a funding strategy. The mainline (last phase) requires $205 million so for nearly 10 years City officials and others have been visiting Washington DC to make sure this project stays on the federal radar screen. In the next couple of March 10, 2016 PAGE 7 T&T COMMISSION months, LA Metro will decide whether to put a 1/2 cent sales tax on the November ballot for which the proceeds are intended to cover a number of transportation projects, including this project. Staff continues to apply for additional grants to fund this project. 1. TR 63623 — South Pointe Residential Development — SCE/Young stated that this residential development of 99 units located near South Point Middle School will consist of 99 detached condominium units built by Lennar. Grading began in January and should be completed by April with building to commence. by the end of 2016. J. Grand/Golden Springs Intersection Improvements Update — SCE/young stated that this project is fully funded by the City of Industry as a mitigation measure where the intersection will be widened on the golf course side of the, intersection which will not impact the Mobil Gas Station or Chili's. This project is currently under design and staff hopes to have the design completed and be able to go out to bid for construction by the end of 2016. C/Mehta asked if the westbound onramp would empty onto the freeway before or after the bypass and SCE/Young responded that it would be prior to the bypass so that traffic can use the bypass to stay on the freeway or access to Brea Canyon Road. K. New Business at the corner of Golden Springs Drive and Lavender — SCE/Young advised the Commission that the new building is a new commercial development that will include a drive-thru Starbucks. Tonight, Edison will attempt to energize the building so that Starbucks can open within the next couple of weeks. In addition, there will be a iii-nmy John's sandwich shop and a cell phone provider. VI. SCHEDULE OF FUTURE CITY EVENTS: As listed in the agenda. C/Pechy spoke about and encouraged Commissioners to participate in the Easter Egg Hunt, always a popular and fun event and to attend the State of the City to receive an update on what is happening in the City which will be given by Mayor Lyons. PWD/Liu stated that tentatively April 12 has been scheduled for a joint AB 1234 Ethic training session to be conducted by City Attorney DeBerry for all Commissions, which is required by state law. Commissioners will be notified of the date once it 'is confirmed. March 10, 2016 PAGE 8 T&T COMMISSION ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to come before the Traffic and Transportation Commission, Chair/Pechy adjourned the meeting at 8:23 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this day of APRIL 2016. Respectfully Submitted,, David drLid, Secretary Attest: E Chairman drhy