----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Janet Davis
To: charu.ahluwalia@pln.sccgov.org
Cc: Joe Simitian
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2021, 2:33:13 PM PDT
Subject: Stanford Construction plans
Planning Commission Review of Santa Clara PLN 20-081
Stanford LBRE Replacement Building
2021/06/24 01:30 PM Planning Commission Regular Meeting - Web Outline - The County of Santa Clara, California, Item 6, Attachments N and O
https://sccgov.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=13005
Once again jurisdictions are being played against each other with Stanford and Palo Alto calling the shots.
OBJECTION TO TRAFFIC ANALYSIS:
I have lived on Alpine Road for over 50 years. It is a two lane, curved road with several blind corners. Hundreds of families live in Stanford Weekend Acres, mostly down a couple of cul de sacs with extremely limited access to Alpine road. There have been many accidents and several fires. The most recent one this last month was at Sneckner Ct. but there have been others at Webb Ranch, Piers Lane, The Dish, grass fires along 280, and a few years ago there was a serial arsonist. Emergency vehicles have to have clear access: something that has improved during covid, but has been deteriorating as Stanford opens up.
In non-Covid times Alpine Road, at least in rush periods, is a solid block of vehicles, mostly to or from Stanford. In the mornings it is almost impossible to access the road heading north and impossible to make a left turn to go south. In non rush periods construction trucks speed. This is particularly dangerous in the vicinity of the side road once known as “Far In” and “Far Out” since there is no turn lane so south bound vehicles have to come to a sudden stop which has caused frequent accidents. This is especially dangerous when there is a large truck following the vehicle since their stopping distance is too long to effect a quick stop.
Alpine road has several school bus stops, one of which is at Stowe Lane. I have personally observed the fact that rarely do vehicles (including construction trucks) observe the prohibition against overtaking a school bus boarding kids. Alpine Road is also a prime bike route, with bike lanes that are narrow, often littered, and in the Menlo Park jurisdiction, they are poorly maintained. There are also several slow moving horse trailers that come in and out of Ansel Lane and many traffic problems with respect to Webb Ranch Fruit stand/Pumpkin patch/Christmas Tree Farm.
During Stanford construction Alpine Road has been inundated with double semi rigs. At one time a neighbor was clocking one every 17 seconds. As related by one trucker, they get paid according to their productivity and since Alpine has no traffic lights and no law enforcement, Alpine is often the preferred route.
Junipero Serra Blvd. has signs along its entirety, in both directions, banning vehicles over 7 tons. When I asked the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office some time ago why this was not enforced, I was told that Stanford has control over enforcement. If this prohibition were enforced there would be no problem with trucks on either Alpine or Sand Hill road. A comment was made that trucks were banned along Alpine. This was an agreement Stanford made with Stanford Weekend Acres residents based on complaints during recent construction activities. Alpine should never have been designated a truck route and it never was, to my recollection, prior to the intersection widening negotiations between Stanford and Menlo Park, with San Mateo county having no say in the matter, despite the burden being on county residents.
WHAT IS NEEDED SHOULD CONSTRUCTION TRAFFIC ON ALPINE AND SAND HILL BE APPROVED DESPITE ALL THE OBVIOUS DANGERS:
There needs to be a flashing cross walk at the junction of Alpine/Junipero Serra
There is currently no way for cyclists coming from Stanford to get to the south bound bike lane of Alpine road, and . . .
There needs to be a flashing cross walk at the Alpine intersection
This to allow cyclists coming from Stanford to access the west side of Alpine
The “Larry Horton” footpath between Alpine and Sand Hill needs to be made ADA compliant and properly maintained and policed
When the Alpine intersection was widened Stanford took away local residents’ footpath along Alpine that led to the JSB/Alpine intersection. At this point there was a crossing (used also by cyclists) where you could get to the north side surface of the beginning of Santa Cruz Avenue. It was emphatically stated by Larry Horton of Stanford, that the underpass pathway was specifically to compensate Stanford Weekend Acres residents for the removal of their at- surface footpath. (His ulterior motive was apparently to further the non vehicular circulation of traffic around the entire campus to placate Santa Clara County, which is why there is a yellow line down the middle of the path) Because the space between the Alpine and Sand Hill intersections is such a dangerous mess, cyclists have taken over the footpath and it is too dangerous to walk there. There have been several accidents caused by fast bikes, at least one that I know of resulted in a serious injury and hospitalization.
The path could be made more ADA compliant if it were rerouted along Alpine at the intersection to widen the curve. This used to have an open ditch for storm water parallel to Alpine. Stanford converted this to a culvert, removed trees, expanded the golf course, and fenced in the entire area with a 6 ft. wood and cyclone fence.
Safety could be improved if the MPPD had a presence at the two intersections and in the underpass.
The merge lane from JSB West-bound to Santa Cruz needs drastic realignment
During the evening rush hour traffic coming from Stanford via JSB wanting to make a left turn at Sand Hill can frequently only be one vehicle at a time. This is because all lanes are blocked by the bricked in median. This blocks left bound traffic from getting to the traffic light causing a long back up along JSB.
The merge lane at the Alpine intersection for traffic heading south to 280 is dangerous
It is too short and there are near misses virtually every day especially when a large vehicle is merging.
The Traffic Lights at both Intersections need to be better synchronized.
$500,000 was already given to Kimley Horne to accomplish this but there has been no improvement. The reason that through traffic at the Alpine intersection also has to stop on the red light was part of the agreement when the intersection was widened. It is to give Stanford Weekend Acres residents a break in traffic in order to try and access the road. This should NOT change.
There needs to be a better accommodation for PGE vehicles to park off the road adjacent to the fire lane between Stanford Hills and the Buck Estate.
PGE has to make frequent stops at their equipment boxes and this often impacts traffic. There is a curb there that makes this difficult. This is especially true given the short merge lane.
The Ban on Trucks over 7 tons along Junipero Serra Needs to be Enforced.
If this were enforced W. Menlo Park and Alpine residents would not be so endangered by Stanford massive construction trucks.
CONCLUSION:
The constant construction at Stanford is hazardous to the welfare of West Menlo Park and Stanford Weekend Acres residents. It is also exacerbated by the city of Menlo Park doing absolutely nothing to ameliorate the problems caused by the resulting traffic.
