Dear Council members and city staff, Nearby Kavanaugh East Palo Alto residents will benefit from the proposed new retail services and recreational amenities that are lacking east of US-101 but will also be affected by the new Willow Village FaceBook Campus and we thank you for the opportunity to provide some feedback on the latest development proposal. With Menlo Park's current city ordinance prohibiting nearby overnight parking and with the Willow Campus parking on the eastern side and the O’Brien/Willow connection next to the East Palo Alto Kavanaugh/Gloria neighborhood, residents have expressed concerns about increasing parking issues, speed/safety and nonresidential cut-through traffic between University, Willow and Bay corridors which need to be addressed now before construction begins. Therefore, A. Traffic and parking on nearby East Palo Alto city streets (Kavanaugh, Gloria, University, etc…- Kavanaugh neighborhood) must be included and evaluated as part of the EIR and some of the impact project fees should go towards the city of East Palo Alto for safety and traffic mitigation measures such as: 1. To implement 2 new stop signs with pedestrian crossings on Kavanaugh Drive at Gloria Way and Clarence Court. 2. To install radar speed limit signs on Kavanaugh Drive and Gloria Way. 3. To perform an asphalt street resurfacing/reconstruction on Kavanaugh Drive with larger concrete sidewalks and rebuilt ADA compliant crosswalks/curbs/ramps, bury all overhead utility lines and install more lamp posts on all the electrical poles on Kavanaugh Drive, Gloria Way and all adjacent streets and courts to increase safety (Kirkwood, Clarence, Gertrude, Hazelwood, Farrington, Emmett, Ursula, Grace). 4. To conduct an engineering evaluation and implement the most appropriate and effective street traffic/speed calming devices (e.g. speed bumps, traffic circles at intersections, etc…) on Kavanaugh Drive (between O'Brien Dr and University Ave) and on Gloria Way (between Bay Rd and Kavanaugh Dr). 5. To include Notre Dame Ave / Kavanaugh Dr as a bike lane in the Bicycle Transportation Master Plan which would be a bicycle improvement/alternative to the busy Bay Rd / Newbridge St bike route to Willow Road. 6. To install lighting on University Avenue between Kavanaugh Drive and Bay Road either on the street side that has the sidewalk or on the median, lighting both side of the road like on the rest of University Avenue to increase safety (currently the side of the road that has lighting on this street portion is the one where there is no sidewalk). 7. To implement an all-red traffic light interval at the University/Kavanaugh/Notre Dame traffic light intersections. 8. To strengthen control and enforcement of speed/traffic/parking regulations. From a design/planning perspective, B. To limit vehicle traffic, the Willow/O’Brien/University area should be redeveloped with pedestrian/bicycle traffic in mind. As such, sidewalks with ADA compliant crosswalks/curbs/ramps, which at present are mostly nonexistent, should be constructed on both sides all along O’Brien Drive (as a continuation and similarly to what has been done at 1035 O'Brien Drive for example when it was rebuilt) and Kavanaugh Way in Menlo Park. Better lighting should be installed and bicycle lanes should be also developed on O’Brien Drive. C. Paseos and streets in the Willow Campus should better connect to O’Brien Drive. As such, we would like the developer to work with other nearby landowners (10 Kelly Court, 1 Casey Court, 1215 O'Brien Drive) and specifically CSBio (Kelly Court, 1075 O'Brien) and 1105-1165 O'Brien Drive which are currently redeveloping their properties and finalizing their designs. This would allow the possibility of new connections with O’Brien and the new Willow campus street/paseo grid proposal (for example utilizing the current drainage channel between 1075 and 1105 O'Brien Drive and the previous fenced off connection between 20 Kelly Court and 960/1350 Hamilton). D. Other more direct bus/street connections from Willow/University to Willow Village should be considered to limit residential traffic and avoid O'Brien Drive/Kavanaugh Drive. E. Residents would like to have as much local greenery and as many community park amenities as possible since we do not have access to any public open space at present in the Kavanaugh East Palo Alto area. Therefore, we would like to have the O’Brien Park much bigger than the current planned size. F. The redevelopment of Hetch Hetchy right of way should be included in the project to increase greenery and connect the proposed south park crescent between Ivy/Willow and O’Brien Parks. The developer of this project should work with relevant parties such as the city, nearby other landowners (1075 O'Brien Drive, 1320 Willow Road, 10 Kelly Court, 1 Casey Court, 1215 O'Brien Drive), and the SFPUC, to increase park/playground options on Hetch Hetchy such as secured children/toddlers areas and tennis/basketball/football/soccer/bocce courts, etc... This would create an additional south paseo and increase community park amenities serving both future employees and local residents. G. The bigger Ivy/Willow park/open space is planned next to the busy Willow Road and should be reconsidered more into the Willow Village/O’Brien side. H. The Ivy/Willow park/open space should not be limited as a sport’s/multi use field which will be only used by 1 or 2 leagues but should be planned as a full amenity community park such as the “awesome spot playground” (Modesto) or the “magical bridge playground” (Palo Alto) and include a community center next to it. I. Include and allow rooftop accessible mixed use business/retail spaces such as bars/restaurants. J. Allow options to include and connect a future Dumbarton transit/commuting center to the Willow Village Campus. Thank you very much for your consideration. Romain Taniere East Palo Alto, Kavanaugh neighborhood resident. Received on Mon Oct 14 2019 - 21:59:59 PDT
