Daves stoplight plan gets ok, but Monte Sereno wants more
By Gloria I. Wang
It's not enough to merely install a stoplight at the intersection of Winchester Boulevard and Daves Avenue to fully protect children walking to school, says the Monte Sereno City Council.
The council determined at its April 16 meeting that there should also be an elimination of one of the northbound lanes on Winchester and a median at least 10 feet wide to slow oncoming traffic as added protection for children crossing the intersection on their way to Daves Avenue School.
But the plan presented last week by Los Gatos Town Engineer Kevin Rohani to the Monte Sereno council did not include those two features and was therefore deemed unacceptable as a final design.
Instead, the council voted to accept the plan drawn up by Los Gatos staff, but with an expectation that the light was the first phase of a two-phase project. The second step, councilmembers determined, was a broader study of the area that would include a traffic consultant's previous suggestions to get rid of a northbound lane and widen the median.
Since Los Gatos and Monte Sereno are jointly funding design and construction costs, the conceptual drawing and Monte Sereno's proposal will be presented to the Los Gatos Town Council on May 6.
Monte Sereno councilmembers debated ways to make their request clear to Los Gatos, since they felt their earlier suggestions were disregarded.
"I think we need to become a greater lion rather than the little mouse we've been in the past," Councilwoman Barbara Nesbet said. Nesbet raised the idea of holding off part of the funding until Los Gatos has agreed to implement the phased strategy.
City Manager Brian Loventhal pointed out, however, that Los Gatos has only budgeted money for half of the project and could not finish construction without funding from Monte Sereno.
Loventhal asked councilmembers what they wanted to do: If Los Gatos rejected their recommendations, would the city council withdraw funding entirely? If so, Loventhal said, Los Gatos could possibly counter by deciding not to improve the intersection at all.
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Mayor Jack Lucas interjected.
"I don't want to penalize Los Gatos, because they've been working with us," Nesbet said.
Instead of threats, Councilwoman Suzanne Jackson suggested, Monte Sereno could perhaps come up with final incentives for Los Gatos to meet Monte Sereno's recommendations. The city could offer to contribute more than half the costs for a lane reduction; if Los Gatos is unwilling to take those steps, Monte Sereno would need a specific reason for rejection.
"It's 'If you come up with something, we're willing to pay more,' " Jackson said. "I think we want this more than they want this."
The action that was taken by city council was to authorize city staff to negotiate a contract with Los Gatos in which each municipality would pay for half of the stoplight and associated costs, dealing with lane elimination and widened medians separately.
Rohani presented the conceptual design, which had been drawn up in response to both the decision made by Los Gatos in September 2001 to install a stoplight, and a Monte Sereno-commissioned report from consultant Richard Hopper.
Rohani pointed out that the town had incorporated Hopper's recommendation for an intersection that included Winchester and Daves but not Farley Road West. Left turns onto Farley would be prohibited, and Farley would become right-turn in/right-turn out only.
Sidewalks adjacent to the intersections would be installed, and Los Gatos is applying for grant funding for sidewalks farther north, Rohani said.
Aspects of Hopper's report that were not taken into account were his suggestion to take out a northbound lane, install a 22-feet-wide median and eliminate the right-turn lane from southbound Winchester to Daves. The northbound lane will have to stay for the time being, Rohani said, because taking it out would impact the entire area beyond the Winchester and Daves intersection. Also, on a design level, there needs to be a length of the street for transitions, Rohani said.
"Our charge, as given by our council, was to focus primarily on Daves and Winchester Boulevard," Rohani said.
Rohani said one option was to put in the stoplight according to the conceptual design and perhaps work on eliminating the lane in the future, since the light configuration can be adjusted later on.
As for the median, the 22-foot width would occur only if one northbound lane was eliminated. Rohani said an exact median width was unavailable since his drawing was conceptual in nature, but agreed to minimize lane widths and maximize median widths.
Jackson pointed out that an eight- or 10-foot-wide median would barely be enough for children with bicycles.
"It is not as easy as to say, 'I want to put in a 20- or 15-foot median here,' " Rohani replied.
Although Hopper had suggested getting rid of the right-turn lane onto Daves, Rohani said he found that was unnecessary. Doing so would not increase cut-through traffic, as some residents had feared, Rohani said; keeping the lane would, in actuality, maintain traffic flow on Winchester.
According to Rohani, the timeline for the project is to finish everything before Christmas. Assuming the Los Gatos Town Council will approve the conceptual design on May 6, a design firm will complete the final drawings at the end of August or early September, and construction will be done before the end of the year. That is on a rushed, "fast-track" basis, Rohani added.
Nesbet wanted to know if the process could be accelerated to end before the school year begins, and if Rohani could include Hopper's other suggestions. Rohani responded that he was already on a rushed timetable, and that adding other features to the plan would only prolong the design stage.
"I want the light in desperately, as soon as possible, but not at the expense of safety," said Colleen Marchbank, Farley Road West resident. Marchbank said she would prefer no stoplight at all to a stoplight without a lane elimination and wide median.
The plan that Rohani brought, Marchbank said, was better than a previous plan but had completely disregarded Monte Sereno's suggestions. Marchbank said, "I believe it to be a bit of a slap in the face."
"It's not just the intersection. It's what it takes to make that intersection work," said Sherri McNeil, Pleasant View Avenue resident. McNeil said the main issue on the street is speeding vehicles, and the proposal did little to decrease speed, which could only be accomplished through a lane reduction.
Councilmembers and the public alike said they would attend the May 6 Los Gatos Town Council meeting to hear the town's reaction to their requirements.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
