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Divided council postpones approving the traffic plan
By Kara Chalmers
After about a year's worth of community workshops, public hearings and data collection on the city's long-range traffic plan--the circulation and scenic highway element of the general plan--the Saratoga City Council postponed approving the element until next month.
The element is actually an update of the current one, that was last updated in 1983, before Highway 85 opened and forever changed traffic patterns in Saratoga. Also since 1983, the entire Santa Clara County has grown rapidly.
The city hired a consulting firm to update the element. According to Community Development Director James Walgren, the whole project cost the city some $70,000.
The council opted to continue the approval of the update partly since a member of the public, Teri Baron, brought up some concerns about the element at the council's public hearing on it on Oct. 4. Specifically, Baron noted that some trails were left off of the trails list in the element, or were described inaccurately, such as one described as proposed when it is actually an existing developed trail easement. She also said that Pierce Road should have been addressed under the potential roadway improvements section in the element.
"I think there is some room to improve that road," Baron said, noting she doesn't want to cut down trees or widen the road to a large extent. "Something needs to be addressed on that end. And maybe the circulation element isn't designed to address this issue but maybe it is. It seems to me that it should address this issue."
The element is not intended to be a defining document on the city's trails, according to Walgren, who said that the city has master plans for both trails and for bike facilities.
The council directed city staff to consider Baron's input and come back with any recommended changes to the element.
Also, the city postponed a decision partly because the council is divided on the issue of whether to keep within the element the section on the feasibility of another Highway 85 interchange in the city limits.
The element as it stands now, and as the city's planning commission approved it in July, includes a section about possibly planning for another interchange, either at Quito Road or Prospect Road, as a solution for the forecasted increase in congestion at Saratoga Avenue. But the city would have to conduct a much more extensive environmental review before considering a new interchange.
Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith and Mayor Stan Bogosian expressed a desire to take the section on interchanges out completely while the three other council members said they would like to keep the section in for historical record.
According to Bogosian, the existence of the section gives the idea credibility, and according to him, another interchange is a nonissue.
"If it's a closed issue ... we don't need to have it in this document," Bogosian said at the meeting.
Waltonsmith said the section, in a sense, gives the concept of another interchange a "stamp of approval."
Councilman Evan Baker noted that in the section, it is made clear that a new interchange would not be allowed without a vote of the people, and that the element isn't recommending another interchange.
Councilman Nick Streit agreed with the need to keep the section in.
"In my opinion, this would be an incomplete document otherwise," Streit said.
With the council at an impasse, it is asking members of the public who have opinions on the section about interchanges to give their input.
The council unanimously decided to hear the item again Nov. 1, and directed city staff to make the most updated version of the element available to the public in the meantime.
The element is available on the city's website at www.saratoga.ca.us.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
