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Council not for widening El Camino, Wolfe roads
Vote of 5 to 2 ends emotional meeting on fate of intersection
By Daniel Hindin
"Trying to solve a traffic problem by building bigger roads is like trying to solve an obesity problem by buying bigger pants."
Sunnyvale resident Kevin Jackson summed up in one sentence what it took the Sunnyvale City Council three-and-a-half hours to decide at their April 3 meeting. Actually, it was the resolution of a ten-year conflict, overseen by many past and present city council members, to decide what to do about the problematic intersection at Wolfe Road and El Camino Real. The council voted 5 to 2 in favor of a motion to prevent its widening.
"Usually it's changing this, changing that, building," Mayor Jack Walker said. "It just doesn't work. It's time to stop that. The reality is it's time for city council to do its job. We were told that Highway 85 would solve things for years to come, but it's already jammed up. [Continuous building] hasn't worked for 25 years, and it's time to change the paradigm."
The intersection, which consistently causes significant backups during rush hour, will soon reach a Level of Service F rating. Allowing the intersection to fall to this lowest rating would violate the Congestion Management Program under state law and Santa Clara County policy--a choice that could cost the city a large amount of money.
City staff had been investigating possibilities to solve the congestion problem by widening Wolfe Road at the intersection. At recent city council meetings, council members began expressing their dissatisfaction at the possibilities for widening and were looking into other options. However, no one attending the April 3 meeting thought the council would ever vote against it. To do so would be to break state, county and city policy.
Dozens of Sunnyvale residents approached the podium to voice their opinions against the project. Not one resident spoke in favor of it.
Many tenants of Fairway Crest Apartments, a large complex on the northeast corner of the intersection along Wolfe Road, spoke against widening for what Council member Pat Vorreiter called "self interest"; they felt widening the intersection would attract more traffic to the area.
"If you're gonna build it, they will come," said resident Marcia Epstein.
Some people feared the impact on the surrounding natural environment: the plan called for the felling of at least 28 trees and the seizure of private, residential land including part of Butcher's Corner, one of the last remaining plots of flourishing orchard in Sunnyvale.
"Some of the trees are over 50 years old," said resident Werner Gans. "I wouldn't take out all those trees for such a small improvement."
But many residents spoke up for a different reason: They said they believed something bigger was at stake.
"The rules of the road in Sunnyvale are overwhelmingly in favor of driving," Jackson said. "If the rules don't change we'll end up paving the whole city and it still won't be enough."
Fred Wiesinger, chairman of Sunnyvale's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee added, "It's time to start thinking out of the box."
As the meeting went on, it became a debate about what the city of Sunnyvale is about and where it is going.
The argument over the Wolfe Road/El Camino Real intersection came to a climax when Robert Squeezle, a 45-year-old lifelong Sunnyvale resident spoke.
Squeezle spoke sentimentally of the Sunnyvale of yore. He spoke of the colorful orchards he and his friends as children used play in, picking apricots to their hearts' content. But when he began to speak of what his hometown has become in recent years, his voice grew louder and his tone more forceful.
"The city council is here for [the citizens]," Squeezle cried passionately. "We're not gonna go with growth anymore. If traffic's too bad, let them go somewhere else. If it takes too long at a stoplight, let them wait. It's time not to push the people out, but the cars. We've done all we can [to accommodate the influx of traffic]. We're losing the way Sunnyvale has been. We cherish trees and the people who live here. It's great to have business, but we're losing the value of our people. I'll walk, because I live here and I plan to die here. It's time to say no ... Where does it stop?"
His speech was met with great applause in the council chamber.
Soon after, the council set to vote on the motion. Council member Pat Vorreiter made the first motion to approve one of the widening options.
"In all of the opinion surveys we've conducted traffic congestion has always been at the top of the list," Vorreiter said. "This is an opportunity to relieve it. We want to minimize traffic from being diverted [to smaller, neighborhood streets] and going by homes, children and schools. I couldn't agree more with [Squeezle] about worrying about the community. But we have a 131,000-person community, and we need to think of the broader community ... We need to look at the long term."
Vice Mayor Fred Fowler seconded Vorreiter's motion and added, "There really isn't an alternative. We don't have a choice."
But the motion was eventually voted down, and a new motion to preserve the current state of Wolfe Road was put forward by Councilman Manuel Valerio.
"I'm concerned with the current level of traffic," Valerio said. "I have a cautious optimism that there are other alternatives to just moving more cars through the intersection. The widening project is a short-term solution. For the long term, we need to get people out of their cars. That means me, too ... The main point is the answer isn't more roadways."
Councilman Jim Roberts seconded Valerio's motion.
"When you increase the supply, it'll help for the short term, but eventually, in five or 10 years, the problem will be back," Roberts said. "And I've never been comfortable taking away property and mature trees that are older than I am."
"We can't become a city of concrete," said Councilwoman Julia Miller. "We need to think about our history."
The motion to prevent the widening of Wolfe Road passed 5 to 2 with Vorreiter and Fowler in the minority.
The council chambers erupted with excitement, and the scores of residents exited to share in their glee.
"I think this is a great victory," exclaimed Wiesenger of BPAC. "Maybe this will bring us out of the 20th century and into the 21st. There has been a lot of enlightenment in the council. People have really been weighing in on them for years."
"It's a sea change," Jackson added with a big smile.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
