Report 02-396 Attachment C

October 1, 2002

Mr. Joe Antuzzi
Chair, Sunnyvale Downtown Associationc/o Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce
101 W. Olive Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086

Re: Parking in the North of Washington area of Downtown

Dear Joe:

Thank you for the letter dated August 20, 2002 in which the Sunnyvale Downtown Association (SDA) expresses its concerns and indicates its willingness to work with the City on finding parking in the North of Washington area so that a larger plaza can be provided. In an earnest desire to fully understand and address your concerns, Trudi Ryan and I have since met with you and Suzi Blackman on two occasions; thus, the apparent late reply to your original letter.

We understand that your concern is over not only the number of parking spaces to be provided, but also the locations of those spaces and the overall management of public parking and circulation. Of the eight specific points raised in your letter, I am pleased to be able to report positive action on the following four:

• The ramp to the upper level of the Mathilda Avenue parking deck has been reopened.
• The Mathilda Avenue parking deck has been cleaned up and made more attractive.
• A request for proposals has been mailed to graphics consultants to design an improved signage program to direct customers to all public parking.
• A multi-faceted program has been launched to promote use of the new plaza garage.

Furthermore, we have addressed your overall concern for the number and location of parking spaces by developing a plan which will provide up to 73 net new spaces in a few months and up to a total of 98 spaces in a year, over and above the number of spaces that existed when construction of the Mozart project began.

Following is our detailed response to your points:

• The garage has been designed with a pay and display parking program that will become effective on garage completion. Current schedules indicate that the soonest the garage may be useable is November 2002, and the entire project complete in January 2003. The plaza may be completed in August 2003 (or as soon as April if the city awards a bid to Devcon without a competitive bidding process). Validated parking is therefore requested for a 3-6 month period. Due to the nature of the parking system, validation would only work to repay patrons after they have paid their dollar. It would be extremely cumbersome to develop a repay program with the pay parking system planned for the new garage.
• Staff has contacted Caltrain regarding their plans for managing the parking and implementing a parking enforcement program. The first few months after the garage opens will be a period to test the new equipment. Patrons will be expected to pay for their parking, but a strong enforcement program will not begin until the testing period is completed. It would be at a patron’s risk to park and not pay the required Caltrain parking fee.
• Also, as a point of clarification: Trudi Ryan indicated that the agreement with Caltrain was to NOT charge for parking on weekdays after 7:00 p.m. She has researched this issue and found that the correct time is 6:00 p.m. Note that the 62 spaces reserved for Murphy Square will not be available until after 7:00 p.m.

• The 42 parking spaces were designed as double loaded (center aisle) with circulation provided through the lots on either side of Bamboo Garden, entering and exiting off of Cappella. For 20 spaces, one option is to have a one-sided aisle, in which case only 1/3 of the area could be devoted to the plaza. Another option is to have a double loaded aisle and use only the east or the west portion. In order to provide adequate turn around area at the end of the aisle, an area more than half would be needed to accommodate the parking and the turn around area. A lot that allows full circulation is typically preferred for convenience of the patron looking for parking. This option appears to have minimal gain for the plaza, and an impact to traffic circulation.

• As part of a general downtown promotion, staff has already started a promotional program. Since July the several actions have been taken toward downtown promotion. Following are actions specific to promoting the availability of parking.

• Ads in the Mercury News promoting downtown businesses and the new parking structure appeared on Friday September 13, 2002 and Monday September 16, 2002. A similar ad appeared in the Sun on Wednesday September 18, 2002. In addition, the Parking Ambassadors have hand delivered information throughout the downtown
• "Post cards" were created indicating the location of major parking areas and major tenants in the downtown (copies were offered to the businesses in Town and Country, Murphy Avenue and Town Center. Many of those businesses took only one card, even though multiple copies were offered). The Downtown Parking Ambassadors will continue to offer the cards to businesses.
• A utility bill stuffer on the opening of the new garage was delivered during the July-August billing cycle.
• A city-wide economic development marketing program with special considerations for downtown and downtown parking will run for 12 months, starting in September 2002.

• Staff has requested proposals from sign "way finding" consultants and has met with consultants for signage in the new underground garage.
• The "way finding" proposals were received on September 30. The proposals will be evaluated and a sign program for access to downtown, and to all of the public parking facilities will be implemented. Staff will review the "way-finding" plan with the SDA before signs are constructed and installed.

• These efforts have begun. It is anticipated that all the work will be completed by the end of September. The work includes surface repairs, power wash of the structure, enhanced lighting and additional signage. In addition staff is working with the Mall management on replacing the chain link fences around the perimeter in favor of shorter fences, perhaps with screening.

• Staff worked with the Receiver for the mall to re-open the McKinley entrance and ramp. The ramp was re-opened on Friday September 20, 2002.
• Signs at McKinley and Washington have been designed indicating access to the mall and the garage. These will be installed soon. The mall management has indicated plans to paint the fence screening white, which should also freshen up this entry.

• Early plans for the North of Washington area showed a portion of Altair, Aries and a portion of Taaffe as one-way. The purpose was to provide a greater number of parking spaces, which would be angled. Because one-way streets can be confusing to motorists when not applied in a regular couplet fashion, staff explored options to retain the two-way street system. Although a one-way program is possible, staff finds that access to the garage parking will be enhanced with the two-way streets. Staff recommends "trying out" the two-way streets before changing the circulation pattern. If it appears that there are problems or issues we can explore a one-way street pattern in that area.

• A review of all locations for surface public parking has been made. The analysis included a thorough field review to accurately account for existing parking and to identify new locations for parking. A goal of the plan was to find an additional 100 surface parking spaces that could be accommodated in the North of Washington Area (over what existed when construction of the Mozart buildings began). This plan has been reviewed and approved by the City Traffic and Transportation Manager. It includes:

• adding on-street parking in some areas, and
• re-designating parking from loading and short-term parking to general parking.

• Since construction started on Mozart, 13 parking spaces have been added along Washington Avenue and 32 spaces have been added in the "Hill" lot on Taaffe (5 of these are short-term). Reconfiguration of parking in some areas has resulted in the loss of 7 seven spaces.
• The plan indicates that 24 parallel parking spaces can be added on Aries, Altair and Taaffe. These 24 spaces will be added as construction is completed on the Mozart buildings.
• Further, 18 parallel spaces can be accommodated along Evelyn (adjacent to Mozart and the Plaza). Adding parking along this stretch could take up to a year to complete, as it requires reducing the number of travel lanes on Evelyn.
• Lastly, while not strictly speaking part of the North of Washington Area, 7 parallel spaces can be added on Evelyn east of Frances. These 7 spaces would be subject to the same Evelyn restriping timeline.
• In summary, 39 net new spaces have been added to date, and 34 will be added in the next few months for a total of 73. The addition of 25 spaces along Evelyn could be implemented in about 1 year, bringing the total to 98.

• Staff appreciates the fact that changes in the parking layout have been difficult for the merchants and potentially confusing to customers. I hope that the above information demonstrates that staff is committed to working with the downtown stakeholders to balance the various needs for provision of parking, management of parking and accommodating a plaza of a larger size. Staff would not recommend that the city enter into an agreement to pay penalties; however, as some of the issues are already being addressed, we hope that the good faith effort is a sufficient guarantee.

Trudi Ryan and I will be happy to meet with you and with the Sunnyvale Downtown Association members to discuss the points addressed in this letter. We particularly would like to get your comments on the proposal for additional surface parking spaces. I am hopeful that our recent and proposed actions will satisfactorily address your concerns.

Sincerely,

Robert Paternoster
Director of Community Development

cc: Suzi Blackman, Executive Director, Chamber of Commerce

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