Traffic initiative would hurt revenue, city says
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Former city manager Grant Brimhall expressed what he called his displeasure and disgust at how the signatures were gathered for the traffic congestion initiative- by people saying it would help to save the city's open space.

"It does not do what I think many people who signed it thought, and I'm sad for that," he said at this week's City Council meeting.

Then he took aim at the Do-it Center.

"What I think the situation is here is there is a government handout being requested by Doit Center because they don't want to have competition," said Brimhall, speaking before the council for the first time in 10 years.

"It seems to me there is going to be some profound impact on various institutions in the community- the schools, the hospital, our police protection, our fire protection, our cultural facilities and programs, our parks," said Brimhall, the man the city's library is named after.

Residents, along with paid consultants from the Do-it Center and Home Depot, spoke for and against the initiative during the public comment session.

The council voted unanimously for a special municipal election to be held Tues., June 3 to decide if the city should adopt a traffic congestion initiative ordinance.

Economic and Planning Systems Inc., a consulting firm hired by the city to review the impact of the initiative, wrote a report that was included in the agenda.

"This analysis is so hypothetical and speculative that it's difficult to make substantive comments when you have as many as four qualifiers- for example: could be, maybe, in the range of and approximately- all in the same sentence," said Los Angeles resident Donna Black, a paid consultant for the Doit Center.

The initiative requires comprehensive traffic studies using two methodologies: Intersection Capacity Utilization and Highway Capacity Manual.

ICU, a method that applies to intersections with signals only, is what Thousand Oaks currently uses to analyze traffic. This method applies to 90 percent of the intersections in Southern California, the EPS report said.

Using the ICU method, levels of service A and B include uncontested traffic operations, C has light congestion. The unacceptable D rating includes congestion on critical approaches, but the intersection is functional. E is severe congestion, and F is a total breakdown of traffic.

The HCM method uses calculations based on signal timing, lane widths, pedestrians, bicycles, trucks and buses.

Because of the many variables, different consultants can come up with different results using this method, said Rick Dowling, traffic expert consultant.

If either one of these traffic studies determines that a project has a rating below the city's standard of C, even if it can be mitigated up to city standards, the project must be approved by both the City Council and a majority vote in a citywide election, according to EPS representative Tim Youmans.

"This initiative's not well thought out and not well founded," said Bob Lewis, a former mayor who helped write the slow growth Measure A.

"If you talk about looking at something before mitigation it doesn't even make any sense," Lewis said. "Planning issues is what (the City Council) is elected to deal with - - that's how it should happen."

The proposed initiative applies to projects that hadn't obtained final city approval by Oct. 15, 2007. There's no expiration date, and it cannot be changed without another vote of the people.

Projects approved in the past that might have triggered a citywide vote are The Oaks, the Nordstrom department store and Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

Also targeted are all other projects, including residential, that exceed 100,000 square feet and any specific plan that includes more than 75,000 square feet.

According to a report from Candice Hong, city finance director, the annual loss of city revenues could be about $2.6 million.

That includes $1.5 million in sales tax revenues and $700,000 in property taxes.