I hope you are reading this email with your power on and your feet nice and warm. I know how difficult last week was for so many of you. In case you missed it, the City Council held an emergency meeting on Thursday (2/23) to discuss the power outages. In addition to directing city staff to keep the libraries open, we also went over what can be learned from this experience...sadly we know that more extreme weather events will come.
Regardless of emergencies that come (and hopefully go!), the City must continue with its important business. This Tuesday's (2/28) City Council meeting is so packed that we are starting early at 5:30pm. Topics include downtown parklets and street closures, grade separation, selecting an aquatics operator, awarding a contract for upcoming repaving (including a bike lane pilot) on Ravenswood and more! Below are summaries of the items I mentioned (and a few more), but it's always a good idea to take a look at the full agenda in case there are topics that interest you that I just haven't highlighted here.
Wishing you all a great week - will full power and internet and health and happiness.
Options for next steps regarding downtown road closures.
The first topic, Streetaries, outlines a long-term policy related to design standards, permitting, and operational and maintenance regulations for outdoor dining in the public right of way (usually parking spaces). The agenda item includes an extensive proposal about how Streetaries should look, what fees will be charged for the ongoing usage of the public right of way and other details. The recommendation is for there to be a transitionary period until 2025 to allow merchants time to get into compliance. There will also be a fee waiver during this time. An example of the type of details of the program is shown below:
The second topic to be discussed is regarding the street closures on portions of Santa Cruz Avenue and Ryans Lane (alley next to Carpaccio). Staff has provided Council three potential road reopening options for Santa Cruz Avenue:
1. Reduce the size of the street closure for 4 months to allow bicycle travel lane during transition.
2. Maintain street closure as is for 4 months and prepare for re-opening at the end of the transitional period.
3. Reopen the street to vehicular traffic by a specific date.
Renderings of the three options are in the staff report, as well as included below:
The electrification of Caltrain is nearing completion (click here for more information), and once electrified, more trains will be passing through Menlo Park. While the increased service and frequency of Caltrain is a good thing, it will mean that Menlo Park's four at-grade Caltrain crossings (Ravenswood, Oak Grove, Glenwood and Encinal) will be impacted and residents will experience more wait times at the tracks.
Hybrid (Option C) Selected in 2019
In anticipation of this reality, and to improve community safety, Menlo Park has spent years planning (and debating) a grade separation plan. In 2019, the then City Council adopted a preferred hybrid alternative (called Option C) that would partially raise the train tracks and partially lower the streets at Ravenswood, Oak Grove and Glenwood (Encinal would not be grade seperated). Below are renderings of Option C as it would look at Ravenswood Avenue, included in the Final Study Report located here.
Fully Elevated Option
When the Council selected Option C, it also entertained the idea of a tunnel concept and a fully elevated option (like a viaduct). The tunnel concept was soon eliminated as an option due to its cost and infeasibility related to the San Francisquito Creek. On the other hand, the Council has remained open to learning more about the fully elevated option. Agenda Item F-2 is an opportunity for the Council to discuss its interest in further studying the fully elevated option, and if so, in what configuration, or to solely move forward with Option C.
The staff report shows a range of fully elevated options that would cover different portions of the Menlo Park Caltrain corridor. As outlined below in Table 1, all options include fully elevated tracks at Ravenswood and Oak Grove, with variations at Glenwood and Encinal. The table also notes that only Option 4 conforms to both current Caltrain grade requirements of 1% (Options 3 and 5 exceed 1%) and jurisdictional boundaries (Options 1 and 2 extend into Atherton).
Below are the elevation drawings that correspond to the options in Table 1. Both of the drawings show the 5 options with corresponding colors, as well as the Hybrid Option C in blue, and the current level of the train tracks in dashed green. The image on the right is a zoomed in perspective meant to show the rail profiles between the Atherton border and Oak Grove, with the heights of existing structures illustrated.
Included in the staff report are also examples of a fully elevated rail in different parts of the world (see one example below). Per staff, within the Bay Area and nearby, there are no examples of fully elevated rail structures adjacent to residential area.
Summary
To summarize, Tuesday's item (F-2) is a study session meant to provide direction to city staff on whether to continue to study fully elevated options or to move forward with only the Hybrid selection (Option C). If the Council direction is to continue to study, a current scope of work is already available that outlines additional tasks including more detailed noise/vibration study, real estate analysis and optional architectural evaluation. If the direction is to move forward with Option C, staff can begin the next stage of grade separation work.
The City of Menlo Park maintains a Pavement Management System (PMS) to keep our roads in good condition. Ravenswood Avenue, between El Camino Real and Laurel Street is due to be repaved this coming spring. As part of the City's ongoing effort to make our streets safer for people walking and biking, staff looks to take advantage of repaving projects to make street safety improvements concurrently.
The rendering below shows changes that will soon be made to Ravenswood Avenue to fill in gaps to critical bicycle infrastructure. The project also proposes intersection upgrades including bulb-outs, curb ramps and concrete medians to improve public safety and ADA accessibility. Note that this item is only to award the construction contract. The street redesign (as a pilot, see below), was previously approved by City Council on April 26, 2022.
The street redesign will be conducted as a pilot project and will extend the bike lane at Noel Street to Alma Street, a distance of about 300 feet, in place of the existing outside car lane. The City will start this pilot project within the next two weeks before resurfacing. This will help with gathering data about the benefits and impacts.
Staff will conduct a public survey during the Ravenswood Avenue bike lane pilot to collect data. Staff will then report back to City Council in early May to seek direction on whether to extend the pilot, make it permanent, or return the road to its previous configuration.
For information about traffic impacts or to view the traffic control plan, subscribe to the weekly Construction News updates by email and/or text.
The City of Menlo Park issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) in October 2022 for an aquatics/pool operator for both Burgess Pool and the future Menlo Park Community Campus aquatics center in Belle Haven. The current operator, Team Sheeper, Inc., was invited and encouraged to respond. The City received three proposals (SOLO Aquatics, Swimming Swan, LLC, and Team Sheeper, Inc.) in response and those were included as attachments to the February 14th Information Item on this topic.
Identify request for proposals (RFP) respondent, Team Sheeper, Inc., as the preferred aquatics operator for Burgess Pool and the future Menlo Park Community Campus (MPCC) aquatics center.
Authorize the city manager to enter negotiations with Team Sheeper, Inc., for a draft aquatics operator agreement at Burgess Pool and the future MPCC aquatics center, to take effect September 1, at terms in accordance with City Council’s direction regarding desired elements of the aquatics program and as specified in the RFP. The resulting draft agreement would be subject to City Council authorization, tentatively scheduled March 28.
Form an ad hoc subcommittee composed of two City Councilmembers appointed by the City Council to advise and support City staff during the agreement negotiation process.
Save the date: Saturday, March 18th from 10am to 2pm. The City's long-awaited priority-setting session will return in a few weeks to City Hall. This info item contains a tentative agenda and some preliminary info about what to expect at the workshop. Note that a web-form will soon be released to the public to sollict feedback on community-identified priorities. Stay tuned!
Have you been bitten by the pickleball bug? As documented in the New York Times and other major news outlets, the sport of pickleball has had a meteoric rise in popularity over the past few years. As mentioned in this informational item staff report, when the Menlo Park Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan was adopted (in 2019), the pickleball craze hadn't quite hit our community and a need to identify added capacity wasn't considered. This agenda item outlines a process and timeline to develop an addendum to the master plan, in order to account for the new demand in facilities. Please note that no action will be taken on this item at this meeting.
Get Up-to-Date Information from the City of Menlo Park
Given the recent storms and power outages, I wanted to remind everyone to please enroll themselves in SMC Alert. This is a San Mateo County emergency system that allows messages (from the County and the City) to be sent to you when important information needs to be shared. To enroll, please visit https://www.smcgov.org/ceo/smc-alert.
Now is also a good time to sign up to get information directly from the City on an ongoing basis. The City has a subscription service in which residents can sign up to receive newsletters and updates. Subjects include agendas (for City Council and commission meetings), construction news, police updates, library and community service happenings, info about specific projects and much more. To sign up visit https://publicinput.com/hub/Subscriptions/2463.
A common topic of conversation at City Council meetings is how the City can better communicate with residents. As the City works hard to improve its messaging operations, please do your part by staying informed when possible. Given that you are reading my newsletter, I know that you already do that - thank you. As the character Jerry Maguire (played by Tom Cruise) famously said in the movie Jerry Maguire, "Help me help you."
