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04-20-1964 - Regular Meeting - MinutesMINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL CITY OF WEST COVINA, CALIFORNIA April 20, 1964 The adjourned regular meeting of the City Council was called'to order by Mayor Pro Tem Jett at 8;10 P.M. in the West Covina City Hall, ROLL CALL Present; Mayor Pro Tem Jett, Councilmen Towner, Heath Snyder (from 8;15 P.M.) Others Present Mr, George Aiassa, City Manager Mr, Robert Flotten, City Clerk & Administrative Assistant Mr. John Q. Adams, Public Services Director Mr. Harold Joseph, Planning Director Mro.Gerald Klein, Engineering Department Absent; Mayor Barnes Mr, Harry Co Williams, City Attorney CITY MANAGER REPORTS RESOLUTION ON SECTION 72152 OF WATER CODE - SACRAMENTO TRIP :. AND RESOLUTION ON ASSEMBLY BILL 180 Councilman Towner; I would suggest we re-enact a resolution opposing Assembly Bill 180 on the basis of the copy of the letter of Attorney Martin to the City of Monterey Park. In addition to that authorize one member of the,Coun- cil to attend the hearing in Sacramento on this and state our opposition there and the reasons for it, RESOLUTION NO. 2902 ADOPTED City Manager, Mr, Aiassa; The City Manager presented; "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WEST COVINA SPECIFYING OPPOSITION AT THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATIVE BILL NO. 180 PORPOSED TO AMEND SECTION 72152 OF THE WATER CODE AND SECTION 194 OF THE WATER ACT44 (Read proposed resolution in full,) Councilman Towner; Add this; Further that this is contrary to the rights of the • people of West Covina to their own self-determination in this matter of joinder or not joinder of the Metropolitan Water District. •Motion by Councilman Heath, seconded by Councilman Towner, that said resolution be adopted. Motion passed on roll call. as follows; Ayes; Councilmen Towner, Heath, Mayor Pro Tem Jett Noes; None Absent"; Mayor Barnes, Councilman Snyder Said resolution was given No. 2902, • • • Co Co 4/20/64 'CITY MANAGER REPORTS m Continued Page Two RESOLUTION NO, 2903 The City Manager presented: ADOPTED "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WEST COVINA APPROVING THE PRELIMINARY PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE PROPOSED REINFORCED CONCRETE STORM DRAIN AND'APPURTENENT.WORK IN CITRUS STREET KI4OWN AS HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE AGENCY PROJECT NO. P-CALIFORNIA 3549 AND CITY OF WEST COVINA PROJECT NO,, SD�6321" (Councilman Snyder entered the, chambers at 8:15 P.M.) Mayor Pro Tem Jett: Hearing no objections, we will waive further reading of the body of the resolution. Motion by Councilman Towner, seconded by Councilman Heath, that said resolution be adopted. Motion passed on roll call as follows: Ayes: Councilmen Towner, Noes: None Absent. Mayor Barnes Heath, Snyder, Mayor Pro Tem Jett Said resolution was given No. 2903. WATER PROBLEM Councilman Jett: What do you want to do about representation in Sacramento for Wednesday? I can't make it. It will be at 1:30 P.M. Councilman Snyder: Can you go, Mr. Aiassa? City Manager, Mr. Aiassa: Yes, if the Council directs me. Motion by Councilman Heath, seconded by Councilman Towner, and carried, to send Mr. Aiassa to represent the Council at this meeting in Sacramento on Wednesday, April 22, 1964. Councilman Heath: Councilman Jett: LEEDS, HILL 6 jEWE'TT CONTRACT What is the Upper San Gabriel .District doing on this? We did receive Minutes of their meeting but there wasn't a reference to-1-his in -zhe Minutes. City Manager, Mr,, Aiassa. I have a proposal from Leeds, Hill and Jewett on this Azusa Valley Water Company, who want to -change their rates. I have this proposal from them and it is an estimate that the cost of this preliminary investigation would be from $1,500 to $2,OOC. This does not include any allowance for appearance at the hearing which normally is charged at $200.00 per day. We won"t need them at the hearing. Harry Williams will do the presentation. 9- Co Co 4/20/64 Page Three LEEDS� HILL 6 JEWETT CONTRACT ® Continued Councilman Snyder: Whether you win or not it is worth a gamble to investigate them and if they feel it is valid to protest this raise I think we should go forward. City Manager, Mr. Aiassa: I would like to suggest that if we do engage them to do this report that we also include the possibility of throwing a hydrant review in and also the possibility of acquiring this water company. We might as well review all of them on the same basis. We would get as much data as we can on the Azusa Water District and make that available. Councilman Heath: It was my suggestion about a month ago that we make a study of the hydrant rental fees because we are going to get hit with cooperative effort on the part of all the water companies to raise their rates. I would definitely agree that we should ask Leeds, Hill and Jewett to include this in the report. As far as taking over the Azusa Valley Water Company we ought to play that a little bit later. Motion by Councilman Heath, seconded by Councilman Snyder, to authorize Leeds, Hill and Jewett to make a preliminary investigation as outlined .in their letter of April 15, 1964 to the maximum amount of $2,000 . and in this investigation they come up with a joint report concerning hydrant rental of all the water companies in the area, this information to be used by our City Attorney in the protest of the water rate increase of the Azusa Valley Water Company. Motion passed on roll call as follows: Ayes: Councilmen Towner, Heath, Snyder, Mayor Pro Tem Jett Noes: None Absent: Mayor Barnes WATER PROBLEM (MMPKXXSa LETTER) City Manager, Mr. Aiassa: We have a letter from Mr. Tompkins, attorney, and we have asked the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District to give us a brief outline for our appearance on May 13th at 10:00 A.M. before the local agency formation commission hearing and the Council all have copies of this preliminAry,presehtationo The group would like to have a suggestion from the City Courcil if this is acceptable to them that we go ahead and proceed on this seven -step program. Councilman Heath: I think this would be up to the new Council to determine. I would like to •suggest at this time that between tomorrow night and the 13th of May that tLe new Council be made cognizant of as many facts of this •water problem as can possibly be given to them. I ask this because it is quite possible the -route we are taking with the San Gabriel Valley is not the proper route and I think it is up to this new Council to make this study and determine if they do not want to go' this route and if so then answer the questions in this letter. Councilman Snyder: This is a policy matter that will have to be taken up by the new Council. m3® C, Co 4/20/64 Page Four WATER PROBLEM .(TOMPKINS' LETTER) - Continued Councilman Towner.- I think we should have prepared the statement by the City of West Covina concerning our reasons for joining the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District and I think this should be done in partial consolidation with Mr. Williams as well as Mr. Jett and Mr. Aiassa, We should have this prepared in advance before you meet on the 13th, City Manager., Mr. Aiassao The Council realizes the presentation now will be handled under the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District. We will have to be the counter - supporters because they will actually be making the presentation, They are actually proposing the annexation. I think we should render all possible assistance and support we can give them, Councilman Towner: I think the reasons we need to present to the Annexation Committee are reasons for annexing to the San Gabriel District and these should be clearly outlined giving all of our reasons for that, Motion by Councilman Towner, seconded by Councilman Snyder, and carried, that in accordance with the letter from Emmet Tompkins that the staff be directed to prepare the statement outlined in Item 3 of his letter in cooperation with Councilman Jett and City Attorney • Williams and that we also notify Mr. Tompkins that we are in agree- ment with the tentative agenda as proposed for the presentation of the case, PENDING LEGISLATION City Manager, Mr, Aiassa: I have some pending legislation coming up before the League of California Cities, There are items here that were proposed and passed. I will wait until the new Council is installed and carry this over to the next meeting, STATE WATER SERVICE City Manager, Mr, Aiassao The Council received reports on the tentative agenda on the State Water Service, You have copies of that and authorization has been given for representation at that meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Jett: I think this would be a good meeting for a new Councilman to attend. It would be a good briefing. This will be at Oroville, City Manager, Mr, Aiassa: We will bring this back at the 27th, • the next regular meeting, -4- C. `':a 4/20/64 Page Five 'CITY MANAGER REPORTS m Continued TRAFFIC COMMITTEE MINUTES City Clerk, Mr. Flotten, The Traffic Committee had a meeting on March 20 and I believe the Council has received copies of their Minutes, It would be in order to approve them. Motion by Councilman Heath, seconded by Councilman Snyder, and carried, that the Minutes of the Traffic Committee Meeting of March 20, 1964 be accepted. Motion by Councilman Snyder, seconded by Councilman Towner, and carried, that the Traffic Committee investigate the parking problem at Orange and pacific north of the freeway and report back to the Council, COMMISSION PAY INCREASE'S Motion by Councilman Snyder, seconded by Councilman Heath, and carried, that the possibility of pay increases of the various commissions and boards be referred back to the Personnel Board to make another • recommendation in light of the fact that the Council got a raise at the will of the people. • Councilman Snyder, In consideration of these salaries they should take into account the�fact that the responsibility these people have and the time they spend in the work they do -is very important. In many respects, the Planning Com- mission is our first line of defense. VICTOR GRUEN REPORT Harold Marks 6 Allen Rubenstein Mr. Harold Marks, We are presenting tonight the traffic study of the West Covina central business di.str'ict. We have quite a lengthy report. We hope to summarize the findings tonight and give you. some idea of what has been done, how it was done and what conclusions have -been drawn. This is 74 pages long and has 12 pages of illustrations. Some of it is quite technical. The findings are of great significance to you and the future of the City and we hope we can make it clear as to what the intent of the study was and what the results signify for the central area of West Covina. The central area that is the direct •responsibility of this study is quite familiar to all of you. It is generally the heart of the area south of the freeway extending down to the wash. It extends generally to Orange Avenue to the west and somewhat beyond and it extends easterly of Cameron Avenue. We also had a short section of Glendora Avenue extending southerly to Cameron. The portion of the study area was immediately north of the freeway including some of the fronting properties along the frontage road. The exact boundaries were delineated in our contract and generally the area is indicated on the cover of our report. -5- Co Co 4/20/64 VICTOR GRUEN REPORT ® Continued Page Six As to the central area itself, we have gone into considerable detail on determining the historical development of the.area, the potential that the area has for the future growth and one of the biggest and most important conclusions that we feel strongly about is that the full potential of the central business district can only be realized with an adequate traffic access and circulation system,, This is the prime purpose of'this study to try to determine what facilities in the way of circulation are necessary to make the central area work in the years ahead and work efficiently and not to --stifle the growth of the central business district,, All of these charts appear in the report,, The first is a small scale of the West Covina economic area,, The area is the primary trade area for the central business district, The remaining area is the East San Gabriel economic area and these are the two basic areas that serve the central business district,, This study is pertinent right now and has been during the past year because of the status of some of the activity in relation to the freeway. The freeway is to be widened to eight lanes; it is something that is coming up imminently. The interchange at Vincent is to be reconstructed and there are other interchanges in the area that need reconstruction and the significance of this report today is that we hope to indicate what we consider to be the essential redesign features of some of these interchanges so they will be satisfactory for the future traffic growth of the area. Another thing that is especially pertinent is the rapid development of vacant land in.the central area and we have become conscious of this during this past year. The trouble with redesign is that it is costly, Any change of a major nature has to be costly especially if you have to disturb developed properties, The advantage that we had several years back of having many vacant parcels within which new circulation facilities could be developed, much of that has passed, Many of the problems that we discovered required some of the vacant land that is even now presently available in order to make them feasible. We hope that some of the recom- mendations we will make can be consumated in time and that it will make possible the development of the circulation plan without which I think the area will suffer in the years ahead,, The first illustration I would like to show you is the present traffic in the City of West Covina in the central area, (Presented chart and explained same,) This indicates to us that the freeway itself is carrying a lot of local traffic that the freeway was never intended to carry. If they can't cross the City in any other fashion they will take the freeway and this puts an excessive load on a facility which was never intended to carry it, The San Bernardino Freeway was designed for rural conditions, Garvey • Avenue which formerly was in that location was deleted, the freeway was superimposed upon it and you do not now have a reasonable east -west route; that is, the frontage roads that were provided certainly do not replace the service that Garvey Avenue formerly did. The southerly frontage road is rather poor in alignment; the northerly frontage road is discontinuous; it does not go across the City. This next diagram illustrates the severe discontinuity that presently exists in the City of West Covina in the central area, (Presented chart and explained same,) The one thin most obvious to us right from the start is that you do not have good continuous routes in an east -west direction and this is your greatest problem -6- Co C, 4/20/64 Page Seven VICTOR GRUEN REPORT - Continued As far as freeway interchanges are concerned, first, many people do not know where they are,-- they can't find them. If you do find them, the route_ to go to them is relatively indirect. Just as another indication of the quality of traffic service you have, this chart represents all of the traffic movements at the Vincent Avenue Interchange. (Presented chart and explained same.) It is just an indication of the state of the type of freeway service that you now have and it is the worst example admittedly but many.of`the others are not a'great deal better. It is complicated; it has congestion; it has delay and this is something I am sure we don't have to belabor. As to what we are trying to achieve, here it is important to realize the objectives of this study. First, I think it becomes clear by analyzing some of these problems that the most important single thing is to obtain continuity of your streets,; get streets that actually travel through east and west-; get them simply direct. People do not want to wander around and use a road map in order to get across from one side of the central area to the other. At the present time that is the only way they can get across. Second, integration of the central . area, One of the things we have become very.aware of is the lack of . integration of your central business district. You have at leash three separate major components along side each other. The only, thing they have in common is that they extend along the frontage road of the freeway. They do not interrelate. It will be difficult to achieve because your distances are too great. It extends over one and a half miles along the front of the freeway. The shape itself is against the proper integration of the area. Pedestrian flow is not in existance because the distances are too far, The only .alternative to good pedestrian movement is good vehicular movement. Another thing is re-evaluation of the status of some of your roads. The southerly and northerly frontage roads of the freeway were built for different conditions than exist today. This is not adequate for the main street in a central business district, The state of each of these roads has to be re-evaluated and up -graded. In trying to anticipate the future we have gone through a very extensive study to determine every single element effecting traffic volumes in the future, We attempted to project population to find out what your trade area in the future will be like. (Presented chart and explained same,) Employment •orientation is one very significant thing, The first thing in a traffic study you want to know where people want to go, where do they work. Since 80% of the peak hour traffic consists of people going to and from work the major traffic flow occurs during those afternoon, and morning peak hours., We went into an analysis of employment orientation, We did the same identical thing with shopping orientation and here again you have an entirely different pattern. (Presented chart and explained same.) C, Co 4/20/64 Page Eight VICTOR GRUEN REPORT Continued A fifth major item that is important in West Covina is your new development, what is going to happen in the way of the development of your presently vacant land. Here we have.a rather complete tabulation of all your vacant land in the central area and we have determined for all the vacant land which is quite high, over 30%. we have determined the probable development for purposes of traffic estimating only. On the basis of present trends and on the basis of zoning we have estimated about what will happen by the year 1975 and in this we have an idea of how much additional traffic will be generated in each parcel of vacant land. Each of these parcels is obviously adjacent to a major highway, near a freeway interchange; all these facilities that serve it will be directly effected.by the growth and development of these parcels. We have even taken into account the possible redevelopment of certain parcels, Some of these things gave us rather -interesting conclusions that certain areas would develop at a rather intense rate, certain streets are going to increase in traffic much more than others. When we add all of these various items tabulated and the effect of every one put into the system then we have some idea of what we might anticipate_ for the future. One other major effect we had to con- sider was the.Huntington Beach Freeway which is, at the present time, only in the talking stage. It is the north -south freeway that will ultimately go all the way down to Huntington Beach, It generally will replace Azusa Avenue as the major north -south State highway, At the present time the studies have only started for this freeway; we don't know any more about it than anybody else. We know enough about freeway location to at least hazard a guess as to probable or possible location and we have only gone into it to the extent that we were to evaluate what effect it was going to have on the circulation pattern in the central business area. We couldn°t leave it out completely because it is an important element and we have to at least determine if it goes through the City of West Covina, and this is a big "if", what effect it would have. We have found that the net effect of the Huntington Beach Freeway is to increase the traffic load at Vincent Avenue. It couldn't help but increase it because the freeway will tap a much larger area for the shoppers; it will bring people in from the south and the north who do not now come to West Covina to shop; it will be the major north -south route in the East San Gabriel Valley and bring people in from across the Puente Hills and from many other areas in a matter of minutes, Looking at the future traffic, the heaviest by far will be on Vincent Avenue and Glendora Avenue, We have some idea of the traffic growth now plugging in all of these control factors, We know that north -south volume will increase at. the rate of 54%. East -west traffic, hopefully, if we get these particular links connected up would increase 106%; it would more than double. The overall traffic increase for the entire area is 70% and we feel this is a very conservative, reasonable estimate on the basis of everything we know and we learned a great deal about the City within this past year. That is the traffic system, a rough pictc°iv,T, of what the future traffic flow might look like assuming certain designs will come about, This sketch shows the recommended circulation plan. (Presented chart and explained same,) This is the Vincent Avenue Interchange, It shows basically what.we have recommended, what -has been reviewed with the Council and it.shows full interchange in all quadrants. It is something the State is presently proposing in the way of interchange ramps. This is not --a- • CO Co 4/20/64 VICTOR GRUEN REPORT - Continued Page Nine the design the State is presently proposing; it is what we consider to be the most desirable for.the City., It also shows what we are recommending on the north side of the freeway and it again shows interchan a ramps in the northeast and in the northwest quadrants. (Presence3 chart and explained same.) This will give you all possible movements to and from the central business area. On the north side we show a new frontage road which passes between two apartment buildings. There is ample room there. It would provide service for these buildings and no structures are removed. The next is the Pacific-Orange.Inter- change. (Presented chart and explained same.) We recommend that Orange Avenue south, Garvey Avenue Roadway be realigned so they make a direct continuous route. At the present time you have to come up to an intersection, make a right turn and immediately make a left turn and the pattern is rather confusing for motorists. Another thing we are suggesting is this north frontage road does not presently have a straight alignment. We are proposing that it be made into a straight alignment,.as straight as possible. There are no developed properties in this area today. At the present time these designs are utilizing vacant property. This is the Sunset Interchange and here we are suggesting that the most serious inadequacy at the present time is that the present frontage road does not continue through. We consider this a very serious deficiency and we are recommending that this be corrected and one possible means of correcting this is illustrated. (Presented chart and explained same.) Street standards are, perhaps, a technical matter. We are recommending the present standard of 100 feet and 80 feet and recommending some change in the roadway width. We are recommending that wherever possible when you rebuild major sections of new highway that you get somewhat wider roadway on major highways. There is no time to be lost in trying to open negotiations to the State looking forward to getting a wider frontage road for South Garvey Avenue. Referring back to one of the drawings I had here before, we have shown the master plan of traffic control that is recommended for the central area. At the present time you have relatively few traffic signals downtown. You have four in operation and one under construction. We are recommending that by the time you have your area fully developed you will need 26 inter- sections with traffic signals. We do anticipate this will happen over a period of fifteen years and we have broken down our recom- mendations by a priority system. We also have recommended channeli- zation on many of the central area streets. There are many different types of channelization and there is quite a discussion. in the report on the various types. We.have suggested where each of these types can be applied, what the controls are, what the criteria are for the use of each of these different types of control and basically what the criteria are based upon the amount of traffic.that has to be carried on a given facility6 We also have suggested a policy on driveways, perhaps giving some guidance as to what controls driveway locationsg what are the criteria as to where they should be placed and why these criteria are important6 We have suggested a driveway relocation plan in this report. They are generally of a minor nature. C, Co 4/20/6.4 Page Ten 'VICTOR GRUEN REPORT m Continued We have gone into detailed recommendations on some 15 streets in the central business district, We have recom- mended on the north side of the freeway continuity basically and four lanes in the critical area of the reconstruction sections, On South Garvey Avenue we are recom- mending 48 feet as well and recommending that all the way through except a wider section around the Vincent Avenue interchange, We have recommendations on State, Service, Walnut Creek Parkways the extension of Cameron, and many others, Another 'suggestion we have is to extend Walnut Creek Parkway between where it now terminates into Service Avenue, continue'it along the Wash -at least another block and get it as far as Cameron, This would complete the peri- meter loop around the -downtown area, You have many things that are beyond your control that will very much effect what you can do and more so when you can do it, The State program is perhaps the greatest outside influence because they are going ahead with their freeway design; they are going to widen the freeway, relocate the frontage road, replan their interchanges and so on. All the facilities any- where in the vicinity of the freeway interchanges have to be done at the time the State program goes ahead. This will be the only opportunity of doing it so that the funds have to be.available for • cooperative programs, The State will gladly cooperate with the cities and do it on a joint contract basis; the State will do the design and construction under a single contract with the cooperative agreement with the City, Everything involved in these recommendations around the State Freeway has to be done at the time the freeway is rebuilt, If you lose that opportunity chances are it won't come again. Another thing that is of an outside influence that you don't want to change is private development, People are building new things in these vacant lands daily, (The opportunities many of them we are,a little late one When we came into this study many things were underway that were too far gone to recommend any change, Even today many things are going on that effect the possibility of some of these coming about. The trouble iq time is working against youo You now have a number of vacant areas which are very vital in the execution and implimentation of some of these recommendations. The land is vacant today; tomorrow it may not be vacant. Once it is developed, it is too late; you can't do anything. The.aerial network has to be protected and if these recommendations have validity they have validity only today-, tomorrow something will happen to change it, • I think that pretty well summarized what is in this 74®page report, We have fulfilled the terms of our contract and I want to say that it has been a very challenging experience, I think some of you gentlemen who have been working with us know how difficult some of these problems have been -to attempt to resolve, We have available tonight a few copies of our report, They are purely temporary until we can correct some of the typographical errors we have discovered, We hope to retrieve the copies.we leave and leave the final copies with you in perhaps a week. However, we do have at least enough copies for the Council and we will have the remaining copies soon,, I will be glad to answer any questions you may have, m10® C, Ca 412'0/.64 Page Eleven VICTOR GRUEN REPORT ® Continued Councilman Heath; All due respects to Mr, Marks, you have put a lot of time into this and given it considerable study; I can't seem to justify in my own mind some things, 'One of them is this-. The Vincent Avenue Interchange you show, which is the heart of your entire plan, shows here as an interchange rejected by the State last December and they said they definitely wouldn't entertain it and the Council has .gone along now and formalized and endorsed an interchange different from this, Do you still feel after the State has rejected it that this is the interchange we should have? Mr, Harold Marks-. The commitment. as far as the Vincent Avenue'Interchange is concerned was made before we started the study as.the Council was well aware. The first mission we were given when we entered this project was to study the Vincent Avenue Interchange and determine whether the State-'s design was the best for the City of West Covina, We went into this very thoroughly$ had many meetings in relation to some one dozen different design solutions for the Vincent Avenue Interchange, After very extensive studies we concluded that the State's design was not the best solution for the City'of West Covina., We recom- mended instead what we at that time referred to as Proposal "B" • which was the design basically shown in our present recommendation, We indicated to the Council and various groups that this was the • one that was the best overall solution to all the problems9 not only traffic problems but circulation problems planning problems9 and. many others, We have gone into this particular matter in quite a bit of detail in the report; we indicate What reservations we have about the current State design; we indicate that we cannot in all faith to your City recommend it as being good and the best solution, It is a good solution to certain problems, It does an excellent traffic job; however, it has many shortcomings that we go into in detail, Our mission was to recommend what we considered to be the best solution and as I recall we had a meeting with you gentlemen at which time at the conclusion of that meeting we had an agreement that that was the best solution and we went ahead with that concurrence of your Council and prepared our report. We cannot at this time recommend any other, Councilman Heath-. The fact that the State has definitely stated they would not accept this change because it could not be signalized and the fact that we are proceeding along an entirely different interchange as shown$ doesn't this make at least 50% of your report obsolete before we even get started? Mr, Harold Marks-. I do not feel this way, Councilman Heath, First, I want to make one comment, The • State did not reject our proposal "B". We had many meetings with the State staff and Mr, Aiassa was present at a number of them, The • final conclusion was indicated that from a technical standpoint they could not object to the operational design features of the one we showed, They indicated, however, that the negotiations had proceeded from their standpoint in right-of-way acquisition and in many other commitments that they made on the basis of your Council's previous approval of their design that they had gotten into this so deeply that it was too late.for them with their present situation to change the present program and it was on that basis I believe that the City made its decision to go along with the current State design, It was not on the basis that the proposal we had made was unworkable or unfeasible but merely on the basis that negotiations had gotten too C, C, 4/20/64 Page Twelve VICTOR GRUEN REPORT Continued far even by along the time we started our study to have it changed, We have no comment as to the Council action if this, in your opinion, was a necessary action due to commitments that had been made; this is certainly beyond the study that we made, We can only act as consultants to you in good faith and point out the deficiencies and the advantages of one or the other, Councilman Heath: Evidently communications have fallen down somewhere, I remember distinctly on January 8 that Mr, Jett, Mr, Barnes and I met with Mr, Aiassa and the Highway Department downtown and at that time they told us definitely that they could not use the "Bel plan that had been designed because it could not be signalized and the fact that the other design had gone so far was not mentioned to us. Very unfortunately now we have a design in,this report which no doubt will never be installed which immediately throws about half the plan out, Mr, Harold Marks, It is never too late, it has not been built; it has only been designed this way, The action the City has taken is certainly outside anything we -were associated with, We did not recommend such action, We'can only recommend that which we consider to be the best solution for the City and we cannot speak for the Council's action; we cannot make,any comment in regard to it, If in your best opinion things • have gone too far and you cannot backtrack on the present State design, this is a decision you have to make and as I understand its such is the case, We had a meeting with the State technical staff and with the. State administration after your meeting of December at which time we presented all the details of our design; it was reviewed by the State Traffic Engineers the State Design Engineer, We had a meeting and they could not state that it was unworkable or for that matter they had no negative view other than it was just academic to even discuss the merits of one or the other simply because they are proceeding with one and they cannot change, I certainly agree the Vincent Avenue Interchange is a most significant part of your central area circulation plan. Perhaps as a single element it may be the most important one. I also feel that we have covered a tremendous amount of ground beyond the Vincent Avenue Interchange, We have made recommendations on how to improve traffic flow through your City outside the immediate Vincent Avenue Interchanges outside the immediate vicinity of the interchange, I cannot speak any further about the inadequacy of the States design, I truly believe it will not serve you as well as this design will; however, this does not change the circulation as far as the other recommendations are concerned, We feel we have recommended a program that can be implimented in many areas and the speed with which it is carried through will depend on how many areas, Councilman Heath: You said on a number of streets we S would put central -median strips and then driveways would be opposite the openings, All of our streets in the -district have been improved, curbed and guttered, Do you anticipate from your study to make provisions of'driveways being opposite driveways and cuts in the median strip there will be a wholesale rearrangement of driveways and entrances? ®12® Ca C, 4/20/64 Page Thirteen "VICTOR GRUEN REPORT Continued Mr, Harold Marks: No, We have indicated driveways which would desirably be'relocatedo I would say perhaps we are talking of two or three driveways on any one street, We point out that which will work better than what'you now have, It is, the Council's decision as to whether or not you wish to change the location, Councilman Heaths I understood you to say that on some new frontage roads or making additional bends that we make that section of the frontage road 48 feet where the majority of the frontage road is 32 feet, How do we neck down from the 48 feet to the 32 feet? Mra Harold Marks: You have four lanes at the approaches to your intersection and two lanes between intersections, This is a very common practice, Councilman Snyder. If we are committed to the present Vincent Avenue Interchange and we can't use the one you recommend9 if we use,the present one as submittedq� this does not change the rest of your design? Mr, Harold Marks: No, The changes are very little. Nothing is changed:,elsewhere, • Councilman Snyder: You have indicated that time is of the essence but what is our next move to implement this? Mr, Harold Marks: The next move I would say would be after the City has had an opportunity of reviewing all of these design details and presumably the staff will have recommendations to the Council, it is up to the Council to take appropriate action approving or disapproving or adopting a particular design for a particular location and particular dimensions. At that time express your views to the State and obtain a meeting with them to attempt to get this thing rolling because there is no time to be lost, Councilman Towner: I think the report is very thorough and very complete and represents the best professional opinion of our carefully selected consultant and I think provides us with an excellent report with which to work, I agree with Mr, Heath there may be some breakdown in'communication with the State, I talked with Mr, Hoy myself and he did not mention anything about signalization to me, He said the reason they were proceeding with the State plan was they were proceeding and had involved already in the condemnation on the State plan and funds had been committed, For this reason they didn't want to backtrack and I think basically what we are faced with here as far as Vincent Avenue is concerned is whether or not we are going to get the flow of traffic up closer to the interchange in the --cross- over or whether it will be moved down to Center Street in accordance with the present plan, I agree the Gruen plan is perhaps a little better, We are in process on the improvement of this Vincent Avenue Interchange and I think we should move ahead with it, -13- C, C, 4/20/64 Page Fourteen VICTOR GRUEH REPORT Continued Mr, Harold Marks- The only commitment;- that has been made is on the south side of the Vincent Avenue Interchange,, Everything else is open and this is the point I was trying to make9 that it is open today$ tomorrow it may not be open, It has to be referred to the State to attempt to get their concurrence or suggestions for revision if they see fit to, Councilman Jett; I wonder if it is possible that the Council has missed an opportunity to meet with the State in an effort to put over the recommendations that you have made, In the two years I have been on the Council I have only been at one meeting with the State, In your opinion, do you think it would be advantageous for the Council as a whole to meet with the State and fight for what we want here or see what we can do about it? Mr, Harold Marks- At this point as far as the Vincent Avenue Interchange is concerned, the City has expressed its views and has expressed its intentions to go ahead, Perhaps in this respect we have gone a bit far in committing the Vincent Avenue Interchange, However, nothing has been committed in any of the -other locations, As soon as agreements can be reached as to the remainder of the interchanges, then would be the time to meet with the State and explore with them the possibility of all of these improvements going.in as a unit, Possibly they might reconsider some things themselves, They may have contour sections,. I have.no idea, Howeverfl the point is that perhaps in one location things may not be reversible but certainly everywhere else there is still an opportunity of getting something worthwhile and hopefully maybe Vincent Avenue can still be salvaged, Councilman Snyder- I think the next step is first to give this top priority with the staff and the Planning Commission to come up with the final recommendations that they draw out of Mr, Marks' report and then the Council can go from there, City Manager, Mr, Aiassa- The Council can adopt this report tentatively subject to Planning Commission and staff approval and follow-up and let the State Division of Highways know that we are interested in this plan and we will follow it wherever possible and we will have an implement to deal with the State but up to this time the Council has not adopted a portion of this plan except the "B" plan, This could be adopted as a fundamental guide and all these various elements of the meetings with the State can be implemented at the time we meet with the State Division of Highways, I.think Mr, Marks' designs are sufficient enough to submit to the State and request them.to give it consideration immediately because they are now doing • preliminary designs at those intersections, Councilman Snyder- Do you feel it is urgent enough that we should have the Planning Commission and the staff review this? -14- • • 0 Co C, 4/20/64 VI'CTOR GRUEN REPORT Continued City Manager, Mr, Aiassa: I think the Commission should review this and integrate it eventuall their general plan if it is acceptable but I think that if time is going to be so scarce.,;+''each week, each month is going to pvt another development in there and make it prohibitive to buy the land, Mr. Marks has rough drafts that can be made available to you ton`ght Councilman Snyder: I think that is the program we will have to follow. What we hope to accomplish is to free up this downtown area so it will realize its full potential and we can still accomplish some of this, City Manager, Mr, Aiassae. If the Council adopts this report the Planning Commission must then go into action as to setback for the widening of the frontage roads The, north section of the Vincent Avenue Interchange has to be designed and worked on as soon'as possible because the land may not be available, Motio ',y Counci;jn�an Towner, seconded by Councilman Snyder, and carried, to file or accept this plan and refer it to the staff and Planning Commission and immediately also refer a copy of it 'to the State Division of Highways for their advice and information on current projects and we have some.advice and information from the staff on financing and land acquisition program with a definite step-by-step program laid out for the Council and that the City Council itself accept and develop a criteria of the direction or goals at which they are aiming in connection with this central business district traffic so we don't get bogged down in refine® ment of detail and find ourselves faced with new zoning or changes in the State plans that prohibit the accomplishment of these objectives,. (Councilman Heath voted "No",) Councilman Heath: The purpose of this study was to ,facilitate access into and out of the business shopping area of West.Covina. I don't see that there has been anything added or any recommendation made that would facilitate movement of traffic and therefore I would be against.this motion. Councilman Towner: I believe we also have pending a statement from Gruen for their services which under our contract they are entitled to receive payment and it appears to me they have fulfilled their contract in good faith and provided us with a thorough and professional report, City Manager, Mr, Aiassa: I would like Mr, Marks to be present with the staff when we meet with the dignitaries of the State to present this, Mro Harold Marks: We would be very happy to, Councilman Jett: I would like to.see the Council, present at some of these meetings so Wt will know what is going on, ®15- C, C, 4/20/64 VICTOR GRUEN REPORT - Continued Page Sixteen City Manager, Mr, Aiassa: I think the balance is $49000 on this 8 contract. I would suggest we make this check payable on the 27th when the finail report is brought in, I will give you a summary report of the total amount paid, Councilman Towner: We can defer that until that date and authorize it at the next meeting, There being no further business, Motion by Councilman Heath, seconded by Councilman Snyder, and carried, that this meeting be adjourned to tomorrow night, April 21, 1964 at eight o'clock. The meeting adjourned at 10:30 P.M. 0 • ATTEST: i CITY CLERK APPROVED MAYOR -16-