-- D R A F T --

City of Seattle
Strategic Planning Office

Lizanne Lyons, Director
Paul Schell, Mayor

InterOffice Memo

To: Transportation Home Team
From: David W. Goldberg
Date: November 2, 1999
Subject:      University District: Urban Center Transportation Programs

Overview

The University Community Urban Center (UCUC) neighborhood plan requested the City to initiate an urban center-wide transportation plan that assessed capacity, damand and established implementation policies and funding strategies. The City Council resonded to the Community's recommendation by committing the Executive to assess the feasibility of development of a transportation mangagement plan (TMP) for the UCUC by May 1999. This memorandum responds to Council's direction. It describes the goals the community has for the study, the current appllication of TMPs, the wealth of informatin available to complete a sudy, and recommends several options for responding to Council and community's direction.

It is important to note that there appear to be differences between the neighborhood's recommendation and the subsequent Council Action. Regardless, the most important element of the feasibility to develop and implement a program that responds to the community's goals is the availability of staff time. Additionally, an area-wide transportation study is a major project that the City has not endeavored to undertake in recent years. There are many logistical and policy questions to be addressed.

Background

Issue

The University District is one of the most congested areas in the City. The traffic volumes are either UW related (30%), non-UW related (20%) or through trips (50-60%). The majority of trips are influenced by regional and sub-regional trips. Although the University prepares a TMP as part of their Campus Master Plan, this only accounts for a third of the trips in the area. There are an additional TMPs related to other private developments in the University District. The community believes that there are numerous transportation planning effort[s] in and around the University District which, if joined together in a coordinated manner, could provide an area-wide TMP.

Neighborhood Plan Recommendation

The UCUC Neighborhood Plan submitted an Activity for Long Term Consideration #11 requesting the City to,

"Conduct an urban center-wide transportation analysis of all arterial corridors with the objective of assessing existing capacity issues, forecasting future demands, and establishing implementatin policies, funding priorities and strategies in the form of a UCUC Transportation Plan."

The City Council revised the recommendation, making it a Specific Activity for Implementation. The revised recommendation and Council Action are as follows.

B-24 - Urban Center Transportation Programs. Study the feasibility of developing a transportation management program for the UCUC under the stewardship of a broadly-base community planning association (see H-1). Assist the community in developing and implementing this transportation program. Elicit the involvement of other governmental transportation and transit agencies in this process, and ensure that those agencies coordinate their efforts on all transportation projects in the UCUC.
Implementor
Community, SPO, SeaTran, WSDOT, UW, Sound Transit, KC/Metro Transit, Comm. Transit, etc.
Executive Response
No Executive response because this item was moved to this Section (from Section III) by the Council.
Executive Recommendation
No Executive Recommended Action because this item was moded to this Section (from Section III) by the Council.
Council Action Taken
C4 = City will consider at future time (due to need to coordinate with citywide issues or other neighborhood plans, evaluate policy or regulatory changes, identify fund sources, etc.); the Executive will assess the feasibility of development of a TMP for the UCUC with involvement from community-based organizations, including contiguous communities. The Executive will report to the Council on this item no later tha May 1999.

This recommendation was identified as a high priority by the Station Area Advisory Committee, as well as the University District Sounding Board, a forum of University District and surrounding community neighborhood organizations interested in stewarding UCUC neighborhood plan recommendations.

Community Goals for the Study

City representative from the Strategic Planning Office met with community members to confirm the goals of the study. During neighborhood planning, and subsequently station area planning, the community cited the following goals:

Neither the initial recommendation nor the listed goals necessarily suggest development of a TMP. Moreover, many community members thought that the plan and point person might not do the analysis or planning, but simply coordinate all of the ongoing work.

Current Use and Application of TMPs

The City's recommendation specifies assessing the feasibility of a TMP. The Transportation Stragetic Plan (TSP) Strategy DM6 describes the current approach to TMPs. The City requires major developments to implement TMPs, to reduce their impacts on transportion systems. The City can require TMPs if SEPA analysis identifies transportation impacts and the City determines that a TMP would help mitigate those impacts. TMPs generally establish goals for reducing the number of single occupant vehicle (SOV) trips generated by the project, strategies to meet these goals, and a monitoring system. Ususally the strategies are programs rather than physical improvements (bike or vanpool parking being exceptions). The TMP requirements are placed on permits by DCLU and monitored by SeaTran. There are approximately 200 buildings and institutions throughtout the City that have TMPs. The programs can be as small as an employers's bus pass program or as large as UW's U-Pass program.

The TSP does not discuss community-wide TMPs such as the Council recommended for the UCUC. Presumably, a community-wide TMP would set similar community-wide goals. Whereas current TMPs primarily manage private facilities and promote non-auto use, a community-wid TMP would introduce the public transportation system as an element of transportation management. Private improvements related to TMPs include subsidized bus passes, preferential parking for HOVs, bike racks and showers. Public improvements related to TMP[s] could include bus/HOV lanes and signal prioritization, car sharing, etc. A TMP could improve the linkage betwen private development, the TMP programs and public infrastructure. A community-wide TMP could include a monitoring system to evaluate the effectiveness of site specific TMPs and of transportation infrastructure.

Feasibility of Developing a TMP for the University District

Confirming Goals

Given the general nature of the UCUC's recommendation, the possible difference between the recommendation and the Council Action, and current use of TMPs, it is not clear that a TMP is the appropriate response to the UCUC's objectives. There is, however, a lot of effort currently being invested by various agencies regarding elements of the transportation system in the University District. The number of efforts listed below suggest that there could be considerable opportunity to build on other work to meet the UCUC's objectives.

Existing Opportunities

There are numerous institutions and agencies who conduct transportation anslysis and/or imlement transportation projects and programs in and surrounding the University District. This means that a considerable amount of the work needed to meet the community's goals is already funded. The following studies could contribute to the University Community Urban Center Transportation Program.

University of Washington Major Institution Master Plan, Transportation Study. The UW is developing a new Cammpus Master Plan that will guide the physical development of the campus from 2002 through 2012. The last Campus Master Plan and resulting City/University Agreement led to the creation of the U-Pass program which has resulted in very positive improvements to circulation. The transportation element and environmental transportation anslysis will include significant new analysis of bus, auto, pedestrian and parking impacts resulting from new development. It will also recommend actions and strategies to address these impacts. The Scope of work is attached.

Sound Transit Environmental Impact Statement. The EIS contains informationn on the function and impacts to transportation systems potentially impacted by the development of light rail. Especially important is the ridership projections and models showing bus transfers and distribution of pedestrian[s] arriving and leaving the stations. Sound Transit has also committed to monitoring parking impacts once the system opens. The table of contents for the transportation section of the EIS is attached.

Trans Lake Washington Study. The Trans Lake Washington Study may undertake additional analysis of potential effects to area transportation networks.

Metro Six Year Plan. Metro has begun its six year plan [that] will establish the framework for bus service through the opening of light rail. Although Metro has provided Sound Transit with likely facility needs for transit near stations, Metro expects to evaluate specific system changes to respond to light rail beginning about 2003-4.

City of Seattle Parking Study. The Strategic Planning Office, with DCLU and SeaTran, is conducting a comprehensive parking study this year as part of the Seattle Light Rail Station Area Planning process, the implementation of the Transportation Strategic Plan (TSP) and Neighborhood Planning. The scope of work is attached.

University Village Master Plan. DCLU has recently proposed a master plan process for large commercial developments. The University Village will be the first location it will be applied. The master plan includes a transportation plan. The proposed master plan ordinance is attached.

Seattle Seahawks TMP for Husky Stadium. The Seahawks TMP expand[s] upon the UW TMP for Husky games.

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