Executive Summary: New projects will generate >39,000 new car trips (our estimate) and add >480 new students to the school system.*
Note: The numbers below are taken mostly from the town documents or from authoritative sources (e.g. school superintendent who may differ from the town’s estimate).
The single largest development on the table, the North 40 is not fully planned, so we assumed the worst case (ie, developing to the capacity as shown in the North 40 Specific Plan). Albright Way has been approved for 4 buildings totaling 485,000 sq. ft and one parking building
To estimate new traffic generated by a project the town uses formulas that are prescribed for different types of developments. They can then subtract the traffic that had been generated at that property as long ago as 1985! For instance, in the case of Bluebird Lane, the property was basically unused for decades. Therefore, the Traffic Engineer can legitimately state that the traffic impact will be negative, because their numbers in 1985 for a convalescent hospital/home were greater than those projected for the new development. This has changed in the past year for which we need to update this statement. However, that was the method used in a number of these projects (eg, Bluebird Lane)
Likewise, the Honda homes will have a negative impact on traffic because the dealership generated more traffic in 2009 than the new homes will in 2012. We don’t think most people can remember the traffic 3 years ago to say nothing of 20 years ago. We feel that people can recall 1 and maybe 2 years ago the traffic levels on local streets. We estimated the impact of the new development vs the impact 2 years ago.
| Development | New Students Added |
Zoning
|
Additional Car Trips in town |
| North Forty – 364 units in the Los Gatos school districts | 97 | PD | 21,000 |
| Albright Way – 550,000 sq ft of office | 0 | PD | 3700 |
| Riviera Terrace – 50 new units | 15 | PD | 333 |
| Laurel Mews – 22 homes | 15 | PD | 50 |
| Bluebird Lane – 20 homes | 34 | PD | 45 |
| Palo Alto Medical (PAMF) | 0 | PD | 1,933 |
| CVS | 0 | PD | 3,000 |
| Safeway (completed 2011) | 0 | 2,006 | |
| Guadalupe Mines | 55 | PD | 250 |
| Placer Oaks – 9, 3 story residences plus one BMP – 4 bedroom | 18 | PD | 22 |
| Little Honda – back in the queue – 11 homes | 8 | PD | 22 |
| Hillbrook School | 0 | 182 | |
| Swanson Ford – 29 single family – 6 senior | 12 | PD | 1,647 |
| Ditto’s Lane – currently on hold – 33 units | 36 | PD | 80 |
| Sports Park | 0 | ? | 100 |
| Los Gatos Library Addition | 0 | PD | 681 |
| 16 Miscellaneous small project as listed in: click here | ? | ? | 2300 |
| 475-485 Alberto Way 60 single family homes or 98 townhouses (at CDAC as of 3-14-12) | 75 | 200 | |
| Constance Court – 7 homes | 7 | PD | 58 |
| SB 1381 | 30 | 0 | |
| 400-420 Blossom Hill Rd. – this is a project that is in the planning stage and has not been approved yet. 37 townhouses for which we are strictly estimating the traffic and students | 74 | PD | 200 |
| Sisters of the Holy Name | ~ 20 | ? | 0 |
| New retail/office building(s) at Alberto and Hwy 9 | 0 | ? | 120 |
| Total New Students and New Car Trips* | 488 | 39,229 |
*Notes: 1 The North Forty is not finalized yet. We estimated strictly on a maximum build out of the space. 2 We used the Hexagon Traffic Report as utilized by the town to determine traffic added by a full build out at Albright. We do not agree with their method of estimating a base of traffic level which adds cars that aren't currently in their own traffic survey.
To download the latest data in Excel format click here
To see how traffic was calculated click here for Albright Way and here for North 40
Janet Ehrhardt
Are there two sports parks or is there a duplication (0ne says 71 trips and the other 100)?
Jak
Hi Jan, Thank you for catching that. There is only one. I will check to see which one is the accurate one, and delete the other. Sometimes we will get two different reports depending on the timing of the study.
Jak
Hi Jan (again),
Our web wizard went on vacation and though I had found the problem, did not want to make changes until he was back. What I found was that the towns report had two different numbers, one conservative and the other more liberal – but both were only for peak traffic times. I had entered both.
Our numbers for the other projects are for the total traffic generated per day. I do not have that number for the Sports Park, but know it will be more than what we show currently. I have sent an email to one of our members to see if she can determine the total days traffic and will advise you if/when I get that revised number. In the meantime, I did reduce the total traffic by 71 car trips. We’re still expecting to see over 38,000 NEW car trips daily if all developments come on line. Albright, Ditto’s, Swanson and the Mercury dealership are holding for the time being and the North 40 went back to the drawing board momentarily until a vision statement was formulated. That vision statement has been completed.
Keep in mind that as big as the traffic problems will be, the school issues are at least as bad. Classroom size is now growing, and that’s without all of the new students projected with the impending developments.