Item B - Street Plan Amendment - Laserfiche WebLink

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Wider streets typically require more right of way to build and they can induce higher travel speeds. The increased impervious surface found on wider streets creates more stormwater runoff and requires a greater maintenance and preservation budgetary commitment. The 1996 Eugene Local Street Plan and 1999 Eugene Arterial & Collector Street Plan focus on building narrower streets throughout Eugene; this area will be no exception. All future projects will evaluate whether the roadway is a route for just autos, traveling and parking, or if there are needs for bicycles and/or transit vehicles to share the space. Travel lanes will typically be 10 or 11 feet wide, up to a maximum of 14 feet. On-street parking requires an additional 7 feet of width, but would only be provided where requested and where the existing roadbed would permit it. City funding for maintenance and preservation is very limited and dictates that only durable improvements are constructed. Some of the testimony suggests that the City Council rescind the study and continue to leave streets in this area unclassified; staff feels that this is not a good option at this juncture. All roadways within the City of Eugene need to be classified and no roadway improvement whether initiated by the residents or by council action can occur in the Crest Drive area until a decision is made on the appropriate classification of streets in the area. As noted above, the limited resources available for maintenance and preservation require that roadway improvements be lasting and durable. There are over 2,000 households depending upon these currently unclassified street; the City has an obligation to provide those residents with transportation services, but cannot do so properly without completion of this effort. The City of Eugene places a high value on the use of alternative modes such as walking, bicycling and public transit. The current state of roadways in the Crest Drive area make it very difficult for the City to provide these needed urban services. In addition to area residents, nearby destinations such as Crest Drive Elementary School, Morse Ranch and Lafferty Parks, and nearby commercial areas and services like Flicks and Pics, Dari-Mart, Willamette Plaza and the US Post Office are also reliant on this transportation system. Growth in and around the community has increased traffic on most roadways througout the City by about 1 to 2% per year. However, through routes (streets that connect with other streets at both ends) in this neighborhood have grown at a slightly lower rate, due mostly to their proximity with the Urban Growth Boundary. The deteriorated surface conditions of these main roads will continue to degrade, even if travel volumes do not change. If future improvements are constructed on these roadways, the traffic volume would not be anticipated to change, since the points of origin or destination of any of the traffic would not be altered. The inclusion of traffic calming techniques would ensure that traffic speeds would actually be reduced rather than increased. City staff's intent for this effort has been to identify at least one predominantly east/west and one north/south route through the neighborhood for designation as neighborhood collectors, like the ACSP did for the rest of the community. The classification matrix from the ACSP was utilized to select the most logical routes on which the classification could be applied. The analysis indicates that the most logical east/west route includes the segment of Crest Drive between Willamette and Storey Boulevard, and the extension of Crest Drive west of Blanton/Storey. Coincidentally, this segment is also near the geographic center of the neighborhood, i.e. halfway between 29th/29th and 39th/40th avenues. The analysis also identified an appropriate north/south route, composed of several individual street segments. The recommended north/south Neighborhood Collector route includes the following segments: Crest Drive from Blanton to Storey, Storey Boulevard from upper Crest to Lorane Highway, and Friendly Street between Lorane Hwy. and 28th Avenue. These segments represent the most direct alignment for a Neighborhood Collector classification, which is also near the geographic center of the neighborhood; i.e. near the half-way point between Chambers and Willamette streets. The proposed designation of McLean Boulevard between Chambers and 28th Avenue as a Neighborhood Collector (NC) recognizes an existing travel patter, but will have no physical impacts on the street, since that roadway is fully improved to NC standards. The only other area initially proposed for Neighborhood Page 3 of 3