Item A: River Road/Santa Clara Transition Project

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Advantages: Already a City program; may help mitigate impacts of decisions to upgrade and/or connect streets; avoids to a great extent any policy and uniformity issues associated with varying standards for individual neighborhoods; traffic calming improvements - besides the safety benefits – can be used to help connect neighborhoods across busy streets Challenges: Such improvements can be relatively expensive; some view such improvements as annoying to dangerous to simply too costly relative to the benefit ? Option No. 6: Arterial and Collector Upgrades - In addition to applying some or all of the ideas above, the City might consider deferring complete urban street upgrades to higher traffic volume thresholds than presently applied. (Note: the term “threshold” is used generically. The City does not have a street upgrade policy triggered by measured levels of service) Advantages: Preserves existing streetscapes; defers high costs associated with arterial or collector upgrades Challenges: Safety, maintenance and traffic volume issues for street functioning as arterials or collectors without the physical capacity to do so properly; higher volume thresholds may be reached at a juncture where financing or priorities for such improvements are low; as arterials and collectors serve larger “constituencies” than just the neighborhoods they pass through, not all users may be sympathetic to “heritage” considerations What Another Community Has Done The City of Eugene is its own best example for some of options outlined above. The City already has a traffic calming program underway. The City has also been examining “Context Sensitive Design” Standards for at least one Eugene neighborhood (Crest Drive). The ideas presented above are simply some potential elements of a “context sensitive” reconsideration of the street standards applied to Santa Clara and River Road. The City of Wilsonville, Oregon has a longstanding street tree preservation policy that has been applied to all levels of street classifications. Connectivity can be deferred, sidewalks eliminated, building-to-curb setbacks reduced, street sections shifted within the right-of-way, and even rights-of-way reduced or re- routed. The threshold in the decline in level of service that warrants street upgrades are also set higher in Wilsonville than in some other communities. This policy is also applied to preserve wetlands and other sensitive lands in Wilsonville that are impacted by street extensions or upgrades. The City of Wilsonville also waives selected street standards in older neighborhoods in favor of preservation of the historic character of such areas. These policies have been applied to all street classifications – arterials, collectors and local streets 38 River Road/Santa Clara Transition/Heritage White Paper DRAFT 11-24-05 Service provider Review