Grand Boulevard Presentation and Tour, May 1, 2008

[Cliff Chambers]

Grand Boulevard Presentation and Tour:
Thursday, May 1, 2008, 5:30 pm
City of Mountain View City Council Chambers
Joint session of Land Use Planning and Transit and Transportation
Group

Corinne Goodrich, the Program Manager of the Grand Boulevard, and the
Strategic Planning Manger for SamTrans will give a presentation on the
Grand Boulevard concept, the guiding principles, signature projects,
and the proposal for assessment of El Camino Economic and Housing
Opportunities.

Chris Augustine from VTA may or may not attend as he is recovering
from a motorcycle accident.. You should definitely review the 522
BRT presentation, provided on a link below.

Jessica Von Bork from the City of Mountain Community Development
Department will lead us on a tour of three sites on El Camino that
have gone the development approval process:

-Avalon Towers: 11 story building, no longer allowed
-399 El Camino Real: 35,000 projected, nominated for Grand Blvd
signature project, but not granted status
-BMW dealership: good example of higher density retail.

This tour will allow us to review projects, give our opinions on them,
find out what the constraints were during the development approval
process, why compromises were asked for. We should also explore what
our working groups would like to see in the future. Jessica will
remain neutral as a city staff person, it is our opportunity to
explore options.

The Grand Boulevard is a wonderful example of the interplay between
transportation, land use, and transit oriented development. Please
be prepared with questions.

We will need to carpool to the tour. Please let me know if you are
attending and whether or not you can drive or would like be a
passenger or both. I’m going to ask for a volunteer tonight at the
Transit and Transportation Working Group for a carpool coordinator to
make this efficient as possible. Stay tuned.

The following are some references you should review prior to May 1st.

Overview of Grand Boulevard, main website: http://www.grandboulevard.net/

Proposed Assessment of El Camino Real Economic and Housing
Opportunities: (previously downloaded on Land Use Planning Working
Group site:
http://mv-sust-task-force-land.googlegroups.com/web/TF%206_Auth%20to%20Develop%20Econ%20Study.doc?gda=Yd8Hm1QAAAB7hlCo_qPuYVxDfsfyrEFAFuW6LsUSHxsZ7ZuH9AMOnGG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDTkHAGHCbT4XFziSOpyMAUdTbNsXBiyImnEkuY5nCARczK3LPIl5qhTi7aEdQua3iI&gsc=x44AQAsAAACcetCBJIjZgg6PNHejEVDz

Guiding Principles: http://www.grandboulevard.net/gp/GP.pdf

VTA Line 522: Bus Rapid Transit: http://www.grandboulevard.net/PDF/presentations/BRT522.pdf