Glendale, Nearby Cities, Govt. Council Object to Transportation Priorities 2

Plans to build and expand highways while delaying new light rail and other transit connections are among flaws in the Southern California Association of Governments’ 2012 Draft Regional Transportation Plan and its Environmental Impact Report, according to official letters submitted by Glendale, Pasadena, South Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge, Burbank, and the Arroyo Verdugo Council of Governments.

Full letters:
Arroyo Verdugo Council of Governments
Burbank
Glendale
La Canada Flintridge
Pasadena
South Pasadena

All challenged SCAG for including projects with inadequate funding, and all asked for priority (and funding mechanisms) for connecting transit projects. Missing from new Measure R discussions and the SCAG funded plan are East-West connections linking the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, and north-south connections to downtown LA and Hollywood; Glendale and Burbank in particular are asking for these projects.

A 710 Tunnel extension route in the plan drew criticism from La Canada, Glendale, South Pasadena, Pasadena, and the Arroyo Verdugo Council of Governments. These cities all called for freight to rail port projects (“environmentally superior alternatives”) instead of 710 and other highway building projects.

Excerpts from the letters:

Glendale:
“SCAG should consider increasing the funding for Active Transportation to between 5%-8% of the total funding in the RTP.”

“It is our recommendation that transit (bus and rail), bicycle and pedestrian projects take priority over highway projects as they can improve mobility and reduce emissions as well.”

“[Glendale reiterates its] opposition to the continued effort and expenditure of tax-payer monies in exploring, studying, and developing any means to facilitate this [710] ‘gap closure’. It is Glendale’s belief and desire that efforts instead be directed to the development of alternatives…that address mobility congestion, and the movement of goods…limit [to rail] the long-distance movement of cargo/freight from the ports.”

La Canada Flintridge:
“SCAG should vigorously pursue projects under CEQA, the Clean Air Act, SB375 and AB32 which would provide environmentally superior alternatives to those currently in the Plan, such as freight to rail mixed with additional transit.”

“Expanding highways induces VMT and therefore frontloading major highway completion before transit projects does not comply with the tenets of SB372 and AB32.”

“SCAG assumptions regarding the ‘SR-710 gap closure’ producing congestion relief and lower greenhouse gas emissions are flawed, [according to] empirical research on other highway projects that have been built”

“The Preliminary Final Draft of a SCAG study…the ‘SR-710 Missing Link Truck Study,’… showed that there would be a 25% increase in daily traffic volumes on the I-201, that 30,000 incremental vehicles would go through the communities of La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena, La Crescenta and Glendale, and that 2,500 of these would be heavy duty trucks in peak hours (an incremental truck every four seconds…SCAG conclusions that there would be lower greenhouse gas emissions and that congestion relief would be produced appear to lack foundation, in the face of one of its own studies, along with the others cited.”

South Pasadena:
“The Plan and [Draft Environmental Impact Report] do not meet the legal requirements of the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Protection Act or Title 23 of U.S. Code.”

“The inclusion of speculative projects in the RTP does not meet the federal requirement for a fiscally constrained plan.”

“Questionable assumptions are made regarding the air-quality benefits and VMT reductions that may be achieved by a network, including the SR-710 highway expansion. The assumed results include congestion relief, reduced VMT, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. These assumptions are not borne out by recent research and comparable peer regions.”

“SCAG’s inclusion of a single alternative to the SR-710 project in its RTP and draft PEIR would prejudice the environmental review process.”

“The plan and draft PEIR should emphasize elimination of non-local truck traffic in preference to to a direct rail loading at the ports.”

“The plan and PEIR must assess and include the benefits of loading containers onto rail cars directly off the ships at dockside, thereby eliminating even further the case for new highway construction to relieve truck-induced traffic congestion.”

“SCAG must discard its emphasis on accommodating any truck traffic from the ports and redraw its plan and assessments to anticipate the direct ship-to-rail transport that enables air-quality conformity and successful port competition.”