07-14-2009 CC RPT 01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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P09- 0205/P09 -0206 • Page 4 Indiana Avenue, approximately 0.5 miles northeasterly of La Sierra Avenue. The City's second responder would be dispatched from Fire Station #2, located on Andrew Street, just east of Van Buren Boulevard. Backup responders from both of the referenced City Fire Stations would access the County area via La Sierra Avenue, a 110 -foot wide, four to six lane special boulevard. La Sierra Avenue has been recently widened and improved to safely carry a larger capacity of vehicles, as has the interchange at La Sierra Avenue and the Riverside (91) Freeway. According to the City's Fire Department, in no case would emergency crews utilize greenbelt streets, such as Dufferin Avenue or Stewart Street or go over the narrow, curved sections of Tyler Street over Poppy Hill to respond to a mutual aid call in the County area. Nevertheless, to further address potential concerns for adequate access during an emergency, swing gates will be provided at both ends of the closed portion of Dufferin Avenue to allow access to emergency vehicles, if necessary. In the case of a larger scale evacuation effort, such as in the case of a wildland brush fire in the area, four major alternate routes are available to safely evacuate the area and provide access to emergency personnel: • La Sierra Avenue to State Route 91 • La Sierra Avenue to Cajalco Road to Interstate 15 • La Sierra Avenue to El Sobrante Road to Cajalco Road to Interstate 215 • McAllister to El Sobrante Road to Cajalco Road to Interstate 215 Issue 2: The inconvenience to motorists residing in subdivisions southerly of McAllister Parkway within the County area to facilities such as the Galleria at Tyler Shopping Center, Arlington High School. Response: While there is an acknowledged minor inconvenience associated with the closure of Dufferin between Stewart and McAllister Parkway, the benefits of the closure in protecting the Arlington Heights Greenbelt area from heavy traffic far outweigh the minor inconveniences associated with utilizing alternate street routes into the City of Riverside. Based on a traffic study prepared for this project, an average of 4,279 vehicle trips are occurring in the subject section of Dufferin Avenue, between McAllister Parkway and Stewart Street, nearly all of which can be considered cut - through traffic since only one residence fronts onto the subject section of Dufferin Avenue. Of these 4,279 average daily trips, an average of 132 vehicles turned onto Stewart Street during the morning peak hour (7am to 8am) and an average of 95 vehicles turned onto Dufferin Avenue from Stewart Street during the evening peak hour (5pm to 6pm). On a larger scale, the traffic impact analysis indicated that approximately 556 out of 1,415 (39 percent) of vehicle trips on Dufferin Avenue during the peak travel periods is cut - through traffic, based on a vehicle license plate study that was conducted for this area. The license plate study involved posting one team at Van Buren and Dufferin and one team at McAllister Parkway and Dufferin. The last four digits of the license plates were written down at both of these locations and those numbers written down at both locations were considered cut - through traffic trips. However, this figure is conservative as it does not account for vehicles trips turning onto Stewart Street from Dufferin Avenue and vice - versa. Based on these numbers, it can be concluded that there is a significant number of motorists living outside of the greenbelt area utilizing greenbelt streets as short cuts, as 1 -4