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Item 4.1 ADDITONAL MATERIAL submitted by Lynne Baker at Council Meeting (2)Uate: Item #: q I I Submitted by: 1_�one -3lk° Green Valley Highlands HOA Attachment 2: Resolution Green Valley Highlands HOA Resolution dated March 1, 2013 Be it resolved that the Green Valley Highlands HOA is opposed to the proposed three way stop at Stone Canyon and Martincoit as it will; Increase vehicular noise and duration during braking and stopping and acceleration for nearby residents, Increase the ease of use of Stone Canyon and Martincoit as bypass for Pomerado and Espola, ` Is pursuant to a request from those who are unhappy about the increase in speed limit from 30 - 35 mph on Martincoit, Provide false hope to those neighbors that want speed control, Is an attempt to use a stop sign to control speeds on north bound Martincoit in violation of California state law, Federal MUCTD requirements and sound traffic control principles, Is supported by those who benefit from and those who utilize the bypass to take their children to school 3/4 of a mile north on Martincoit (just 1 block from the arterial Espola) who now must cue and wait for residents to exit the neighborhood before turning north, Is a solution in pursuit of a problem as adjacent residents are overwhelmingly in support of the status quo T stop intersection signage, Will endanger drivers traveling south on Martincoit into the intersection, an unintended consequence that has not been studied, Will increase the potential for rear end collisions from the south -bound travelers into lower Green Valley due to difficult sight lines, Will greatly reduce throughput from the hundreds of residents off upper Martincoit who have only this route for egress, causing a public safety issue in an emergency situation, Will not reduce speeds on Martincoit or make our neighborhood safer. Green Valley Highlands HOA Attachment 1: Chronology Martincoit Traffic History Only two changes have occurred to Martincoit Road near the subject intersection in over 20 years. First, the road was striped at residents request to create bike lanes and narrow the lane of travel in 2009 -2010. This striping also placed a double yellow line on Martincoit for the first time in history, and against local wishes, increased the speed limit from 30 mph to 35 mph. The increased limit induced higher speeds of travel, and the road striping allowed pedestrian and bicycles access. Speed studies conducted at some distance north from this intersection, near the bottom of the grade were used to justify the increased speed limit. Neighbors complained about the limit. The justification given was that state law requires no speed limit less than 10 mph below average speeds. An average speed of 39 mph had been recorded in a full speed study at the bottom of the grade on Martincoit near Rostrata. This was borderline close (39 - 10 = 29 mph) to the state law, and did not require Poway to make the speed limit increase. However, the 10 mph buffer was quite near at 9 mph. Repeated requests by citizens for Poway to review the actual law and the actual studies instead have found lower speeds yet produced a staff and traffic committee recommendation for a stop sign that will not address resident concerns over speed. Recent localized speed data taken near this intersection (in pursuit of justifying the originally proposed stop sign) show that along this section of Martincoit, even with the 35 mph limit, show average speeds below 35 mph. It appears that with a full speed study, even the state law limits could support a 30 mph speed limit for much of Martincoit Road, as residents originally requested and above all, most desire. Intersection Control v. Speed Control The original complaints to the Traffic Committee and to this Council were, and remain, speeding complaints. Though the staff report cites the Council requesting signage at this intersection, the issue is not the safety of the intersection. The intersection functions better than many of our signed intersections in other parts of Poway. Green Valley Highlands HOA Attachment 1: Chronology No accidents have been reported at this intersection, save one in the last ten years. This was a single high profile vehicle that was rolled when the driver was spooked. This has nothing to do with the signage at the intersection or the safety of the current signage. Results would show if the intersection signage was not working. The intersection has functioned well for 45 years. Yet the report continues to focus on the intersection rather than changing the speed limit back to 30 mph. The new speed data taken on upper / southern Martincoit supports reducing the speed limit. This is a welcome change that would address local concerns, but this is not yet on the agenda. Instead, staff continues to focus on an intersection signage change that will not address the speeding concerns brought to the Council. The proposal is a placebo that has taken significant staff resources and induced much civic participation, but stop signs do not work for speed control and are specifically prohibited from being used for that purpose by state law, and also in the federal traffic engineering guidelines of MUCTD. It is a well - studied phenomenon that speeds actually increase after stop signs are introduced. However, as the Council well knows, stop signs cannot be removed once they have been placed. Our Request The Green Valley Highlands Homeowners Association asks the City Council to use their good judgment and the available data to discern the distinction between a speeding problem and an intersection problem and deny this false solution. If the Council would ask the Traffic Committee to recommend the lowest legal speeds available to every section of Martincoit, given the state law and localized data, that would meet our neighborhoods' need. Our HOA has also proposed they return to the Traffic Committee to conduct a joint trial of local private signage. These efforts have been shown to positively affect drivers Green Valley Highlands HOA Attachment 1: Chronology speed habits and we would like the opportunity to pursue these community remedies with the Traffic Committee. Our Participation Our Vice - President, Lynne Anne Baker, and many of our residents, have been communicating with the City, first, in correspondence to the traffic committee and council in August 2013, in correspondence and testimony in December 2013, and in testimony before the traffic committee last month. We want to work with the City to reduce travel speeds on Martincoit and Stone Canyon, and do not see the proposed signage will address these needs. We appreciate that the Traffic Committee is responding to a Council request, and doing the best that they can given the constraints that were first imposed by the original speed studies. Your leadership is needed, to understand the problem that change has created and to direct real solutions. We love our community and thank you for your consideration.