City Asks Palo Alto to Pressure Stanford Hospital on Traffic Mitigation

The Menlo Park City Council is asking Palo Alto to help mitigate the large traffic impacts that the Stanford University Medical Center renovation is expected to bring once completed.

In a letter approved Tuesday night, the City Council asked Palo Alto to pay Menlo Park for one-third of the cost of traffic mitigation initiatives that Stanford has agreed to cover and to require Stanford contribute more toward the total amount needed to run University shuttle services in Menlo Park.

The City Council is also asking Palo Alto to require that Stanford pay a pro-rated portion of Menlo Park's Traffic Impact Fee, depending on the mitigation measures that are used.

Described by Deputy City Manager Kent Steffens as "more complex" than methods normally used, the traffic study Stanford conducted still appears inadequate, he told the council Tuesday. For example, Stanford did not include thorough studies of intersections on Sand Hill Road and left out two large parking structures along the same road, Steffens told the council. It also did not count on-street parking, he said.

In addition, Stanford's study concluded that by implementing adaptive signal controls at El Camino Real and Ravenswood Avenue, one of the city's busiest intersections, traffic delays could drop by 12 percent, Steffens told the council. The problem, he added, is that the intersection already has adaptive signal controls.

"This blanket assumption of a 12 percent drop in all directions is just unrealistic," he told the council. "There isn't any supporting data."

The study also found that building a bicycle-pedestrian tunnel across El Camino Real could knock-off 700 daily car trips out of the estimated 23,000, an assumption Steffens said is unfounded.

Bill Phillips, Stanford senior associate vice president of land, buildings and real estate, told the council his company stands by the study and feels it's an accurate description. But he offered some help to Menlo Park Tuesday night.

"We are prepared to pay the full cost of adaptive signal technology at two intersections," he told the council.

Including Ravenswood, the study found that four Menlo Park intersections would see significant traffic impacts: Middlefield and Willow Road, Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road and University and Bayfront Expressway. It's estimated that 51 percent of all new car trips from the medical center expansion would come through Menlo Park, according to the study.

"Please take another look," Council Member Andy Cohen said to Phillips during the meeting, referring to the traffic study.

Palo Alto has already approved Stanford's financial mitigation plan and will assess the final environmental impact report soon.

The expansion project is expected to add roughly 824,000 square feet to the Stanford Hospital and Clinics site and also 442,000 square to Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. The project also includes 24,000 square feet of new administrative and office buildings. Stanford plans to add 2,053 new parking spaces.

Read more about the request details in the staff report which you can find.