COLLECTOR STREET / SANTA FE AVENUE BETWEEN 1ST AND 4TH STREETS

Motion - The City of Los Angeles has a policy to concentrate development near mass transit stations and corridors. The policy seeks to encourage and facilitate pedestrian-oriented development by creating pedestrian connections within neighborhoods and/or commercial centers and incorporating pedestrian-friendly design features to take advantage of transit opportunities. The Gold Line Eastside Extension Light Rail Line is under construction by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and will connect the Pasadena Gold Line to East Los Angeles through Union Station. A station will be located on 1st Street between Alameda Street and Santa Fe Avenue to serve the City's newly revitalized Loft District residential community on the east side of Downtown. Additionally, this rail line will serve the new Sci-Arc School of Design, which is an adaptive reuse project along Santa Fe Avenue. Pursuant to the City's Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, adaptive reuse projects are not required to provide parking. A joint development group has entered into an agreement with the MTA to utilize surplus land between the east side of Santa Fe Avenue and the rail tracks leading to its rail transit repair facility along the Los Angeles River for the development of student housing, artist lofts and parking. Under the existing Central City North Community Plan however, Santa Fe Avenue is designated as a Major Highway, which does not support the pedestrian-friendly purpose of the general land use and the Sci-Arc project. This roadway designation needs to be changed for the following reasons: * The historic designation of a portion of the Sci-Arc building constrains the potential development of Santa Fe Avenue as a Major Highway. * The configuration of the 1st and 4th Street bridges further restricts an increased width of Santa Fe Avenue without expensive reconstruction of the supporting structures of the bridges; and * The current traffic volume on this avenue is 6,000 vehicles per day, which is substantially below that of a typical collector street, nor is anticipated future traffic expected to significantly increase. THEREFORE MOVE that the City Council direct the Planning Department, in coordination with the Department of Transportation, to prepare and present the necessary documents and plan amendments to the "Streets and Highways Designation Map" of the Transportation Element of the General Plan and to the Central City North Community Plan, to redesignate and downgrade Santa Fe Avenue between 1st and 4th Streets from a Major Highway to a modified Collector Street, with variable dimensions of 57 to 82-foot right-of-way, including a 42-50 foot minimum roadway. FURTHER MOVE that the right-of-way in excess of the required minimum roadway dimensions on the eastern side of Santa Fe Street between 1st and 4th Streets be dedicated to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to support the construction of parking, housing and other public benefits for the community.

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