APPROVING APPLICATION FOR THE 1998-99 ENVIRONMENTAL ENHANCEMENT AND MITIGATION (EEM) PROGRAM GRANT FOR THE PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY ENHANCEMENT STUDY

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the City Council: Adopt Resolution No. 97 - approving the re-application for grant funds for the Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation (EEM) Program. Application for funding for 1998-99 fiscal year must be postmarked no later than Monday, December 8, 1997, for the project identified as Pacific Coast Highway Enhancement Study.

Background:

The EEM Program was established by the enactment of the Transportation Blueprint Legislation of 1989 (AB 471, Katz). This legislation states that it is the intent of the Legislature to allocate $10 million annually to this program for grant purposes for a 10 year period from Fiscal Year 1991-92 to fiscal year 2000-01. This program provides grants to State, local and federal agencies and nonprofit organizations to mitigate the environmental impact of modified or new public transportation facilities. The Resources Agency prescribes procedures and criteria to evaluate grant proposals. Based on its evaluation, the Agency prepares and submits a list of proposals recommended for funding to the California Transportation Commission (CTC), who annually awards grants to fund proposals from the Agency's list.

Analysis:

On February 12, 1991 the city Council adopted Resolution No. 91-5434 establishing a "NO PARKING" zone on the west side of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) between the hours of 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM Monday through Friday, except holidays. Caltrans' implementation of this Resolution created a peak-hour traffic volume increase of approximately 750 vehicles/hour along PCH during that time period. As the Caltrans project did not, in any way, propose to mitigate the impact of those additional volumes, the City of Hermosa Beach Public Works Department applied to the Resource Agency for consideration for the 1993-94 and 1994-95 EEM Program. The proposed project intended to mitigate the negative influence of increased traffic volumes by providing landscaped medians. The application for grant funding in 1993-94 and 1994-95 were not approved by the Resources Agency.

For the fiscal year 1998-99, the City of Hermosa Beach's application for the EEM Program proposes a complete impact study of the Pacific Coast Highway corridor within

the City's boundary. The proposed study shall investigate the impacts of increased traffic flows with regards to business, residential safety and environmental concerns. The end result of the study shall be a set of implementable environmental mitigation measures which will thoroughly address these concerns.

Fiscal Impact:

The City's contribution would be 20% of the $75,000.00 grant funding requested. City staff and equipment owned by the City used directly engaged in the project study would be an eligible cost.

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