Cities21 Background Memo for P&TC September 29 meeting
Sustainable Silver Bullet: Stanford Research Park Multimodal Demand Analysis

Dear Planning & Transportation Commission,

Cities21 is a Palo Alto-based non-profit, a project of the San Francisco Foundation Community Initiative Funds. Cities21 focuses on "better transit, greater urban livability, and reduced pollution." Cities21 studies commute trip reduction strategies that are very different from those considered by Palo Alto, VTA, MTC, Caltrans, or the U.S. Department of Transportation.

This agenda item presents an UNSOLICITED study of commute trip reduction strategies for Stanford Research Park (SRP). The research was privately funded. Council Member Kishimoto helped to place this item on the P&TC agenda.

Joe Kott held a brown bag session for Cities21's proposal in January of 2001. In attendance were Council Members Beecham, Kishimoto, and Burch. (Chronicle story: http://www.cities21.org/chronicle_010701.htm.) Joe is a Cities21 member. In Fall of 2003, because of a perceived conflict, the City Attorney recused Joe from commenting on Stanford-related items, such as this Cities21 SRP proposal.

At various times, City Council has backed housing in SRP. For example, five of six council members favored housing on the Mayfield site in late 2001: http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2001/2001_12_05.overnite05.html . On September 6, 2001, The Chronicle quoted the City Manager (in reference to a Mayfield-related proposal to add housing units near Roche Bioscience), "There is a tremendous jobs-housing imbalance in Palo Alto. SRP is a tremendous generator of jobs, and we think this would be a great opportunity to bring people closer to their jobs."

Cities21 presented an SRP "commute shed" map to the Commission in March '03. (City of Palo Alto press release: http://www.cities21.org/PApressRelease.htm)

This Silver Bullet research has been presented at:

• The nation's premier transportation conference, the Transportation Research Board Conference in Washington D.C. in January.
• The Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) Western Regional Conference in San Francisco on April 22.
• The Bay Area Clean Air Partnership (BayCap) Shuttle Group Meeting in Emeryville in March

In addition, a summary paper has been accepted for publication in the nation's premier transportation journal, Transportation Research Record. The complete study runs 188 pages in length, and was advised by U.C. Berkeley Professor Cervero, who gave the Palo Alto Distinguished Transportation Speaker talk in 2000.

Cities21 has made more than 200 small group presentations on this research, including the following:

• Constituents: Bern Beecham, Yoriko Kishimoto, College Terrace (Pria Graves, John Ciccarelli), Gary Fazzino, Joe Simitian's staff, Joint Venture Silicon Valley, SVMG, Stanford Research Park companies (Roche, EPRI, SAP, Lockheed, HP, Daimler Chrysler).
• Agencies: Caltrans, City of Palo Alto staff, VTA, Environmental Protection Agency's Best Workplaces for Commuters, Mineta Transportation Institute, MTC, Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance, RIDES, San Jose Redevelopment Agency, and University of California PATH, CCIT, and Transportation Center.
• Advocates: Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC), BayRail Alliance, SaveSFBay, California Futures Network, STIR project, Packard Foundation, California Affordable Housing Law Project.
• Real-estate interests: Palo Alto Housing Corporation, Stanford Management Company, ULI.

I am a Palo Alto native, K-12 PAUSD graduate, husband of a Stanford graduate, father of a PAUSD first grader, and founder of Cities21. My parents have lived in Midtown since 1963. I was Project Manager for BART's Group Rapid Transit Study and the only U.S. citizen invited to the unveiling of the ULTra personal monorail test track in Cardiff, Wales. I also served as Training Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity.

- Steve Raney, Executive Director, Cities21