Campbell's Hacienda Avenue to get new improvements

Campbell's Public Works Department has announced new improvements coming to Hacienda Avenue between Winchester Boulevard and Burrows Road/San Tomas Aquino Road. This project, entitled the Hacienda Avenue Green Street Project, is anticipated to address existing concerns regarding pavement condition, missing sidewalks, improper drainage, as well as pedestrian and traffic safety in a manner that incorporates green street elements and sustainable design concepts.

Current design elements under consideration include:

Design elements to be considered include:

• Street pavement rehabilitation.
• Installation of missing sidewalks, accessibility ramps, and curbs and gutters.
• Installation of landscaped linear parkways along each side of the roadway that will be available to capture and percolate stormwater runoff.
• Reduction of heat island effect through the installation of additional street trees and a reduction to the overall asphalt pavement area.

The project is made possible through a generous grant from the Proposition 84 Chapter 2 Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) Grant Program, administered by the State Department of Water Resources. This competitive grant program provides funding for projects that assist local public agencies to meet the long term water needs of the state including the delivery of safe drinking water and the protection of water quality and the environment. Additional grant funds have also been provided by the Valley Transportation Authority’s Community Design and Transportation Program, which allocates funding on a competitive basis to projects that are creative, enhance connections with transit facilities, employ innovative and high-quality design, improve the pedestrian environment, enhance economic vitality, make better use of the land, infrastructure, and resources, and/or improve community connectivity, liveability, sustainability, and sense-of-place.

View Larger Map
City staff conducted meetings with the property owners along this stretch of Hacienda Avenue to collect additional input regarding the project, which will assist with the conceptual design process. Upon conclusion of the meetings with the adjacent property owners, the conceptual design will be presented to the community for additional review and input.

The following links are also designed to give you more information regarding this project:

• Council Memorandum (5.37 mb pdf) - Presented to City Council at the August 7, 2012 Study Session
• PowerPoint Presentation (4.63 mb pdf) - Presented to property owners
• Notice of Improvement Obligation (NIO) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) (20 kb pdf)

If you design for cars...you get cars.

New textured pedestrian crosswalk
being placed at the corner
of Campbell and Winchester.

During many San Jose General Plan and Diridon Station meetings, I remember Michele Beasley of Greenbelt Alliance invoking a well known phrase, "If you design for cars, you'll get cars. If you design for people you'll get people". Just this week I took photos of two locations in the valley that bring this point home.

One picture is of the ongoing construction work in downtown Campbell and at the intersection of Winchester Ave. and Campbell Ave. The Winchester Ave project will make for a more walkable Campbell west of the downtown area. Two years ago the city built their complete streets project to the east of downtown near the entrance of the Los Gatos Creek Trail.

These infrastructure improvements, along with the construction of a multi-story garage, and additional private investment has helped to make Downtown Campbell into a bustling retail area with shops, an extremely popular farmer's market, and a number of well known restaurants.

Almaden Blvd.; wide, with no
pedestrian activity.
The old SJDOT felt it was
better to design for cars.
The 'new' SJDOT gets it.

The other photo is of one part of the city of San Jose's downtown Bicycle Improvement project along Third and Fourth Streets, Ninth and Eleventh Streets, Almaden Blvd. (shown in the picture). The city is doing great work incorporating more bike routes in the downtown area. One of the areas is along Almaden Blvd., a suburban office park arterial dropped into a traditional downtown area. With the wide boulevard, the large medians, the mid-level office towers with large setbacks to allow for front lawns you get the feeling if you where in Tustin or Irvine, not a downtown with 250 years of San Jose history.

What would you rather have textured crosswalks or textured left turn lanes?

Which area do you perceive as being safer?

If you notice the photo, old school San Jose designed as if for cars only. The boulevard is wide, wide enough to have one of those old Soviet era May day celebrations with the parade of ICBM's (curious if the generation who grew up without newspapers knows what an ICBM is. click here for answer)

Related Posts:
New building going up in the heart of downtown Campbell
Tread Bike Shop - Just one more reason to enjoy downtown Campbell