BioMed Project Brings a Traffic Diverter to Horton Street

Councilman Bauters' Letter to Planning Commission Delivers Long Needed Traffic Diverter to Horton Street Bike Boulevard

With a number of major traffic inducing projects coming online for Horton Street, the first major attempt by the City of Emeryville to use provisions of its 10 year old Bike Plan to reduce vehicle traffic for the benefit of bicycling in the form of a full traffic diverter has been secured by Councilman John Bauters the Tattler has learned.  Mr Bauters, working behind the scenes and as a private citizen, managed to get the developer of the BioMed project, BioMed Realty to agree to pay for and install a full traffic diverter on Horton and Stanford streets just before a vote of the Planning Commission that would have not required such a traffic calming measure.  The diverter will allow bikes and emergency vehicles through but will block all other vehicle traffic on Horton Street, both north bound and south bound.  

In a February 24th letter to the Planning Commission, Mr Bauters, who is recused from deciding anything about the BioMed project as a City Council member (owing to his residence proximity to the project), told the Commissioners to require a full diverter as a condition of approval and reassuringly, he informed them that after discussions between himself and company representatives, BioMed was amenable to a full diverter.  The Commission voted to make the full diverter at Horton and Stanford Street a condition of approval at their meeting the following evening.

The BioMed 'Emeryville Center for Innovation'
Hollis Street at Stanford looking south.
Will bring 4000 new cars but also a long needed
traffic diverter to Horton Street.

The future of Horton Street is a future with lots of cars, in excess of 11,000 per day.  The Sherwin Williams residential project, now being built, will add almost 4000 cars per day to the street and the BioMed project will add a 2000 space 11 story parking garage to Horton Street, also netting a total of 4000 vehicle trips per day for a total of almost 8000 more cars per day on the street.  Horton Street is a designated bike boulevard that is not allowed to have in excess of 3000 vehicle trips per day, an amount that’s lower than what’s on the street now.  This new BioMed diverter promises to significantly lower the number.

The design of the diverter will be built as planned in the City’s Bike Plan drafted 10 years ago and, other than a diverter placed on Doyle Street as a result of the COVID pandemic eight months ago, represents the first time the City has attempted to calm traffic by following the Bike Plan.  The diverter might still not be enough to reduce the traffic to the 3000 per day threshold and more could be added at a later time.  The Sherwin Williams project is in discussion with the City to possibly add a partial diverter at 40th Street.  Up until now, the City has not entertained adding diverters to Horton Street, the premier north/south bike route in town, and the street has been out of compliance with the Bike Plan since its inception.  Of the five bike boulevards in Emeryville, only Doyle Street has been in compliance with the traffic volume as delineated by the Bike Plan.  

The diverter at Stanford and Horton streets will mean many vehicles will divert over to Hollis Street, likely loading that thoroughfare up with much worse rush hour traffic jams.

The BioMed proposal originally included a traffic calming device at Horton and Stanford but as it was designed, it would only serve as a partial diverter according to Councilman Bauters.   The original design would not reduce vehicle traffic enough to meet the required threshold the Councilman told the Commissioners.  In his February 24th letter, he showed the Commissioners how the design was substandard both in traffic reduction and in safety.  “The current design does not prevent a northbound driver from making a right hand turn, followed by an illegal left or U-turn maneuver at Stanford Street, he said.  “Inadequate design at this location, coupled with the location's intersection of the Emeryville Greenway will result in not only drivers colliding with pedestrians and bicyclists, but also with other drivers coming southbound through the new proposed curve.”  He also showed how southbound drivers will be encouraged to use a newly opened Chiron Way to cut through the traffic diverter as originally planned.  The improved Bauters design will function as a real full diverter, just like how it’s supposed to according the the Bike Plan.

The BioMed project, also called the 'Emeryville Center for Innovation' represents a major expansion of the existing biotech research lab campus at Hollis and Stanford streets, extending south almost to 45th Street along Hollis Street.

Neither the City staff nor the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee raised any objections to the original pre-Bauters design and in fact both gave their approvals.  Interestingly, on the night of the Planning Commission meeting after they received the Councilman's letter, the staff did not object to his revision as presented to the Commission and the BPAC did not lodge any complaints after the unanimous Planning Commission vote to approve the full traffic diverter.

Correction: The City is considering adding one partial traffic diverter at 40th Street and Horton blocking northbound traffic onto Horton.  This is the only diverter under consideration to ameliorate the traffic generated by the Sherwin Williams project.  We initially reported a second partial diverter was being considered at 45th Street.

From the City's Bike Plan: Full Traffic Diverter at Horton and Stanford streets.
The BioMed diverter uses this exact design. 

Councilman Reveals Inept/Corrupt City Staff Regarding Trees at Biomed Project

 City Staff Bid Allowing Developer to Cut Trees

Ends With Bauters' Rebuke 

Information Hidden From Commissioners  

Council Member Pounces on Staff, Saves Trees

Council member John Bauters (on right)
He has a 'Loraxian' view of the urban forest but he's
thankfully, more effective than the actual Lorax.
Photo Lea Suzuki/SF Chronicle

Emeryville was on track heading into the February 25th Planning Commission meeting to allow the cutting of nearly 176 trees associated with Hollis Street's Biomed development proposal but for the actions of Councilman John Bauters who, citing a City statute that protects privately owned trees, forced the city staff  to save 90 trees following their initial recommendation for removal.   After the City Hall staff prepared their report that mistakenly gave the Commission a green light to kill the trees, Councilman Bauters, monitoring the Commission, wrote a February 24th email excoriating the staff for failing to reveal to the Commission their option to save the trees as is preserved in Emeryville’s municipal code.  

The Planning Commission, in response to Mr Bauters’ email, voted to save many of the trees that would have unnecessarily been cut down if they had listened to the staff.  A sharp eyed Councilman John Bauters, noting the error in the staff report, ultimately managed to save 90 trees from being cut outright but further got an agreement to plant more trees than what the staff had asked of the developer – 45 trees in all.

The tree cutting, as first presented by Emeryville Planning Director Charlie Bryant, forwarded Biomed's desire to cut down 22 public street trees associated with their development proposal as well as 154 trees on their property, as they had requested.  The public street trees are protected by Emeryville’s Urban Forestry Ordinance (UFO) but privately owned trees are not.  However, a section of the municipal code does provide some protection for privately owned trees in Emeryville but Mr Bryant failed to notify the Planning Commission of that. In the case of the proposed Biomed facility, the Planning Commission's hands are not tied as Mr Bryant indicated in his staff report but rather, the law does grant the Planning Commission an option to save the privately owned trees there.

Councilman Bauters, who is operating with the Biomed project as a private citizen due to proximity conflicts, quoted Emeryville Municipal Code Section 9-4.503(c) that outlines the process for the discretionary review of a project on private property involving existing trees.  Mr Bryant, in his staff report, did not reveal to the Planning Commission the following from 9-4.503(c):

“For projects on private property that require discretionary City approval, the Director, Planning Commission, or City Council, as the case may be, may require that existing healthy on-site trees be preserved and incorporated into the project unless this is shown to be infeasible.”

Mr Bauters, calling the omission “an appealable error”, stated the City of Emeryville had failed to consider the feasibility of preserving on-site trees.  He questioned the motives of the City for hiding information that could lead to saving trees adding, “from the beginning, the application has been presented, considered, debated and developed with the presumption that their preservation was a foregone conclusion.”

Emeryville's Biomed Center of Innovation™
View looking south at Hollis Street

The Planning Commission after receiving Council member Bauters’ email asked the staff to provide the information that had been denied them and upon receipt, they voted to save 77 of the private trees and they went on to insist 13 of the 22 proposed publicly owned street trees be saved, also at Mr Bauters’ request.  The staff had insisted underground pipes associated with the construction of the Biomed project would necessitate the cutting all 22 public trees, a conclusion the Council member showed to be false.  

Unfortunately, this is not the first time the City staff has ruled public street trees be cut in error.  There has been a pattern and practice of giving Emeryville’s decision makers false information that would rule in developers’ favor regarding cutting down our trees.  In 2018, the staff told the City Council that the developer of the Sherwin Williams project be allowed to cut some 14 trees, again owing to underground pipes; a falsehood revealed by the Tattler.  In that case, the staff hid a critical arborist report from the Planning Commission that they likely would have cited to save the trees. After a protracted public battle, the trees were mostly all saved. 

Mr Bauters also caught the staff falsely advising decision makers to cut publicly owned trees before the February 25th debacle.  In 2016, he managed to save 21 of 30 proposed tree removals associated with a PG&E pipeline renovation project on 53rd Street after the staff had told the Planning Commission to allow all 30 trees be cut.  The staff was forced to remove the agenda item at Council member Bauters’ behest after he demanded the legal agreements and maps showing pipeline proximity from PG&E.  Eventually, it was revealed that there was no agreement with the City as staff had claimed, and that the pipeline PG&E thought was under the sidewalk was in fact under the middle of the street.