With just three Hollister City Council members present Oct. 18, the council voted unanimously to adopt two resolutions to accept two traffic-calming analyses on Sally Street and Buena Vista Road, and to authorize city staff to implement the recommendations. Councilman Rick Perez was not present.
Kimley-Horn, an engineering firm contracted by the city, held two virtual workshops in March and July, along with surveys to collect input on what calming measures the public thought best for both roads. In the presentations from Frederik Venter of Kimley-Horn that carried the meeting past 10 p.m., he summarized the reports’ findings and recommendations for each road.
Sally Street proved to be a simpler fix because it is older and located in a well-established neighborhood. Buena Vista Road is more complicated as there are private properties that still need to be annexed into the city, and developments are still in progress. This called for an immediate, interim solution of placing speed bumps along its entire length until funding and property right issues could be determined before addressing other issues.
Existing conditions were analyzed and historical data, including traffic counts, speed surveys and collision history was collected, according to city documents. The information was used to determine cost-effective measures that aim to create a safer atmosphere for the community. Construction cost will be developed and presented to the City Council as part of the design approval process. No timeline was provided as to when that’ll be presented to the City Council.
According to Kimley-Horn’s findings, Sally Street is approximately 1¼ mile long. It runs north-south and is a two-lane road between Nash Road and Maple Street. The project study area is located between Nash Road and Hawkins Street. It provides local access to single-family dwellings, commercial and industrial businesses in downtown Hollister, Rancho San Justo Middle School and San Benito High School.
It was historically designed as a wide street to provide cattle and carriage access to the Hollister cannery. The posted speed limit is 25 mph, which is often exceeded by at least 10 miles per hour, according to the presentation.
Venter presented three possible options to the council to calm traffic: traffic circles, speed bumps, and a mix of the two. Venter said the first two options would most likely slow speeds down by 10%, but drivers might simply use streets on either side of Sally Street instead. The council opted for the hybrid option. Engineering designs would be brought back to the council this fall and bids for the job would go out in winter, quickly followed by construction.
The interim concepts for calming measures for Buena Vista Road appeared to be more of a challenge. Speed bumps were recommended along the entire length of the road, along with mini-roundabouts at select intersections, pending future developments and available funding. The council did not favor waiting for developments.
Buena Vista Road is a two-lane road approximately 1¾ miles long and runs east-west between the western city limits and San Benito Street. Hollister recently extended Buena Vista Road with the North Street improvement project between Locust Avenue and San Benito Road.
The road is identified as a key roadway corridor for future improvement from the 2020 City of Hollister Complete Street Plan. The goal of the plan is to provide near-term and long-term complete street improvements for all users including pedestrians, bicycles, transit, and automobiles.
The study found that on average, speeds on this road exceeded the posted limits by 10 mph, with some incidents as high as 65 mph, warranting calming measures. According to the study, the culmination of the site visits, existing conditions data collection and community feedback is that “there is a traffic problem along Buena Vista Road consisting of excessive vehicle speeding, collisions, and lack of safe pedestrian crossings.”
One of the biggest issues is that there are no sidewalks along the north side of the road, nor along the south side adjacent to undeveloped parcels between Miller Road and Calaveras Elementary School. There are also no existing crosswalks.
However, with the proposed mini-roundabout at the intersection of Buena Vista Road and Gonzalez Drive, crosswalks would be added on each leg. This would provide a pedestrian path from the project to the south side of Buena Vista Road. And being that development is still taking place at several locations along the road more sidewalks would be needed.
In discussing the recommendations and how to pay for calming measures, Councilman Rolan Resendiz said he recalled former Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz having earmarked money for the road. He suggested either contacting De La Cruz or the county to determine if that were the case and where the money might be, because he wanted to pay for improvements up front rather than wait for future developments to do so.
City Manager Brett Miller said it was important to address calming measures immediately, as he was concerned that by trying to work with the county the project could be delayed several months.
“I want to see something in there right away,” he said. “Staff has heard you that this is a high priority and working with the county delays it longer.”
Mayor Ignacio Velázquez said, “The consensus here is to put the speed humps in immediately and work toward that permanent solution and not push it off.” He added that property lines [of private properties that need to be annexed into the city] needed to be shifted so sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and lighting could be installed.
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