There is no Traffic Problem in Walnut Creek

There are no “significant” traffic impacts caused by the glut of new high-density housing planned and already approved in downtown Walnut Creek.  And the City Council has the numbers to prove it.  Of course, the way the Council has decided to quantify traffic impacts has a lot to do with this conclusion.

Just the facts ...

The Walnut Creek City Council certified that the Environmental Impact Report for the BART Transit Village was complete when clearly it wasn’t.  The study should have evaluated traffic impacts at the Cole/California intersection.   But Cindy Silva and the rest of the Council were only interested hearing “facts” that supported their pro-growth agenda.  

Just because we hear you …

Thursday night I attended a Planning Commission “Study Session” on the BART Transit Village.  OK, I know that only wackos who like to hear themselves talk into a microphone go to Public Meetings, but I don’t sing well enough to try karaoke.

I’m fortunate - I can walk to the Walnut Creek BART station.  But I feel sorry for all of those BART riders and freeway commuters who drive up and down Ygnacio Valley Road every weekday.

Construction of the BART Transit Village will make their lives miserable for years to come.  When the new garage is being constructed, the 225 parking spaces on the southwest corner of the BART lot will be unavailable – patrons will have to park somewhere blocks away.  And I’ve never seen a construction project yet that doesn’t block sidewalks, and sometimes a lane or two of traffic.  Construction companies love to send flagmen out into the roadway to halt everything while large trucks pull on and off the site.  And the roads around the BART station are already a mess

Investing in the future ...

A San Francisco firm called BRE Properties contributed $15,000 to the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce PAC in order to get an incumbent Council woman and a Chamber-backed newcomer elected. After their candidates were elected (but before they were seated), BRE appeared at a public hearing to share their plans for a huge "transit village" project at the Walnut Creek BART station ...