FTC Foolishness in Fullerton?
Submitted by jaisuazo on 20 April, 2010 - 2:51pm
So what does Pasadena, Parking Garages, the FTC, and High Speed Rail all have in common? Before you hurt yourself trying to figure out what they all have in common, let’s take topics of Fullerton’s FTC Specific Plan Community Meeting for $500.
On Monday evening, the City of Fullerton along with their partners from Walker Parking Consultants held their first community meeting regarding the redesigning of the Fullerton Transportation Center (FTC) to become a mixed-used transit-oriented development featuring housing, shops, park space, and many new restaurants. You can find out more about the plans and drafts on the Fullerton City website.
Overall, you can’t help but commend the preparedness and efficiency that Fullerton put on for this community meeting. The meeting featured great displays on all the tentative plans and plenty of outlets for public comments. The audience featured a great mix of students, bus riders, Fullerton residents, and city officials. Unfortunately, the sad truth of the matter was that bus riders and transit supporters who attended the meeting were surprised to learn about the proposed future of the FTC.
As a no brainer, the future role of High Speed Rail (HSR) in Fullerton came up in a heartbeat once public comment got underway. Citizens addressed the concern that property may need to be taken, especially since construction is under way of an additional line of track for Metrolink. Fullerton officials quickly and promptly handled the concerns and urged everyone to attend the HSR community meetings when the CAHSRA visits he city. Not too surprisingly, the audience found relief once mention was made of OCTA & MTA’s suggestion (and CHSRA’s agreement) to re-explore the shared used of track between Los Angeles and Anaheim.
One of the hotter topics of the night came to be (drumroll please) – parking. Ironically, a majority of the arguments and suggestions weren’t “It’s not enough,” but “why so much.” A sample of the concerns included:
•Why will the plans include an entirely new parking structure when we are currently building one across Harbor Boulevard?
•Will the new housing include parking for the tenets and where will it be located?
•If it is “transit oriented” development, don’t we want to encourage transit use? Isn’t adding plenty of parking ironic? Will all tenets have private parking spaces even though some may be transit dependent?
•Will tenets be able to lease out their private parking spaces?
•If the parking structure if for transit and the Harbor structure is for the increased Metrolink service, where will people park for the shops and restaurants.
Even though these are some crazy questions, you can’t help but argue the merit of the last question. If I lived in Brea, it would be a bit difficult getting to Fullerton on the pesky 143.
Many other audience members raised great concerns, ranging from the accessibility for bikes to the complete isolation of the residents who ride the train and live south of the station (The proposal reflects the ideology that train riders only enter the station on the North side, from the new “Transit Plaza”).
The definite highlight of the night was local transit advocate Jane Reifer’s public comment and presentation about her concerns on the overall project and specifically, the new bus depot located on the first floor of the parking garage. Citing many issues with the overall design and purpose of the new plan, Reifer went on to present many images of Metro’s Gold Line final station on the northern end known as Sierra Madre Villa. The significance of this particular station, Reifer pointed out, was that the station and bus depot/parking garage was designed by the exact same consultants handling Fullerton: Walker Parking Consultants.
Utilizing the photos I had taken over the weekend at the station, Reifer was able to point out the dismal and extremely unappealing aspects that the Sierra Madre Villa depot possesses to the crowd. Her points included the extremely dark lighting, the unattractive design elements, the confusing layout, and the major fact that the entire depot is hidden away in a parking structure. As she continued on, the hosts tried to reclaim their meeting by wrapping up her comments and trying to end the slideshow. Once Reifer ended her comments, members of the crowd broke into applause. In a lame attempt to regain the crowd’s trust that the idea of a transit depot can be combined with other properties, the hosts presented an image of an old historic building located in Boston that doubles as a transit terminal on the lower floor and office space on top.
Nice try guys, but last time I checked a parking garage is a bit different than a historic building with office space.
So here is what it comes down to. Fullerton is expressing that these current plans are only drafts and that this is no way near the final stages. This project will be in the works for a long time to come and you can bet that Orange County transit supporters will be there every step of the way. Whether or not you like the Sierra Madre station or the current FTC, you can’t help but wonder about one woman’s question that she boldly asked halfway through the night:
“Why do we even need to redo the Transportation Center?”
James Suazo is a contributing writer and full-time student at California State University, Long Beach. He is also a member of the Transit Advocates of Orange County and resides in Santa Ana.
Comments
There's no reason to put the
There's no reason to put the bus depot in a dank parking structure. And even if the parking structure looked nice, that's still no reason to do it.
The buses should be out in the open right in front of the train station. Check out page 2-15 of the plan: http://www.cityoffullerton.com/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=6462
Do you see that little plaza in front of the rail depot? Now see the cars? THAT'S WHERE THE BUSES SHOULD STOP. Why in the FUCK are cars allowed to pull up right next to the train station, but bus riders, many of whom transfers to the mother fucking trains, are not allowed to? There's more than enough room for the 43, 26, 47, the occasional late night Amtrak bus and that godawful 143. Ban cars from that driveway. BUSES ONLY. They can drop people off on Santa Fe and Pomona.
1. Make transfers easy.
2. Let passengers transfer in daylight.
Why is the 143 hated so much?
Why is the 143 hated so much?
Because it used to be part of
Because it used to be part of route 43. The creation of 143 introduced a needless transfer.
Dank Parking Garage
Why don't the put it in a dry parking garage? Why does it have to be a dank one? Dankness makes my rheumatism act up.
But on rainy days a dry parking structure would be kind of nice, kind of dry.
Having buses close to the train station might be a little hazardous with all the people getting into cabs and cars there. I don't think it should be designed to artificially restrict car traffic which so many people use at Fullerton station, just because we hate cars. And we don't really hate cars, we hate the DMV. And they won't care, they don't use buses or trains. They don't make any money off them.
"I don't think it should be
"I don't think it should be designed to artificially restrict car traffic which so many people use at Fullerton station, just because we hate cars."
Car traffic will be going to the parking garages.
A bus depot would have awnings to protect against the elements. A parking structure is a building for cars, not people.
Responses
Anonymous, the 143 is not well liked for two reasons in my opinion:
1) It's a very confusing route for people who are unfamiliar with the system since it travels in a large 'V' shaped route. This creates a lot of problems with directions. A lot of riders have gotten confused with the Directions, hence why OCTA had to send out a Riders Alert a few days after the service change to clarify the East and West directions.
2) Compare the 143 to the 153. Both routes were created in the same service change. The 153 is the Northern portion of the 53 and runs every hour. Meanwhile, the 143 is a combination of the Northern sections of the 43 AND 47 and typically runs every 75 minutes to 90 in the evening. This makes a world of a difference when you try and make transfers, especially in North OC.
Spokker, I agree! The ironic part about the entire "transit-oriented" development is that instead of promoting transit, it hides the bus depot in the bottom of a parking structure and puts it out of view. It would be great to see the buses directly in front of the station along Santa Fe, similar to the Long Beach Transit Mall. Close the street to cars and make it transit exclusive. That would be amazing.
Hell, keep the bus depot in
Hell, keep the bus depot in the same exact place as it is now. Improve bus flow while you're at it. Can they really not build the TOD around it?
The Problem with a Bus Station In Front of the Train Station
The hidden problem with the original City of Fullerton concept for the bus station directly in front of the train station was that since it was in combination with a park / plaza that would have programmed events, concerts, etc., the bus facility was scheduled for CLOSURE on a REGULAR basis to protect children and other park-goers from cross-traffic. The City felt that these regular closures, if not done during business hours, would be acceptable. Also, one of the key concepts was to have the historic station visible from the park. This would almost preclude having shelters protecting bus riders at this facility, although details were never worked out.
At the Gold Line Mission
At the Gold Line Mission Station in South Pasadena there are movie screenings on the side of a museum on summer nights. They are right next to the Gold Line and no kids have been run over yet.
Recent media coverage of this...
CSUF's Daily Titan paints a very rosy picture of this project.
Fullerton city transportation plan unveiled
By JACOB LOPEZ
For the Daily Titan
Published: April 21, 2010
The Fullerton Transportation Center Specific Plan was the focus of discussion on Monday night at Fullerton’s City Council meeting.
The meeting was led by the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency in the Reinhardt Hall of the Fullerton Senior Multi-Service Center with about 30 people in attendance.
The FTC Specific Plan will transform close to 39 acres of land around the Transportation Center into a “sustainable, compact, urban neighborhood within walking distance of the Fullerton Train Depot and downtown Fullerton,” according to the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.
The location of this redevelopment is in the heart of downtown Fullerton. Its bordering streets are Commonwealth Avenue to the north, Harbor Boulevard to the west, Lawrence Avenue to the east and Walnut and Truslow avenues to the south, said the FRA.
According to the FTC Specific Plan, the majority of the property in the area will be redeveloped into mixed-use and multi-family land uses. A mixed-use structure is a building that houses retail shops combined with either residential or office space. All of the new structures developed in the FTC plan will be mixed-use structures.
Historic buildings and other buildings that have been recently constructed are to remain. A major mixed-use structure talked about during the meeting was the development of a new parking structure with the first level being the new OCTA bus station.
James Suazo, an Orange County resident, said he attended the meeting to “gain a better understanding how the new development will affect the OCTA busing routes, and to give his input on what he thought about the city’s new plans on changing the location of the bus station.”
Along with the new buildings the Specific Plan will include a mixture of civic spaces, including a Transit Plaza, neighborhood parks, a Transit Courtyard, a Rail Promenade and several pedestrian paseos (pedestrian only streets). Pedestrian-friendly streets lined with trees and other amenities such as benches and wider sidewalks will link the different civic spaces, according to the FRA.
The Specific Plan will start its first phase of development within the next five years, and will take 15 to 20 years to complete. It will add an additional 100,000 square feet of general retail/restaurant space, 100,000 square feet of office space, a 120-room hotel and 1,513 residential units. If there is more of a demand for residential over office spac, the FRA said it would allot up to 1,560 residential units and only 49,000 square feet of office space.
The most important aspect of the FTC neighborhood is to reduce the dependency on driving by providing “opportunities to commute to a variety of major employment and leisure destinations throughout Southern California by transit,” the FRA said.
“I ride my bike everyday to work and creating a neighborhood that promotes alternative transportation such as walking, biking, busing and riding the train is a very good thing,” said Jane Rands, a member of the Fullerton Bicycle Users Subcommittee.
Hey! Listen! They're full of
Hey! Listen!
They're full of shit, Link! You might as well stick the bus stop in the deku tree.
spokker is awesome
LMAO!
tenets?
I know what a tenet is, but that word makes no sense as used several times in the posting.