CCMIN101607 - Laserfiche WebLink

voluntary expenditure total, but she would rather see as an individual an amount that is coming from a corporation where she could choose to say she does not want to accept it. Based on the collective discussion of the City Council, City Manager Fialho said staff will return in December with options for council consideration. 16. Review of potential costs and procedures required to establish railroad quiet zones at grade train crossings Public Works Director Rob Wilson said the item before the Council is to review costs and procedures required to establish railroad quiet zone at grade crossings. He said the quiet zones were created with the possibility for it in 2005, but the Federal Railroad Administration adopted a new train horn rule which allowed the possibility of creating a quiet zone where a train is prohibited from blowing its whistle. The City has four at-grade crossings in the downtown area; at Santa Rita Road, St. Mary's Street, Rose Street and West Angela Street and all crossings are currently controlled by crossing arms. He said the blowing of the horn is considered to be a safety measure; it warns pedestrians as well as drivers that a train is coming in addition to the visual sign that the gate is coming down. The understanding is that if you stop the whistle from blowing, that it be replaced with something that creates at least as safe a crossing as if a train came in blowing its horn. When creating a quiet zone, there is a calculator used on site that allows one to look at alternatives to the existing protection. Staff has gone on that site, reviewed what could be done for an alternative and the recommendation on the site itself is to create a four quadrant gate system. The four quadrant gate is a fairly expensive option because the work is done by the Union Pacific Railroad employees who owns the tracks and makes sure the work is done to their satisfaction. There is a need to put in some type of detection to allow the gates to come up should a car get trapped within those four gates. There must be a backup system as well in case the power goes out which indicates to the conductor to blow the horn, and all of these factors add up to significant cost. Overall, staff feels this would provide benefits to the residents, especially those living next to the railroads. It stops the horn from blowing except for those ACE trains approaching the one station. Federal regulations require that a train entering a station must blow a whistle. The trade-off for those benefits is the budget for it. If $400,000 is multiplied by four intersections, it would cost $1.6 million just for the downtown. In addition, there was a speaker who was looking at the at-grade crossing at Castlewood. Castlewood Drive is an at-grade crossing located in the County, but the blowing of the horn does affect Pleasanton residents. If adding this intersection, it would be another $400,000. Staff is recommending that because of the benefits, that the Council consider this, but in the overall context of other priorities that the Council is currently looking at. There are other projects coming forward that may need additional dollars. Therefore, staff recommends Council take the action of considering this with next year's update of the CIP. Councilmember Cook-Kallio said she lives near a crossing and they hear the whistle and understands those who came to the Council are truly bothered by it. She asked if staff knew how many people are affected and think that $400,000 was a good way to spend City funds. She questioned if there was a way to measure this. Mr. Wilson said staff has not done this, they have gone out and talked to residents, they know it is pretty subjective, he has heard from new and long-time residents, but staff has never done a survey about the noise. Councilmember McGovern said she received some email from residents who are talking about horns that blow 16 times as they go through the downtown and she asked if there was any City Council Minutes 12 October 16, 2007