December 02, 2015 Cressey Development Group Suite 800, 925 ...rezoning.vancouver.ca/applications/3365commercial/documents/... · Nathan Gurvich Development Coordinator Cressey Development

December 02, 2015

4297.06

Nathan Gurvich

Development Coordinator

Cressey Development Group

Suite 800, 925 West Georgia Street

Vancouver, BC V6C 3L2

Dear Nathan:

Re: Residential Development at 3365 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC

Transportation Review

We have updated our transportation review for the 114 residential rental units planned at 3365

Commercial Drive and specifically to articulate the following key points with respect to the project:

Document existing transportation conditions and any particularly issues;

Highlight the development scale is appropriate for the location (e.g. close to transit, amenities,

etc.);

Review vehicle parking and bicycle numbers for the project in the context of the City’s bylaw;

Ensure loading can be managed for the development’s needs;

Quantify projected new vehicle movements travelling to / from the development; and

Assess operations on the adjacent street network with the focus on the pedestrian-activated signal

at Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue.

We have also made reference to information gathered after the public engagement meeting in May 2015

and have treated this as an appendix to the main report for clarity. If you have any questions please do

not hesitate to contact us.

Yours truly,

Bunt & Associates

Paul Dorby, MSc.,

Senior Transportation Planner

1. INTRODUCTION Cressey Development Group is proposing a 114-unit residential rental project located at the north-

west corner of Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue in the City of Vancouver, BC. The site is

around a 10-minute walk from the Broadway and Commercial Drive transportation hub with access

to the SkyTrain and bus routes along with commercial activities. The site location is highlighted at

Exhibit 1.1.

A site plan has been developed to meet the City’s requirements in terms of development form,

landscaping, parking, and loading, and as part of this process the City has requested a supporting

Transportation Study.

This letter report addresses this requirement, where the main focus will be assessing the site plan

from a transportation perspective, covering new vehicle movements, site access, parking provisions,

loading, and intersection analysis. These are typical considerations expected from the City based on

similar projects, while some follow-up work has been undertaken based on public feedback.

2. EXISTING CONDITIONS The development site fronts onto Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue and involves the

consolidation of 5 single-family lots to achieve the new development footprint. A close-up plan of

the site location and key transportation features is presented at Exhibit 2.1.

The main point of access for vehicles is expected to be at the intersection of East 18th Avenue and

Commercial Drive, which has a pedestrian-activated signal with minor stop controls on the East 18th

Avenue and Finlay Street (located opposite) approaches. To the west, East 18th Avenue connects with

Knight Street, where there is a minor stop control.

2.1 Transportation Surveys Transportation surveys were conducted at both these intersections during the weekday morning

(7am to 9am) and afternoon (3pm to 6pm) periods to understand existing vehicle patterns for the

typical peak times along with the movement of pedestrians and cyclists.

At the Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue intersection, the number of the traffic light

activations was also recorded. Weekday peak-hour periods were identified as follows:

Morning - 8am to 9am

Afternoon – 4:45pm to 5:45pm

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3365 East 18th Avenue Vancouver, BC4297.06 December 2015 Scale NTS

Site LocationExhibit 1.1

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3365 East 18th Avenue, Vancouver, BC4297.06 December 2015 Scale NTS

Context PlanExhibit 2.1

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Sidewalks

Additional transportation data was collected over the period June 6th to 12th, covering vehicle turning

counts at Welwyn Street and East 18th Avenue and Victoria Diversion and Commercial Street along

with an Automatic Traffic Counter (ATC) placed on East 18th Avenue covering three full days of data.

An observational vehicle survey was also conducted on the Sunday morning at the local churches on

East 18th Avenue (St Joseph’s and St Mark’s). This information is covered further in Section 6 of the

report to address specific concerns raised by the local neighbourhood.

Vehicle volumes (two-way) observed along the East 18th Avenue and Commercial Drive frontages of

the site are summarized in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Two-way vehicle Volumes

Street Section AM PM

East 18th Avenue 300 150

Commercial Drive 940 1000

As is evident, the AM vehicle volumes on East 18th Avenue are almost double the PM levels, and

much of this difference can be attributed to the two local schools located nearby, which are active in

the morning peak-hour period but not in the afternoon peak.

Commercial Drive has marginally higher vehicle volumes in the afternoon PM peak-hour period, but

is more than half the level on Knight Street at East 18th Avenue, i.e. 2,300 vehicles per hour (even

though both have similar four-lane configurations).

Pedestrian movements and traffic light activations at the Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue

intersection are summarized in Table 2.2 for the survey periods.

Table 2.2: Commercial / E18 / Finlay Pedestrian Crossings and Activations

Hour

Pedestrians

Crossing

Commercial Dr

Activations

7:00 to 8:00 33 21

8:00 to 9:00 60 37

15:00 to 16:00 44 29

16:00 to 17:00 38 20

17:00 to 18:00 45 27

Activations are reasonably frequent during the hours surveyed, ranging from 1 call per 3-minutes to

1 call per 2-minutes with the 8:00 to 9:00 period the highest. This information will be used in the

operational assessment in Section 6.

2.2 Vehicle Trends One of the key trends observed in the City of Vancouver is how it has experienced growth in

population levels while vehicle volumes have actually reduced over time. This point is covered in

Table 2.3.

Table 2.3: Traffic Entering Vancouver 1981 to 2006 (source: City of Vancouver website)

Year of Count 7am to 9am 4pm to 6pm Rest of the day All Day

1981 62,000 44,000 212,000 318,000

1986 66,000 47,000 235,000 348,000

1991 75,000 60,000 294,000 429,000

1996 69,000 60,000 304,000 433,000

2001 62,000 56,000 280,000 398,000

2006 58,000 53,000 270,000 381,000

Vehicle volumes entering the City have decreased since 1991, and at all times of the day, even

within the backdrop of increasing employment and population levels. Part of this success can be

attributed to locating new developments close to transit and local amenities, and hence lowering

the need for people to drive.

2.3 Parking Table 2.4 summarizes parking supply on the street sections generally within a 5-minute walk of the

site, while ‘no parking’ is allowed on Commercial Drive in the vicinity of the site. It highlights that

there is a generous supply of visitor parking in the area and as part of the development plan the

parking along the site’s frontage will be formalized at East 18th Avenue.

Table 2.4: Parking Supply and Location

Street Boundary Location Supply

E 18th Avenue Knight St to Commercial Dr North and South Side 144

Findlay Street E 16th Ave to Commercial Dr East and West Side 39

Fleming Street E 15th Ave to E 20th Ave East and West Side 106

Welwyn Street E 18th Ave to E 20th Ave East and West Side 50

Dumfries Street E 15th Ave to E 18th Ave East and West Side 68

3. ACTIVE MODES AND TRANSIT This section reviews the site’s accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit as this will be an

important influence on the development’s future vehicle and parking projections. It will also

confirm the site’s suitability for the development form planned.

3.1 Pedestrians Walking is a realistic form of travel for most people, especially over short distances, i.e. up to 2

kilometres or a 40-minute walk. The distance a person is willing to walk is to a large extent

dependent on the purpose of the journey, but is also influenced by factors such as urban form,

convenient street crossings, safety, personal fitness, auto ownership, parking availability, etc.

Guidance on the distances people are willing to walk for different land-use destinations are set out

in Table 3.1, focusing on those that can reasonably be accessed from the site.

Table 3.1: Pedestrian Facilities

Facility Threshold

Distances

Facilities that are within Threshold Distances to the

development

Bus Transit 400m (a) Bus stops on Commercial Drive at East 18th Avenue,

although the ones on Knight Street are 600-metres away

Rapid Transit 800m (a) Commercial / Broadway Station is around 800-metres

Schools 600-1,200m (b) Tyee and St Josephs Elementary Schools

Leisure Facilities 600-1,200m (b) Trout Lake Community Centre, John Hendry Park and

Clark Park

Shops, restaurants,

commercial 800-1,200m (b) Broadway, Commercial Drive, Finlay Street

Employment 2,000m (b) Shops and businesses along Broadway and Commercial

Drive

Sources: (a) TransLink; (b) Institute of Highways and Transportation (UK)

Clearly, the site is well-located for access to everyday amenities and this will form an important

influence on how the future residents should be able to lower their auto use.

Generally speaking the street network in the local area is, for the most part, fine-grained with the

exception of the footprints of the local parks at Clark and John Hendry and, even here, there are

pathways through them away from vehicle activity.

The strongest pedestrian desire line to local amenities and transit is expected to be northwards

along Commercial Drive to Broadway, while the local commercial on Finlay Street and Commercial

Drive (south of East 18th Avenue) will be important for day-to-day needs.

Sidewalks are present surrounding the site, as indicated at Exhibit 2.1, and extend along East 18th

Avenue, Fleming Street, Finlay Street, Welwyn Street, and Commercial Drive. Along the frontages of

the site the sidewalks will be upgraded along with the landscaping as part of the development plan

while the corner at Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue will be given specific treatment.

Commercial Drive at East 18th Avenue has a pedestrian / cycle activated traffic signal. Pedestrian

volumes at East 18th Avenue is around 20 to 30 people crossing on the north-leg of the intersection

(adjacent to the site) during the peak-hour periods, and the storage for people waiting will be an

important design consideration.

Another pedestrian controlled crossing is located to the north at East 14th Avenue while full traffic

signals can be found at East 12th Avenue (Grandview) and Broadway.

Knight Street has pedestrian activated facilities at East 19th Avenue (for the school and bus stops)

and East 14th Avenue (accommodating the bicycle route). East 18th Avenue at Knight Street is not

considered to be on any particular desire line for cyclists or pedestrians.

3.2 Cyclists The site is also well-located for cycling in Vancouver and the distance to the downtown is around 6-

kilometres. Bike routes in the vicinity of the site are highlighted at Exhibit 3.1 along with transit

connections and key local amenities.

To the west side of the site is the Dumfries / Woodlands bicycle route, running in a north-south

direction parallel to Commercial Drive and Knight Street. It connects with the east-west routes at

East 14th Avenue and East 10th Avenue to the north, and East 37th Avenue to the south.

To the east of Commercial Drive is John Hendry Park, where the Vanness and Gladstone routes are

located and these can be accessed via Victoria Drive and East 19th Street.

Cycling-activated push buttons are provided at the East 18th Avenue and Commercial Drive traffic

light.

Bicycle volumes on the section of East 18th Avenue fronting the site are typically around 10

movements per hour during the peak-hour periods

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Pedestrian and Cycling RoutesExhibit 3.1

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E Broadway

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3.3 Transit Located around 800-metres from the site is the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station, which is

equivalent to a 10-minute walk (generally accepted by TransLink as the maximum threshold).

Pedestrian access is direct along Commercial Drive and has fronting commercial activities over

much of this distance.

Commercial Drive and Knight Street are also designated Frequent Transit Network (FTN) corridors

and provide links to the downtown and rapid transit networks. On Commercial Drive, for example,

the travel to time to the Commercial and Broadway Station from the site on the #20 route is around

4-minutes (if people decide not to walk).

Altogether, there are 4 daytime bus routes in the local area, located on the Commercial, Knight and

Broadway corridors. These are summarized in Table 3.2 and shown graphically at Exhibit 3.1.

Table 3.2: Transit Services within reasonable walking distance

Route / Stop Service headway (minutes)

# Name AM Period PM Period

9 Boundary / Granville / Alma 4 min 4 min

99 UBC / Commercial/ Broadway Station (B-line) 5 min 3 min

20 Victoria Drive / Downtown 6 - 12 min 6 - 12 min

22 Dunbar Loop to Knight via Downtown 6/7 min 6 / 7 min

Bus stops are located at the Finlay Street / East 18th Avenue / Commercial Drive intersection,

adjacent to the development site. The northbound one is positioned north of Finlay Street and the

southbound one is on the Victoria Diversion (south of Commercial Drive). Both locations have bus

shelters.

3.4 Accessibility Summary Overall the site’s accessibility to local amenities, bicycle routes, and transit will positively influence

the future travel behavior of the new residents in lowering their auto use. Indeed, this is expected

to be a key motivation in attracting people to this location.

4. DEVELOPMENT PLAN The planned development at 3365 East 18th Avenue is projected to have 114 rental residential units

overall. Four of these units will be located on the west side of the site, developed around a heritage

house, while the main concentration of 110 units will be located in a new multi-family building.

The development site plan is presented at Exhibit 4.1 which shows the west and east building

locations planned and a summary of the statistics is presented in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: Development Breakdown

Land Use Number of units Floor Area

Rental Residential 114 84,186sq.ft or 7820sq.m

All parking for the development will be located on-site within a single level underground parking

structure and this includes for the four separate units that act as a buffer between the existing

residential to the west and the main new (east) building.

The main pedestrian entrance to the East building will be on East 18th Avenue, close to the

Commercial Drive intersection.

Driveway access to the underground parking structure, serving both buildings, is planned at East

18th Avenue, which is a low-volume local street connecting between Commercial Drive and Knight

Street. It will be positioned 60-metres distance from the intersection at Commercial Drive, providing

adequate clearance distance.

The driveway location is slightly offset with the intersection opposite at Welwyn Street, but its

position has been constrained by a combination of the elevation and depth needed for the

development site. This offset is not expected to be an operational issue given the relatively low

level of vehicle turning movements and this matter has already been discussed with the City in a

pre-application meeting.

Along the East 18th Avenue frontage, the sidewalk width is planned at 1.8-metres along with a

landscape strip varying between 1.4-metres and 2.8 metres. On Commercial Drive, the sidewalk is

planned to be maintained at 2-metres width along with a set-back to the property line. These

dimensions will be articulated on the landscape drawings.

Although not shown on the landscape plans, there may be opportunity to provide an on-street

parking or passenger loading pocket, but it will need to take into consideration the location of

existing utilities, trees, and maximising the public realm. This matter can be reviewed further as the

design progresses. Additional pedestrian space is planned at the northwest corner of Commercial

Drive and East 18th Avenue, and this will assist with the comfort of pedestrians waiting to cross.

&4297.063365 Commercial Drive Development, Vancouver, BC

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Exhibit 4.1

Development Plan

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4.1 Vehicle and Bicycle Parking Vehicle parking supply has been assessed separately between the main East Building (110 units)

and Heritage West Building (4 units) given the different building forms. In the case of the West

Building, 10 parking spaces are planned for residents and visitors and this would be above the

bylaw minimum of 6 spaces required (as per Table 4.2.1.13).

For the East Building (110 units), it is planned to provide 71 parking spaces and this includes for

accessible and visitor stalls. Presented in Table 4.2 is a summary of the City’s bylaw parking

requirement relevant to this building.

Table 4.2: City of Vancouver Parking By-law Requirements

Section Use Requirements

3.2.2(c)

For secured market

rental housing not

Downtown

Car-share provision: at a 1:5 ratio, to a maximum of 4

shared vehicles and 4 shared parking space for each 100

dwelling units;

4.5.B1

For Secured Rental

developments, except

Downtown, SEFC and

EFL

Min. 1 per 125 sq m GFA, less 20% (given accessibility of

the location – see Section 3);

Max. = Min. + 0.5 per unit;

Visitors Allocation: ( Min. 7.5%, Max. 15% of the No. of

units)

6.2.1.2 Multiple Dwelling Bicycle Space: Class A: 1.25 per unit; Class B: Min. 6

Summarized in Table 4.3 is the bylaw (minimum rate) calculation, applying the allowable reductions

outlined in Table 4.2.

Table 4.3: East Building Parking Supply Review for the 7,263sqm (rounded) Floor Area

Item Bylaw

(min) Comments

Residents 58 without reductions

Accessibility 0 20% deduction as per bylaw

Car share reduction (2 vehicles) -8 optional to development needs - under review

Residents 50 after reduction

Allocation to visitors 8 7.5% of units

Total 58 71 spaces planned, includes 8 visitor, 5 accessible

Key points from this review are:

71 spaces are planned, including 9 visitor and 5 accessible, and this will meet the City’s

minimum bylaw requirement along with being below the maximum (which is minimum plus 0.5

x 110units);

Five of the parking spaces will meet the City’s accessibility requirements and these can be

counted as double in the bylaw calculation;

Two spaces could be allocated to car-share vehicles, but this would not be fixed as the parking

provision is not reliant on this bylaw reduction;

Additionally 10% of the resident parking spaces are expected to have an electric charging

station;

Just under 25% of the provision will be small parking spaces, i.e. 15 spaces.

For the west building, 10 spaces are planned, including for visitor, and this will be above the

minimum of 6 spaces required in the bylaw. All parking will be accessed from the planned new

driveway at East 18th Avenue.

Summarized in Table 4.4 is the planned bicycle parking provision in the context of the bylaw

requirement to demonstrate that there is sufficient numbers planned.

Table 4.4: Bicycle Parking Requirement for 114 units

Land use Class

Type Planned

Number

Required Rate

Residents A 148 143 A minimum of 1.25 spaces for every unit.

Residential

Visitor B 6 6

A minimum of 6 spaces for any

development with a minimum of 20 units

Bicycle parking will be located in the underground parkade (which is on one level) with the majority

stored in bike rooms. Fifty percent (50%) of the bicycle parking will have electrical charging

facilities.

4.2 Truck Servicing City of Vancouver loading requirement is for 1 Class-B space per 100 to 299 residential units,

suggesting that for the 114 units planned 1 space would be required for the project, even though it

is only marginally over the 100-unit minimum threshold.

The site is challenged by the fact that it does not have a rear laneway access. Also from an urban

design standpoint, providing loading in the underground parkade will have a material impact on the

elevation along East 18th Avenue, i.e. for creating the necessary additional headroom (i.e. 4.3

metres).

With this is in mind, the loading activities for the residential building have been reviewed in more

detail and how this can be managed given the constraints. Table 4.5 shows the typical service

vehicle type proportions for two residential projects in the downtown (covering a 12-hour period).

Table 4.5: Daily Residential Loading Demand (weekday 12-hours)

Vehicle Type Residence on

Georgia The Lions

Car, courier, van, pick-up truck 8% 62%

Cube Van 61% 35%

Single Unit Truck 31% 3%

Based on trip rates from these two buildings, the development is projected to generate 5 to 6

service vehicle movements per 12-hour period. This would be equivalent to 1 movement every 2

hours and, of these, a Single Unit 9 (truck) movement would be 1 every 2 days.

This level of activity can be handled with a passenger loading space marked on East 18th Avenue

fronting the site (mentioned earlier), while the majority of smaller vehicles can access the visitor

parking located under the building. Visitor parking has a higher utilization in the evening periods

while servicing activity is more day time related.

This approach to loading seems pragmatic given there is no rear laneway access and intensity of

servicing activity will be low with the majority of movements being small vehicles or vans.

5. VEHICLE TRIP GENERATION Residential trip generation rates for the development were estimated from site surveys undertaken

by Bunt at other locations with similar location characteristics. Table 5.1 provides a summary of the

trip rates collected, and these are expected to be conservative given they are based on market

residential buildings whereas rental projects typically have lower vehicle trips rates.

Table 5.1: Residential Trip Generation Rates

Residential Sites AM Peak Hour PM Peak Hour

In Out Total In Out Total

205 E 10th Avenue, Vancouver 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.21 0.05 0.26

2181/2137 W 10th Ave, Vancouver n/a n/a n/a 0.18 0.05 0.23

Arbutus Walk, Vancouver n/a n/a n/a 0.19 0.08 0.27

819 Hamilton Street, Vancouver 0.01 0.19 0.20 0.19 0.09 0.28

1166 Melville Street, Vancouver 0.07 0.11 0.18 0.14 0.11 0.25

4132 Halifax Street, Burnaby 0.02 0.24 0.26 0.12 0.09 0.19

Proposed Rate 0.04 0.16 0.20 0.18 0.08 0.26

Based on the rates in Table 5.1, the number of new vehicle movements generated from the 114 unit

residential development is summarized in Table 5.2.

Table 5.2: Projected Residential Trips Movements Generated by the Development

Land Use AM Peak Hour PM Peak Hour

In Out Total In Out Total

Residential 4 18 22 20 9 29

At the development’s driveway access on East 18th Avenue, this would equate to 22 to 29 new

vehicle movements generated in the weekday peak-hour periods, which is equivalent to 1 vehicle

movement every 2 minutes.

These new vehicle movements are expected to dissipate quickly on the local street network and

Table 5.3 sets out the expected distribution patterns based on existing observations on East 18th

Avenue at its connections with Commercial Drive and Knight Street.

Given the development’s proximity to Commercial Drive, around 65% of the movements, or 14 to 17

vehicles per hour, are expected to pass through this intersection to access Commercial Drive

(arterial road). The remaining vehicle movements, 7 to 10, are expected to access Knight Street

(arterial road), which would be equivalent to 1 vehicle movement every 6 minutes.

Table 5.3: Residential Trip Distribution

Direction Proportion AM

Vehicle Trips

PM

Vehicle Trips

Commercial Drive North 35% 8 10

Victoria Diversion South 25% 6 7

Finlay Street 5% 1 1

Knight Street North 20% 4 6

Knight Street South 15% 3 4

Totals 100% 22 28

To provide further clarity with the change of vehicle movements at Knight and Commercial, Table

5.4 summarizes the differences.

Table 5.4: Estimated Change in Vehicles at the East 18th Intersections

Street (section) Morning (veh/hr) Afternoon (veh/hr)

Volume Net Change Volume Net Change

Commercial Dr / E 18th Avenue 1150 1.3% 1110 1.7%

Knight St / East 18th Avenue 1960 0.5% 2390 0.4%

Evidently, the net change in vehicle volumes is expected to be modest at less than 2% during the

weekday peak-hour periods and this would be well-within the daily hourly variations.

6. OPERATIONAL REVIEW AND FOLLOW UP This section first covers the operational capacity review to demonstrate that there would be no

operational issues with the development plan before considering matters that arose from the public

engagement meeting in May 2015.

6.1 Operational Review Intersection operations were modeled at East 18th Avenue’s intersections with Commercial Drive and

Knight Street for the weekday AM and PM peak-hour periods using Synchro 8.0.

Existing vehicle volumes are presented at Exhibit 6.1 based on the observed survey flows referred

to in Section 2 of the report, while future movements were added to the network based on the

distribution patterns developed in the previous section and these are presented at Exhibit 6.2.

One of the key outputs of the Synchro model is “Level of Service” (LOS), and outlined below is the

range of LOS outcomes based on vehicle delay and volume / capacity ratio (Source: Highway

Capacity Manual):

LOS A: Free Flow

LOS B: Reasonably Free Flow

LOS C: Stable Flow

LOS D: Approaching Unstable Flow

LOS E: Unstable Flow

LOS F: Forced or Breakdown Flow

Synchro has its limitations with regard to modelling pedestrian-activated signals, such as at

Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue. For un-signalized intersections, the volume / capacity ratio

is not reported so alternatively the intersection capacity utilization (ICU) is used, which essentially

presents the capacity of the intersection and its utilization percentage.

The model also includes pedestrian volumes crossing Commercial Drive at E 18th Avenue along with

the number of activations (presented in Table 2.2). Results from the existing intersections

operations are presented in Table 6.1. Clearly, no operational issues are observed based on the

existing volumes applied to both the intersections.

Table 6.1: Existing Traffic Conditions – Weekday AM and PM Peak hours

Street (section) Morning Peak Hour Afternoon Peak Hour

Overall LOS V/C Overall LOS V/C

Commercial Dr / E 18th Avenue

(Pedestrian Activated Signal) A 0.38 A 0.32

Knight St / East 18th Avenue

(Un-signalized) A 0.46 A 0.64

*Note – Intersections have different laning configurations which can have an effect on their capacities. LOS is a

function of vehicle delay and v/c ratios, and therefore some movements may experience significant delays while

others have plenty of spare capacity and vice versa resulting in variances in reported LOS versus v/c ratios

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Existing Vehicles VolumesExhibit 6.1

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Site Traffic VolumesExhibit 6.2a

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Total Vehicle VolumesExhibit 6.2b

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SITE

In the case of the intersection operation performance in the future, this entailed adding the new

development movements to the network, and Table 6.2 shows the results for the intersections

reviewed for the study along with the site access.

Table 6.2: Future Traffic Conditions – Weekday AM and PM Peak hours

Street (section) Morning Peak Hour Afternoon Peak Hour

Overall LOS V/C Overall LOS V/C

Commercial Dr / E 18th Avenue A 0.40 A 0.29

Knight St / East 18th Avenue A 0.47 A 0.67

E 18th Avenue / New Site Access A 0.18 A 0.19

Evidently the network will continue to operate well within an acceptable performance level and no

modifications will be necessary.

6.2 Follow-Up Public Engagement Matters A number of transportation-related matters arose from the public open house in May 2015 where it

was evident that vehicle demands, including church-related activities, on East 18th Avenue between

Commercial Street and Knight Street are a concern to the neighbourhood. Specifically

Activity levels at different times of the day and not just the development peak development

periods;

Evidence of short cutting and higher weekday evening use on East 18th Avenue (compared

to other residential streets);

Vehicle speeds on East 18th Avenue;

How vehicle turning movements on Victoria Diversion given the close spacing of east 18th

Avenue and Commercial Street;

Understanding of church activities related to St Joseph’s and St Marks Lutheran; and

Parking demand for rental housing

These matters are addressed in the letter included at Appendix A for clarity.

7. SUMMARY Cressey Development Group is proposing a 114-unit residential rental project, located at the north-

west corner of Commercial Drive and East 18th Avenue within the City of Vancouver.

The site driveway access will be located around 60-metres west of Commercial Drive and be slightly

offset from Welwyn Avenue, located opposite.

On-site observations and analysis confirm no existing operational issues were identified in the

vicinity of the site. Weekday morning vehicle flows are typically higher along East 18th Avenue due to

the influence of the local schools nearby.

The development project is accessible to local amenities and transit, and especially given its

proximity to the Commercial and Broadway transit hub. It therefore can be considered supportive of

the density planned.

On-site vehicle parking provisions of 71 spaces falls within the minimum / maximum allowed under

the bylaw for this type of rental residential project, and all of which, will be located on a single level

below grade structure. Parking space allocation will comply with the City’s design requirements for

small spaces and charging stations.

Resident bicycle parking (148 spaces) will be provided mainly in storage rooms, with some bike

room provision, while visitor parking will be located close to the main east building entrance on

East 18th Avenue.

The development unit count at 114 is just above the minimum threshold triggering a Class-B

loading space (i.e. 100 units). However, there is no rear laneway to the site and the servicing vehicle

intensity is expected to be low (1 movement per 2 hours). Given this, it is suggested to provide a

passenger loading zone on East 18th Avenue, fronting the site, while smaller service vehicles would

be able to access the visitor parking, located within the building if necessary.

New vehicle movements projected with the development site are expected to be around 22 to 29

(per hour) in the peak-hour periods, or 1 vehicle every 2 minutes, and the majority (two-thirds) are

expected to directly access Commercial Drive at the East 18th Avenue intersection.

The pedestrian-activated signal at Commercial Drive / East 18th Avenue / Finlay Street is expected

to operate well within capacity at peak times along with the intersection at East 18th Avenue and

Knight Street.

* * * * * * * * *

APPENDIX A Letter Addendum

June 25, 2015

4297-06

Nathan Gurvich, Development Coordinator

Cressey Development Group

Suite 800, 925 West Georgia Street

Vancouver, BC V6C 3L2

Dear Nathan:

Re: 3365 Commercial Drive – Rental Residential Development

Transportation Addendum

Introduction

We have prepared this letter as an addendum to the Transportation Review (March 2015) to cover the

additional transportation-related matters arising from the public open house in May 2015.

It was evident from the open house that vehicle demands, including church-related activities, on East 18th

Avenue (between Commercial Street and Knight Street) are currently a concern to the neighbourhood and

more data would be needed to understand existing operations more fully. Specifically, the letter will aim

to address the following key points:

Activity levels at different times of the day and not just the development peak development

periods;

Evidence of short cutting and higher weekday evening use on East 18th Avenue (compared to

other residential streets);


How vehicle turning movements on Victoria Diversion given the close spacing of east 18th

Avenue and Commercial Street;

Understanding of church activities related to St Joseph’s and St Marks Lutheran; and,

Parking demand for rental housing

1 bunt & associates | Addendum Letter, June 25, 2015

Additional transportation data was collected over the period June 6th to 12th, covering vehicle turning

counts at Welwyn Street and East 18th Avenue and Victoria Diversion and Commercial Street along with an

Automatic Traffic Counter (ATC) placed on East 18th Avenue covering three full days of data. An

observational vehicle survey was also conducted on a Sunday morning at the local churches on East 18th

Avenue (St Joseph’s and St Mark’s).

A summary for all the data collection locations is presented at the attached Exhibit 1 for reference and

vehicle flow diagram is presented at Exhibit 2.

Response to Points

Activity levels at different times of the day and not just the development peak development periods.

Typically a residential development peak vehicle demands falls during the weekday morning and afternoon

peak-hour periods and this generally coincides with the peak-hour periods on the adjacent street network

(commuters / school traffic). These periods were identified in our transportation review as:

Weekday Morning: 8am to 9am

Weekday Afternoon: 4:45pm to 5:45pm

The automatic vehicle counter output is summarized in Figure 1, based on the hourly average taken over

3 full days.

0

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200

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300

350

400

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Figure 1: East 18th Weekday Two‐Way Profile (vehicles per hour)


This graph confirms the hours starting 8am and 3pm (15:00 on figure) were identified as the peak-hour

periods, with the morning period having the highest peak at close to 350 vehicles per hour. It confirms the

morning period applied in the Bunt Transportation Review (March 2015) can be considered as the ‘worst

case’ time condition for street operations, while the afternoon peak-hour has almost 100 vehicles less.

On the weekday evening after 8pm, the vehicle volume on East 18th Avenue drops below100 vehicles per

hour (or less than 2 vehicles per minute) and after 10pm it is less than 50 vehicles per hour. Evening

vehicle volumes are considered further below in the context of other nearby local street observations.

Evidence of short cutting and higher weekday evening use on East 18th Avenue (compared to other

residential streets);

Weekday vehicle volume profiles were considered on neighbouring residential streets (all running east-

west and covering a mix of different characteristics) in the local area. It provides context to the

observations on East 18th Avenue, and the survey locations are summarized in Table 1 while vehicle

volume profiles are presented at Figure 2.

Name General Character Count Location (Source)

East 18th Avenue Residential with church and school access West of Welwyn (Bunt)

East 15th Avenue Residential Just west of Knight (Vanmap)

East 22nd Avenue Residential with church and school access Just west of Victoria (Vanmap)

East 19th Avenue Park / Residential South edge of Trout (Vanmap)

This exercise highlights vehicle demands along East 18th, East 22nd and East 19th Avenues were all broadly

similar when viewed across the whole weekday period, while both East 22nd and East 18th Avenues have

similar accentuated peak-hours in the morning period, reflective of the influence with local schools.

East 19th Avenue has the highest vehicle demand in the weekday evening period, likely due to the adjacent

park and community uses, while East 22nd and East 18th Avenues broadly share similar evening profiles.

East 18th Avenue has a similar afternoon weekday profile (i.e. 3pm to 6pm) to the other streets reviewed

and therefore does not suggest there is a particular issue with cut-through vehicle movements (between

Commercial Drive and Knight Street). The morning peak-hour period is more difficult to assess given the

influence of the school vehicle traffic. which is dominant over this period.

In sum, East 18th Avenue has similar weekday vehicle volume characteristics to neigbouring east-west

streets and there is no discernable indication that cut-through vehicle traffic is particularly prevalent or

activities in the evening period are noticeably different. The weekend influence of St Joseph’s and St

Mark’s churches is covered later.



Vehicle speeds were collected on East 18th Avenue using the ATC site data (located just east of Welwyn

Street), and a summary of the data collected is presented at Figure 3. The influence of turning vehicles to

and from Welwyn Street, which account for 25% of the recorded movements, were excluded (all assumed

to fall within the 1 to 15 kilometres per hour grouping).

Eastbound vehicle speeds, as would be expected, were higher given the downhill grade (west of the survey

station); but even in this direction there was only 2% of the vehicles recorded above 40 kilometres per

hour. All westbound vehicle speeds recorded were less than 36 kilometres per hour.

One thing noted on East 18th Avenue was how drivers accelerated uphill generating ‘higher levels of engine

noise’ compared to level street sections, and perhaps this gives the impression of higher vehicle speeds.

There may also be braking noises associated with vehicles travelling downhill and slowing down at the

Welwyn Street intersection at East 18th Avenue for turning vehicles.

0

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Figure 2: Local Streets Weekday Vehicle Profile Comparison

East 18 East 15 East 22 East 19


How vehicle turning movements on Victoria Diversion given the close spacing of East 18th Avenue

and Commercial Street;

An observation and vehicle turning count survey was undertaken at Commercial Street and Victoria

Diversion to supplement the previous survey count at East 18th and Commercial Drive (see Exhibit 2).

Figure 4 summarizes the minor street turning movements at Commercial Drive and Victoria Diversion to

highlight the relative demands between the two intersections. This exercise confirms East 18th Avenue has

the highest peak-hour turning demand in both the weekday morning and afternoon periods with former

period being strongly influenced by local school vehicle traffic.

Vehicle turning movements (in / out) at Victoria Diversion and Commercial Street were lower in the

morning period compared to the afternoon, and this pattern might have been influenced by the higher

morning demand at East 18th Avenue and Commercial Drive, where drivers’ may have found alternative

routes (e.g. some may have switched to Welwyn Street/East 18th Avenue).

Probably the most challenging vehicle turning movement (given the proximity of the intersections) is the

left-turn out from Commercial Street to the Victoria Diversion (north). In the morning period, this

movement was observed at 18 vehicles but was higher at 40 vehicles in the afternoon peak-hour.

With the regular pedestrian calls at the traffic light with East 18th Avenue and Commercial Drive (during the

peak-hour periods), this generally provides sufficient gaps to allow drivers’ to exit (travelling north on the

Victoria Diversion), but vehicle queuing northbound from the pedestrian traffic light does impact the space

1‐15 16‐20 21‐25 26‐30 31‐35 36‐40 41‐45 46‐50above 50

Eastbound 40% 10% 12% 17% 13% 6% 2% 0% 0%

Wesbound 33% 18% 32% 16% 2% 0% 0% 0% 0%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Proportion

Figure 3: Weekday Vehicle Speeds East 18th


available to exit turning left at certain times. Perhaps a ‘keep clear’ or ‘box’ marking would assist with this

movement.

Understanding of church activities related to St Joseph’s and St Mark’s Lutheran

An observational survey was conducted on Sunday June 14th, specifically to cover St Joseph’s and St Mark’s

church activities in the morning period between 9am and 11am. This covered the St Joseph’s 8am service

finishing and the 9:30am one starting along with St Mark’s Lutheran service starting at 9:30am.

A diagram, attached at Exhibit 3, was prepared to articulate the key observations for this time period and

these are also summarized below:

Street parking on East 18thAvenue, Welwyn Street, and Fleming Street in the vicinity of the

churches was generally full at 9:30 am;

St Mark’s Church has a low intensity of use and no particular issues were highlighted;

Available on-site parking at St Joseph’s church was reduced by a food event (on the upper

parking area), and the remaining parts of the car park were full well before the 9:30am service

starting (barriers closed);

St Joseph’s School car park was full at 9:30am (with around 45 vehicles parked);

Most drop-off activity occurred on the south side of 18th Avenue (i.e. opposite the church) and

this blocked some through westbound vehicle movements (several times drivers used their car

horn);

The drop-off zone (marked with cones) at the St Joseph’s Church East 18th Avenue frontage was

not well used by parishioners, and this was probably due to it being located in the wrong

direction for accessing the school car park (although it works well for the on-site car park); and,

296

68

145

102

East 18 Ave @ Commercial Dr. Commercial St @ Victoria Diversion

Minor Street Vehicle Turning Movements at Commercial / Victoria Diversion

Morning Afternoon


Cars accelerating after dropping off people on the uphill section of East 18th Avenue added to

the vehicle noise.

St Joseph’s Church has seven services over the weekend with two of these on a Saturday and five on a

Sunday. This frequency is perhaps one of the main concerns for the neighbourhood, and occurs more

often compared to many other local churches.

One change that may assist would be for the church to discourage drop-off activity westbound on East 18th

Avenue (i.e. on the way to the school car park) along with prioritizing the parking on-site for those

members who are less mobile.

Last, a car headlight issue was highlighted (speaking to a neighbour) with the upper level of the St

Joseph’s Church car park, which overlooks residences located to the east (i.e. those fronting Welwyn

Street). Perhaps some form of mitigation measure could be installed on the car park railing to block this

light issue.

Parking Demand for Rental Housing

One question raised at the open house was to understand the actual parking demand for rental housing as

opposed to just what the bylaw states.

Parking demand for rental housing parking is typically lower than equivalent market units, where a recent

survey at Heather Place in the City indicated a parking use rate of around 0.6 spaces per unit (based on car

park observations). Another survey in North Vancouver at the Malborough Tower I apartment building

indicated vehicle ownership at around 0.66 vehicles per unit.

These surveys confirm parking demand, or vehicle ownership, for rental housing is typically lower by

around 40% than the equivalent market housing units. At the 3365 Commercial Drive project, the parking

space ratio for residents is expected to be around 0.66 per unit, similar to the observed demands for the

other locations while the site will also benefit from its proximity to the SkyTrain at Broadway.

Summary

We hope the above responses cover the concerns and questions raised through the public consultation

process and can assist with progressing this planning application.

Yours truly,

Bunt & Associates

Paul Dorby, MSc

Senior Transportation Planner

&


3365 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC4297.06 June 23, 2015 Scale NTS

Survey LocationsExhibit 1

SITE

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Observational Survey(Sunday) June 2015

Turning Movements(Weekday) June 2015

Tube Count(Weekday) June 2015

Turning Movements(Weekday) May 2014

Turning Movements (Weekday) June 2015

&


3365 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC4297.06 June 23, 2015 Scale NTS

Vehicle FlowsExhibit 2

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Exhibit 3Sunday Observations

June 23, 2015

Scale: NTS

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St. Joseph’s Church

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church

St. Joseph’s School

E 15th Ave

Driveways

Parking

Parking

Service Times:Saturday5:00 PM7:00 PM

Sunday8:00 AM9:30 AM11:30 AM2:00 PM6:00 PM

Service Time:Sunday9:30 AM11:00 AM

Informaldrop-offon-street

Ramp tounderground parking

Steep Grade

Overlooksrear of houses

Coned drop-off area

Documents

December 02, 2015 Cressey Development Group Suite 800, 925 ...rezoning.vancouver.ca/applications/3365commercial/documents/... · Nathan Gurvich Development Coordinator Cressey Development