Westfield Village Draft Environment Impact Report Released

Last week the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Westfield’s revised The Village.  If you enjoy reading hundreds of pages, check it out here: The Village at Westfield Topanga

Check out some coverage of these developments in the Daily News.

As much as anyone loves Costco, all should be aware that this project is going to be traffic nightmare.  Here are some highlights from that portion of the EIR describing intersects with unmitigatable traffic issues, just in phase 1.  Interestingly some 70+ intersections are affected, and many modifications would require widening roads onto private property.

Topanga Canyon Boulevard & Vanowen Street (Intersection #1). No feasible project-level
improvements could be found to mitigate the impacts observed at this intersection. Due to the
physically constrained nature of this location, improvements such as roadway widening and lane
reconfiguration would likely result in substandard improvements or require the demolition of a
commercial building on the southwest corner or the encroachment into a high school campus on
the northeast corner. Service stations are located on the other two corners.
Therefore, no feasible project-level physical mitigations are available and the impact would
remain significant and unavoidable.
The update of the WCSP is considering the removal of the raised median along Topanga
Canyon Boulevard. If this were accomplished, a physical improvement could be implemented
here that would mitigate the Project impacts. This will be discussed at the end of the chapter.

Owensmouth Avenue & Erwin Street (Intersection #8). No physical mitigations were
identified for this location. This is a physically constrained location; additional physical
mitigations may conflict with planned improvements along Owensmouth Avenue. The
implementation of the project-level TDM program is unable to fully mitigate the significant impact
at this location. This location would remain significantly and unavoidably impacted under the
WCSP significant impact criteria; however, it would not be significantly impacted under the
LADOT Traffic Study Policies and Procedures criteria.

US-101 Westbound On-Ramp & Burbank Boulevard (Intersection #19). Intersections 19 and
20 make up the north side of the Topanga Canyon Boulevard/US-101 interchange. A number of
different interchange configurations were tested but none offered substantial congestion relief
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without the demolition of current residential or commercial buildings, or the total reconstruction
of the US-101 overpass. Therefore, no feasible improvements could be found to mitigate the
impacts observed at this intersection, and the project impact would remain significant and
unavoidable.
The update of the WCSP is considering the removal of the raised median along Topanga
Canyon Boulevard. If this were accomplished, a physical improvement could be implemented
here that would mitigate the Project impacts. This will be discussed at the end of the chapter.

Topanga Canyon Boulevard & Burbank Boulevard (Intersection #20). No feasible
improvements could be found to mitigate the impacts observed at this intersection. (See
discussion above for Intersection 19.) Due to the physically constrained location and proximity
to the US-101 freeway, improvements such as roadway widening and lane reconfiguration
cannot be accommodated without significant modification to the intersection, the adjacent US-
101 ramps, and the US-101 overpass. Therefore, no physically feasible mitigations are
available and the project impact would remain significant and unavoidable.
The update of the WCSP is considering the removal of the raised median along Topanga
Canyon Boulevard and parking prohibitions along Burbank Boulevard. If these were
accomplished, a physical improvement could be implemented here that would mitigate the
Project impacts. This will be discussed at the end of the chapter.

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPACTS
Phase 1
As discussed in Chapter 4, the Phase 1 project is projected to generate approximately 9,719 net
new daily trips on a typical weekday. Using the project trip distribution also described in
Chapter 4, the number of trips that may be added to any particular arterial corridor was
projected and the extent of the projected addition of 1,600 or more daily trips was determined.
This threshold represents approximately 16% of the daily traffic; those corridors with 16% of the
traffic assignment were identified as a potentially affected corridor. Figure 57 illustrates the
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extent of this area along each of the corridors leading to/from the project site during Phase 1.
Corridors to which 1,600 or more daily trips are projected to be added by the Project include:

• Topanga Canyon Boulevard between Vanowen Street and Ventura Boulevard
• Victory Boulevard between Randi Avenue and Canoga Avenue

The presence of congested cumulative conditions and the availability of local street(s) providing
a parallel route of travel in the vicinity of congested portions of the corridors were then
investigated for each of the corridors. The following discusses the results of this investigation
for each corridor:

• Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Vanowen Street to Burbank Boulevard – The three

intersections along the Topanga Canyon Boulevard corridor from Vanowen Street to
Burbank Boulevard projected to operate at LOS E or F include:

• Topanga Canyon Boulevard & Vanowen Street
• Topanga Canyon Boulevard & Victory Boulevard
• Topanga Canyon Boulevard & Marylee Street

Several alternative routes are available that bypass the section of Topanga Canyon
Boulevard between Vanowen Street and Burbank Boulevard. Shoup Avenue is an
attractive alternate route to Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Residential streets that provide
access from Topanga Canyon Boulevard include Schoolcraft Street and Kittridge Street
to Randi Avenue. Due to the discontinuous street system west of Topanga Canyon
Boulevard, these two streets are identified as potential routes for cut-through traffic to
access the alternate arterial routes.
A potential alternative route that would avoid the section of Topanga Canyon Boulevard
between (just north of) Vanowen Street and Burbank Boulevard could be Topanga
Canyon Boulevard to Schoolcraft Street to Shoup Avenue to Burbank Boulevard. The
arterial traffic cutting through these neighborhoods to access Shoup Avenue could be
considered a neighborhood intrusion impact.
Another potential route to bypass the Victory Boulevard intersection is Kittridge Street to
Randi Avenue/Nevada Avenue to Oxnard Street and to Shoup Avenue or back to
Topanga Canyon Boulevard. The arterial traffic cutting through these neighborhoods to
access Shoup Avenue could be considered neighborhood intrusion impacts.
Although these routes are potentially less attractive, traffic from Topanga Canyon
Boulevard could access the residential streets south of Oxnard Street to gain access to
both Shoup Avenue and Owensmouth Avenue. Therefore, the potential arterial traffic
could be considered a significant neighborhood intrusion impact.

• Victory Boulevard, Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Canoga Avenue – The two

intersections along the Victory Boulevard corridor from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to
Canoga Avenue projected to operate at LOS E or F include:

• Victory Boulevard & Topanga Canyon Boulevard
• Victory Boulevard & Canoga Avenue

Erwin Street can serve as a bypass to the section of Victory Boulevard between
Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Canoga Avenue. No parallel alternative routes via
local residential streets are available; however, residential streets may be used to
access Erwin Street.
Potential alternative routes to Erwin Street include Victory Boulevard to Randi Avenue or
Glade Avenue and on to Erwin Street. The arterial traffic cutting through these
neighborhoods to access Erwin Street could be considered neighborhood intrusion
impacts.
As discussed, a potential alternative route that would avoid the Topanga Canyon
Boulevard & Victory Boulevard intersection could be Victory Boulevard to Randi Avenue
to Kittridge Street to Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Again, the arterial traffic utilizing this
route could be considered significant neighborhood intrusion impacts.
On the basis of the above investigation, three neighborhoods were identified that may be
subject to significant neighborhood intrusion impacts upon completion of Phase 1. They include
the areas bounded by the following:

• Schoolcraft Street to the north, Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the east, Vanowen Street to the south, and Shoup Avenue to the west.
• Kittridge Street to the north, Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the east, Victory Boulevard to the south and Randi Avenue to the west.
• Victory Boulevard to the north, Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the east, Oxnard Street to the south and Randi Avenue/Nevada Avenue to the west.

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