The Hotel Developer: Robert Green Company

(The same group that developed the Pendry.)

 

We have identified multiple threats to you and our community:

 

NOISE FROM THE ROOFTOP: The  Robert Green Company plans to put a pool and open bar on the roof of this building, about 120 feet above the street. Like other venues with pools and bars, the hotel operator will rent to and hold parties with loud music and celebrations on this rooftop that will negatively impact the surrounding homeowners and renters. At the Pendry, located the pool deck on a lower floor on the 5th Avenue side of the building so the sound would be contained to a limited area. There is no certainty that the city make the developer do this unless YOU make your opposition heard.

 

FIVE ADDITIONAL ENTERTAINMENT, EATING AND DRINKING LOCATIONS: The plan calls for 5 additional entertainment, eating and drinking locations in the building including a large ballroom. With 6 eating and drinking facilities in the hotel, it will draw many more people than the occupants of the 240 proposed rooms. This will make it a destination that generates more traffic, noise and pollution.

 

NO PARKING HERE! Green has no plans to provide parking at this facility. There is already a shortage of parking in the area. This facility will take additional parking spaces off the street on 4th Avenue to permit unloading of guests and visitors. In addition, the parking lot at the end of J Street at 2nd Avenue is destined to disappear. Bosa will one day build a new building in that location. This facility will dump a huge increase of drivers on the street searching for parking. All this additional traffic will add to the already high pollution levels in the area as well as to the noise and congestion. The intersection at 4th and J is often choked with traffic, dangerous to pedestrians and other drivers.

 

VALET PARKING CREATES MORE TRAFFIC: Without a parking garage in the building, based on the nature of the streets in this area, valet parking will require that each car parked will have to be driven at least 4 to 8 blocks to park and/or deliver cars. Again, the same traffic, noise, pollution and dangers exist for pedestrians and drivers alike. If there are multiple events going on in the hotel and it is a busy weekend or day of events downtown, the traffic problems around 4th and J will be even worse than they are now.

 

J STREET TOO NARROW: J Street does not meet the city's own standards for street specifications. It includes only one traffic lane each way, parking on both sides of the street and a bike lane. Jamming more traffic into these tight spaces will only lead to more noise, pedestrian danger, traffic jams and pollution. This will occur particularly on weekend nights and during events at the ballpark. During events at Petco, the city shuts down J Street from 7th Avenue to 10th Avenue and the Pendry Hotel puts traffic cones in the street to permit valet parking operations. With 5th Avenue closed to traffic most of the time, J Street can become clogged with traffic. More traffic means noise, pollution, danger for pedestrians and other drivers.

 

PUBLIC RECORDS LIST 53 REPORTED ACCIDENTS: Between 2015 and 2023 there have been 53 reported auto related accidents between 100 J Street and 500 J Street, between 2nd Avenue and 6th Avenue and on 4th Avenue within one block of J Street. Most of these occured close to the intersection of 4th and J. This does not include unreported accidents. Add new traffic loads to these already cramped streets and this dangerous intersection is irresponsible.

 

BIG CHANGES: In the last 20 years the following changes and additions along J Street west of 8th Avenue produced substantial impacts on traffic, noise, pollution, and pedestrian threats that must be considered before this hotel construction is approved.

• Petco Park Stadium

• Residence Inn Hotel

• Margaritaville Hotel

• Pendry Hotel (Which conducts valet parking operations on J Street.)

• 4th & J Apartments

• Partial Closing of 5th Avenue to Traffic

• Closing of J Street between 7th Avenue and 10th Ave. at least 80 to 100 times per year

• Addition of a two-way bike lanes on J Street

• The narrowing of J Street below the city’s own standards

• In addition, there are occasionally other street closings due to special events during the week.

 

NO TRAFFIC STUDIES: There have been no traffic studies done west of 8th Avenue on J Street that we can find in city records. We checked the study of 2002 that was published in the community plan of 2006. We checked the mobility plan that was published in 2016. THERE ARE NO REFERENCES TO OUR COMMUNITY. Yes, all the impacts of the additions listed above have filtered down into this one narrow street on over 100 days and nights a year. No one is minding the store. WE ARE NOT JUST THE GASLAMP. We are a residential community in the Marina district that has been totally ignored by the city planners.

 

BALLPARK ACTIVITIES AND WEEKEND NIGHTS - PEAK HOURS LATE AT NIGHT: On almost all nights when there are baseball games, weekend nights and when other events occur in the gaslamp, traffic builds to a peak on J Street between 2nd Avenues and 7th. At these times J Street is clogged to capacity. Using the same standards applied by the city to their traffic studies in 2002 and later, the “average stopped delay per vehicle” can far exceed 80 seconds in this area. That 80 second delay is considered by the city’s standards “a condition of excessively high delay, considered unacceptable to most drivers. This condition often occurs when arrival flow rates exceed the capacity of the intersection.” (Quoted from the City’s Traffic Study of 2002, which was part of your last Complete EIR. See Appendix D Traffic Impact Studies Guidelines published in the 2006 EIR.) At peak times, the capacity of the intersections at 4th and J and 3rd and J are frequently exceeded and are chaotic. Add more traffic to this street and those backups could extend to 2nd Avnue. People living on 3rd Avenue have observed cars sitting in the same location between J and K Street at 11:00 PM for more than 3 minutes.

 

OTHER TRAFFIC IMPACTS: At the west end of J Street and 2nd Avnue the city created a disaster waiting to happen. There are two garage exits across the street from each other. On the south side of the street, at the Harbor Club garage exit, drivers are required to cross, what is often a busy sidewalk during conventions and when Petco events are going on. In addition, they then have to navigate across a two way bike lane. There are parking spaces to the right that when filled with cars and delivery trucks, make it almost impossible to see oncoming westbound traffic. In addition, the intersection at 2nd Avenue is within a few yards of this garage. Cars are often making left hand turns into J Street, less than 20 yards from the driveway. Pedestrians cross the street at this location also, even though the city restricts this kind of activity and expects pedestrians to walk one full block before they cross J Street. People consistently ignore this restriction. In addition, there is a garage exit on the north side of J Street almost directly across from the Harbor Club garage. There is parking on their side of the street also. Garbage and other delivery trucks park in both traffic lanes to empty trash bins left in the street. This intersection is so complex it is a danger every time a care leaves either one of these garages. Adding more traffic to this very busy street will eventually lead to someone getting seriously injured or killed.

 

NEW STUDIES REQUIRED: Based on all of the challenges of the location of this hotel, we request that the developer be required to pay for an Environmental Impact Review for the area that includes a traffic study and a pollution study before any approvals are given for this development. To be accurate, this study must be done during the baseball season and during weekends nights and late afternoons, when games are going on, the normal conditions at peak hours that occur numerous times a year. We suggest that this study include traffic on 4th and 3rd Avenues between Market and K Streets. In addition, if traffic controls and street configuration changes have to be made, the developer should shoulder those costs.

 

ARE CITY PLANNERS BURYING THIER HEADS IN THE SAND: We are aware that the city wants to reduce vehicle traffic downtown and discourages people from driving, suggesting that they take the trolley or other public and private transport. In spite of these efforts, hotels will always draw people who travel by car from out of the area for special events like weddings and other celebrations as well as nearby convention goers. Building a hotel with 240 rooms and six entertainment and food venues including a “ballroom”, without parking facilities is just asking for more traffic problems and many other impacts in a location that is already choked with traffic and its pollutants and noise. (We note that residential buildings within the area that have been built without parking struggle to attract people who are willing to pay the rent. The people are speaking with their actions: they want parking spaces, particularly when almost every parking lot in the downtown area has plans for a new residential building.

 

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMITMENT TO REDUCING PEDESTRIAN INJURIES AND DEATHS AND RESULTS: We understand that the city has committed to reducing pedestrian traffic deaths and accidents. Data shows that it has not been successful. We think the addition of this hotel to our neighborhood, without careful consideration of the already major impacts on traffic from previous development along J Street, will result in serious threats to pedestrians, people riding in pedicabs and on bikes and to local residents. We think someone needs to measure and know those impacts before the city makes any additional commitments.

 

CONCLUSION: We believe that the city and/or the developer should be funding a new EIR and Community Plan that considers the very different conditions that exist today, more that 7 to 20 years after the last final data was collected. That study should be focused more specifically on the whole area below Broadway including the Marina District. We believe that it would be irresponsible of the city to use a "SUPPLEMENTAL" EIR based on information generated that did not study our area at all west of 8th Avenue on J Street. Making any decision that impacts our neighborhood without a complete study would be criminal.

 

TOO BIG FOR THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Finally, we question the decision to build 240 more additional hotel rooms in this location. The scale and impacts of this project may be too large for this neighborhood to absorb. We believe the impact of the current 4th and J Hotel development will be extremely negative for residents along J Street from 6th Avenue to 2nd Avenue as well as to those living on the adjacent avenues.