Re: Menlo Park Planning Commission Meeting March 31, '08 - The Derry Project

Hon. Mayor and Council Members, Planning Commissioners, et al.

The mandated Noise Element of General Plans requires a Noise Contour Map showing hazardous noise areas which include trains.

San Mateo prepared its noise contour map decades ago showing the whole Caltrain Corridor in red and has had numerous hearings, workshops, etc. for its Rail Corridor Plans. (see attached)

Its final environmental report requires noise measurements which cannot be exceeded inside homes over 500' from the center of the rail tracks for the train noise itself. The Federal Railroad Administration's environmental impact report shows a "severe" impact to residents of 660' for he horns alone. Moreover, these cancer-causing air-polluting diesel locomotives, including earth-shaking vibrating freights are not compatible with housing. The noise cannot be mitigated even with triple-paned windows:

In addition:   

1. The traffic problems at the railroad crossings cannot be mitigated. (see PUC letter and mine in Draft E.I.R;
2. The developer of the Derry Project intends to build the required sound wall on the property line and, if and when Caltrain claims its dedicated 15' for extra rail, the noise barrier will have to be removed and the space taken from the parking areas. In any case this barrier will not shield residents for the injurious blasting horns, air pollution or underground vibration of the heavy rail traffic. The developer was apprised of these problems at the first meeting which I attended.
3. The Governor's Office of Research and Planning wrote me that Transit Oriented Development was generally intended for light rail; ABAG and C/CAG should be ashamed of their actions to bribe cities to crowd housing around this railroad.
4. The Congress of the United States has made an amendment to the Swift Act to allow supplementary safety measures at crossings to lessen the death-dealing horn blasts which are designed and intended to penetrate closed vehicles. In many areas of the country the developers of housing pay for the cost of this mitigation at a much farther distances than the Derry Project whose housing will be alongside the tracks;
5. The Public Utilities Commission's Railroad Division long ago before the increased service, heavier freights and louder air horns stated that it was poor planning to place housing beside heavy rail and freights.
6. The E.I.R. of the F.R.A. at www.fra.dot.gov revealed that there were over 2.5 million people whose health and lives were adversely affected by the train horns alone.
7. Our own Noise Element of the General Plan includes recommendations of Charles Salter, Acoustical Engineers in S.F. with regard to train noise which was top of the list of complaint in their survey.
8. Is he city of Menlo Park continuing to be negligent and irresponsible in its duty to protect the public health and welfare when it allows such development to trump the human rights and habitat of its citizens. Where is our Rail Corridor Study? It should precede all other studies along the Caltrain/El Camino Corridor.
9. The Derry family surely does not need the exorbitant profits it will make from the development of this property which was bought for a song originally. The developers should not be allowed to use public funds to further their ill-conceived plans to put human beings in harm's way and create an unlivable community.
10. T.O.D. housing is considered appropriate up to one-half mile from rail. Crowding it into this already seriously air/noise polluted and congested area without consideration of the serious health hazards or full disclosure of its dangers between El Camino and the tracks exposes its promoters to serious consequences.

The fact that the considerable comments of the air and noise pollution during the downtown visioning walks was not mentioned confirms that this city and its out-of-town consultants are still ignoring this serious health hazardous environment, to their peril.

While diesel locomotive emissions are on the list for regulation, together with the considerable toxic emissions from other vehicles, it will be many years before this will eliminate or lessen the present hazards.

Also see my recent e-mail on the Challenge of T.O.D. by the M.T.C. Do not add to the canaries in the cages with the present clear and present danger

Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from the attached San Mateo Rail Corridor Study although they do not have the addition of the blasting horns in that area.

At the very least a hold should be put on housing in the Derry Project until the potential Caltrain construction is completed during the nights and week-ends and its true environmental impacts adequately assessed.

Margaret Petitjean, Menlo Park
H.A.L.T., H.O.R.N. Citizens for Noise Abatement

attached mail follows:

http://www.cityofsanmateo.org/dept/planning/bay_meadows/corridor.html Received on Sat Mar 29 11:14:39 2008