This comes after a struggling downtown commerical district has decided to relax the rules, and the development of other Mega-mall developments such as San Jose Marketplace, the Plant, @First, Santana Row, and now the Almaden Ranch Retail Center. With existing traffic conditions, large volume of strip and mall retail, and the proposed expansion of what is had been limited access expressway, traffic congestion will be expected to increase as traffic safety decreases. Unlike any other expressway (except for maybe Capitol Expressway) Almaden falls somewhere between a road and a street but possessing the benefits of either. For a great talk on the inefficiencies and costs of building roads that have the characteristics of streets check out Chuck Mahron's talk at a recent TEDx event.
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| photo: torontoist.com |
The amount of existing and proposed retail is evident in the map below with a Walmart also due to come online. Retail acerage is shown in green. Just prior to the announcement to build Almaden Ranch, Santa Clara County had announced is is currently expanding the Almaden Expressway shown in red from six lanes to eight lanes with the addition of bike lanes and pedestrian improvements.
Now cyclists, imagine riding alone an eight lane expressway with traffic zipping by you at 45 - 50 mph. In fact this portion of the roadway will have more capacity than State Freeway 87 which in this area only has six lanes. So cyclists would you ride on Almaden Expressway to do you shopping at one of the many Mega-Malls?
View Traditional Business Districts vs. Big Box in a larger map
This development reminds me of El Paseo de Saratoga... both have big oceans of parking with big box stores on the back and retail, restaurants on the front. Only difference is the additional office space and marginally better walk space and some tiny plaza/pedestrian areas.
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is that this Almaden Ranch project was the first huge "test" development (and on agricultural land no less) after 40-45+ people spent ~ 4.5 years to change things in the Envision 2040 project.
What happened to the 300-400 homes that were supposed to be part of the project? What happened to tying in better with the natural elements on the east and northeast sides of this 43.5 acre development? My heart sinks at what could have been a "draw" to bring people from OUTSIDE of San Jose to Almaden Ranch to spend time and their money. Instead we have this...
This is a very interesting blog.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping to find out about this new Mega-mall near Almaden Expressway and 85. Instead of spending 5 min. I ended up spending more than an hour reading. There are two sides of the stories and I like this blog because it got a good point of view and its thought provoking.
Traffic congestion:
This new construction announcement concerned me since traffic congestion will increase. I live nearby and transit from this area using my car :-(. Yes, there was a little selfish thought at first that I want to go quickly in and out and I am driving a car (contributing to the traffic) and yet concerned about traffic?
The answer I want to know/find out is how can we get rid of our car?
Yes, Zipcar and like businesses are starting to grow, which is a good sign and hope that someday, do change our lives. Don't you have to find/get to the car and you may need a car or another person's help (dependent) to do that?
More mega stores… less small stores
As first picture on the blog shows the signs (Target, Home depot, pets mart, babies r us and Ross). For a second, I thought these stores are opening at this location. I thought, who needs so much same businesses at this location and why?
We have 3 home depot, 3 Petsmart, 2 targets, 2 Ross, 2 babies R us stores. My friend said, we need a JC Penny! We don't got that one nearby! Well business creates jobs, and taxes and that argument is certainly true, it’s time we give congestions a priority for once! I said to my friend NO, we don’t need mega-mall, we need to live here. This is where accidents and traffic congestions will happen. Not sure what kind of city planning are we doing, till how far they check with people who are going to be impacted before approving such a big project with little road improvements.
Lifestyle recheck:
On this page, I like the picture of community riding on bicycle. In addition, I loved the fact that you have two great storytellers describing how to build a better block and rethink automobile. Excellent videos! This is exactly the kind of awakening our City needs.
Removing fear of safety on bike is necessary (thinks you cannot control).
I recently bought a bike, but I am not as comfortable yet on the streets when I have to cross one. I feel that our city have become a dangerous place to live and enjoy life at the same time. Will my bike helmet really be useful ever? Because, will if car is running me over, there is nothing helmet will do and I get that helmet is not meant to be such protection. Then, why are we required to wear one? We do not address first order problem (people in car running us over) and worry about second order (falling and getting injured).
Thank you for taking the lead!
Life goes on…No worries. Peace on earth.
I do like businesses, just a great point of view that I enjoyed and made me think again, about what is important?
In reply to "Unknown" Apr 3, 2012 11:39 PM
ReplyDeleteGood comments...One thing we have learned but don't always learn from is that just widening roadways will only solve conjestion in the short run. Eventually the time saved and the convience will make it easier for drivers to drive more often or buy homes even further out from the cities.
Also these large shopping centers don't actually give you more choices they give you less choices. The last three mega malls built all have a Panda and Panerra in common. Mayve that is why San Joseans will drive or take the train all the way to San Francisco to enjoy all of its great and diverse restaurants.
Anyway glad you like the blog. Let me know of anything happening in your area.