Burbank Municipal Code Div. 8 Transportation Demand Management

A significant number of the work trips projected in the Media District Overlay Zone will be accommodated not by increasing the capacity of the street system but by reducing the demand for additional street capacity through transportation demand management. Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is the term for a wide range of strategies including ridesharing, vanpools, use of public transportation and shifts in work hours and schedules.

The purposes of requiring transportation demand management efforts are as follows: Minimize peak hour commute trips from new and existing employer development; Reduce the traffic impacts within the community and region with a reduction in the number of vehicles and total vehicle miles traveled; Reduce the vehicular emissions, energy usage, and ambient noise levels by a reduction in the number of vehicular trips, total vehicle miles traveled, and traffic congestion through a decrease in peak hour commute trips, as well as achieve and maintain a Level of Service (LOS) “D” on streets, arterials and highways; Minimize the percentage of employees traveling to and from work at the same time and during peak hour periods by encouraging modified work schedules; Promote or increase work-related transit use, ridesharing, and bicycling to minimize parking needs and to keep critical intersections from severe overload; Decrease the governmental economic costs of transportation improvements; and Maximize the use of commute modes other than single-occupancy vehicle through the use of Transportation Demand Management, Transportation Systems Management and Transportation Facilities Development (new and existing). [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]

Upon the effective date of this ordinance, employers with over 1,000 employees within the Media District shall form and/or maintain a Transportation Management Organization (TMO). By January 1, 1992, all employers and property owners subject to the trip reduction requirements of the Media District Overlay Zone set forth in Sections 10-1-2135, 10-1-2136 and 10-1-2137 shall be members of the TMO. The TMO shall be a private non-profit corporation. The TMO shall be housed within the District. Membership within the TMO, beyond the above mentioned organizations, shall be voluntary.

As long as the trip reduction goals of this plan are met, the City will not become a member of the TMO nor will the City require specific TDM measures for individual employers beyond those imposed in the following sections and those requirements which may be imposed by the City’s future citywide TDM Plan. However, the City reserves the right to revise the plan and its implementing ordinances as these regulate both the TMO and individual employers if the trip-reduction goals stated below are not met.

The TMO shall work with its membership to achieve the trip-reduction goals of this plan. The TMO shall report to the Community Development Director at least annually as to the programs and strategies of the TMO and its membership plus PM peak hour trip generation for all employers and developments subject to the TDM requirements of this plan to the satisfaction of the Director of Community Development. In addition to reporting the results of individual employers, the TMO shall report cumulative PM peak hour trip generation for all employers and developments subject to the TDM requirements of this plan to the satisfaction of the Director of Community Development.

Multi-family dwelling unit owners shall not be included in a TMO. [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]

The following paragraphs describe some of the transportation management strategies which may be used by Media District firms and developers to reduce peak hour commute trips as required by this plan.

A. FLEX TIME AND MODIFIED WORK SCHEDULES.

Employers in the District may set up programs to modify the traditional 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. work schedules. An analysis of office requirements should be undertaken to determine what staff functions are best served before 8:00 a.m. and those that are needed after 5:00 p.m. to handle deliveries, late mail-outs, contact with the public, contacts with the East Coast, etc.

B. VANPOOL PROGRAMS.

District employers, with possible assistance from the TMO, can implement vanpool programs. Van procurement, vanpool matching and vanpool fare subsidies are all examples of incentives and services employers could offer employees in their vanpool programs.

C. CARPOOLS.

Employers may actively foster and monitor carpool formation. To encourage carpooling among its employees, the employer could provide matching information, free parking or preferential parking locations and other incentives to its employees to carpool. The TMO can assist employers in this effort. All employers who operate a carpool program will report program results to the TMO for its annual report to the City.

D. TRANSIT RIDERSHIP AND BUS OPERATIONS.

Employers and/or the TMO may choose to promote programs to increase public transportation ridership. Such programs can include: transit route and schedule information, individual route planning and on-site transit pass sales.

Employers may also provide transit shelters or actual shuttle connections to various public transportation centers to make commuting by public transportation more convenient.

E. SATELLITE PARKING.

Employers and/or the TMO may choose to provide required parking outside of the Media District at satellite locations linked to the District by reliable shuttle service. The Community Development Director shall approve applications for satellite parking according to procedures prepared by the Director. The Director’s decision shall be appealable according to the provisions of the Development Review section of the Burbank Municipal Code.

The land costs to create satellite parking lots and structures could pose a significant hurdle to the use of this option. Consequently, a portion of the transportation fees charged to future development may fund land acquisition at the transit centers in Burbank’s downtown and in the Golden State project area in order to assist those employers who can assign employees to park at these locations and take the shuttle into the Media District.

F. NON-VEHICULAR COMMUTING.

Employers may encourage employees to walk or bicycle to work by providing bike racks, showers, locker rooms and offering monetary incentives for these non-vehicular means of commuting.

G. PARKING MANAGEMENT.

Parking management includes various strategies in which parking policies and management are used as an incentive to rideshare or disincentive to commute alone. One of the simplest strategies is to provide carpools and vanpools with the most desirable parking spaces at a reduced rate or for free. A more comprehensive Parking Management program, however, might discourage driving alone through relatively high parking fees. Furthermore, instead of directly subsidizing parking costs, employers could offer Travel Allowances to their employees. The individual employees would have the option to decide whether to spend the Travel Allowance on parking or some other less expensive form of commuting such as carpooling, vanpooling or public transportation.

H. MERCHANT TRANSIT INCENTIVES.

Media District merchants can offer merchandise discounts, parking validation, transit coupons, valet parking for ridesharers, secure bike lockers or other incentives to customers who arrive by public transportation, in carpools, vanpools or by non-vehicular modes.

I. TELECOMMUTING.

Media District employers can institute telecommuting programs which allow certain employees to work at home or from off-site work centers at least one (1) or two (2) days a week. The Southern California Air Quality Management Plan proposes that telecommuting even one (1) or two (2) days a week could account for significant work trip reductions in the near future. [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]

As of January 1, 1991, firms employing more than 100 employees are already required by Regulation XV of the Air Quality Management District to submit and implement plans designed to achieve an average vehicular ridership (AVR) of 1.5, meaning 1.5 passengers per vehicle. The Air Quality Management Plan will eventually require all employers of 25 or more workers to achieve similar reductions. The Media District Overlay Zone makes similar requirements of these employers.

For the purpose of the Media District Overlay Zone, the trip reduction shall occur during the PM peak - from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

All firms with 25 or more employees shall report to the Burbank Media District TMO at least once per year on efforts made to reduce PM peak trips and the actual reduction achieved. The goal for all firms of 25 or more employees shall be a 9.5 percent reduction from the base rate in peak hour trips during the most recent five (5)-year period. The base rate is the generation rate for the peak (4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.) as established by the City with support of the Institute of Traffic Engineers Trip Generation or through other methods provided by the Overlay Zone to establish office equivalency.

If this incremental goal is achieved, TDM alone will have reduced PM peak-hour trips by 32 percent assuming an increment of 6.8 million OEGSF over the next 20 years. [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]

Applicants for new development housing firms with 25 or more employees shall, upon occupancy, achieve the reduction in peak hour trip generation required of pre-overlay zone development in the year the building is occupied. For example, ten (10) years after adoption of the Overlay Zone, existing firms will have reduced peak hour trips by 19 percent. Therefore, any new development of a 25-employee or greater firm must achieve a peak hour trip generation 19 percent lower than the base rates of the plan in the first year of occupancy. Thereafter, these new developments shall achieve the average 9.5 percent reduction over the past five (5)-year period in order to meet the 38 percent reduction goal by the year 2010.

If the Project Buildout projections are exceeded, any firm employing 25 or more employees shall achieve peak hour trip generation rates that are 38 percent below the base rates in the first year of occupancy. [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]

Firms which employ fewer than 25 employees but are located on property owned and occupied by firms with over 25 employees will be treated as part of the larger firm and subject to the trip-reduction and reporting requirements of this plan.

Buildings receiving a building permit after the effective date of this plan which include 25,000 office equivalent gross square feet or more shall be subject to the same trip reduction and reporting requirements as any firm of 25 or more people. [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]

All employers or developments subject to the requirements of this plan shall have an on-site, trained transportation coordinator. This coordinator will be responsible for implementing all trip reduction efforts. [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]

The Overlay Zone allows individual employers and the Transportation Management Organization to select the means of reducing peak-hour trips that are most effective and appropriate. The City will not impose specific trip-reduction activities as long as these goals are being met as indicated in the annual reports from the Transportation Management Organization.

Should the annual reports indicate that the trip-reduction goals are not being met, the City may impose specific trip-reduction activities on employers individually or collectively and/or use the enforcement provisions of the Burbank Municipal Code to compel compliance with trip-reduction requirements. [Added by Ord. No. 3224, eff. 2/16/91.]