6:00am | The proposed mixed-use development project at 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway is being branded using the name of the intersection–“second+pch.” It’s apropos considering the serious traffic impacts the completed project is likely to have on the already busy intersection… and many others in the area.
  
First, let’s set the stage–the environmental impact report on the proposed project, where the old Seaport Marina Hotel sits, is supposed to list, in one document, all the bad things that might happen because of the project. Things like air pollution, or water pollution or noise pollution, etc., etc., etc.
  
On Monday, CityBeat looked at how the full-scale project–325 condos, 100 hotel rooms, 191,000 sq. ft. of retail, a 21,000 sq. ft restaurant, a mini-aquarium and a performing arts theater–stacked up against the four alternative plans listed by the authors of the EIR.
  
Turns out… not so good. An option to do nothing came in first place and an option to cut the project by 50-percent came in second.
  
But, given that we are all denizens of Southern California and its car culture, it appears by the numerous comments on the previous article that the one thing most people care about it how the full-scale project will impact traffic in and around the 2nd Street and PCH intersection.
  
Turns out…not so good. There seems to be a pattern developing here.
  
The EIR examined 25 major intersections in the East Long Beach area–centered roughly on 2nd Street and PCH and radiating out up to four miles away–and estimated what the traffic impacts of the full-scale project at each of these intersections might be. The analysis considered three time frames for each intersection: A.M. peak traffic, P.M. peak traffic, and mid-day Saturday traffic. 
  
The traffic impacts from the project, according to the EIR, will cause five of the 25 intersections examined to fall below the minimum level of service that is considered acceptable by City regulations.
  
Fully 17 of the 25 intersections examined will, due to traffic from the project, slip into a worse level of service rating category. In other words, 17 of the intersections will experience enough additional traffic from the project to rate a more severe level of service rating based on state and traffic management industry standards.
  
In fact, if the project were completed as described, every single one of the 25 intersections examined would see more traffic at each of the three measurement times, A.M. peak, P.M. peak, and mid-day Saturday. Every single one.
  
Keep in mind that these numbers also factor in city proposed improvements at 2nd Street and PCH calling for a second southbound left-turn lane and a dedicated southbound right turn lane. If these projects are not built, even higher traffic numbers from the project will impact this particular intersection. The developers also want the city to cover the installation of two traffic signals, stop sign signage at four intersections, and the construction of a third southbound PCH lane in front of the project.
  
So how will the project, when completed, impact the handful of intersections in the immediate vicinity of the project?
  
Turns out…again…not so good.
  
Here are the four signals surrounding the proposed project, going clockwise from the roughly northwest corner: Marina Dr. and 2nd; PCH and 2nd; PCH at Studebaker; and, Marina Dr. at Studebaker. Studebaker Road at this location is a small stretch running east-west from the Market Place center toward Alamitos Bay, not the more common and larger north-south Studebaker Road located to the east.
  
Keep in mind that at all of these intersection, for every time measured, the project will increase traffic.
  
According to the EIR traffic analysis, the project will cause, at the worst hours: an 8.8 percent increase in traffic at Marina Dr. and 2nd Street; a 17.9 percent increase in traffic at PCH and 2nd Street; a 6.4 percent increase in traffic at PCH at Studebaker; and, a 4.6 percent increase in traffic at Marina Dr. at Studebaker.
  
In Long Beach, City Hall considers any traffic increase of more than 2-percent to be a “significant” project impact.
  
According to the EIR, the project when coupled with normal traffic growth between now and the completion of the project will increase traffic at all 25 intersections examined, at all times of the day, by more than 2-percent, or what the city considers significant.
  
Even leaving out the normal projected traffic growth would see the project create a city-defined “significant’ impact on 17 of the intersection at one time of the day or another.
  
If you want to peruse the traffic analysis portion of the EIR yourself, it is located online here.