Not just 120 more employees but more patients and visitors as well. The result is more traffic and traffic congestion - made worse by emergency vehicles. But even more traffic is added by more housing in the area and other jobs reached through Grant Road. The virtual end of movement on Grant will arrive if and when the VTA takes lanes on El Camino Real for its "rapid transit" buses only. The theft of lanes would slow El Camino to a near standstill and greatly delay travel on cross streets including Grant. Construction of the median bus lanes would have already been finally approved except that the VTA first wants more money from a sales tax increase it just placed on the November ballot. Vote NO.

At least the additional traffic will be to support a company that is located in the area. Most rush hour traffic is from people going through.

It's a shame that we don't throw our complete support behind the building of fast transit options like the BRT. That is the only way to move lots more people without jamming the roads.

That's why most of MV will support the sales tax investment to VTA. Intelligent people live here too!

Thanks VTA public relations woman, for continuing the VTA CON JOB in the last post. The truth is that the VTA has a long record of mismanagement and self-serving lunacy. "BRT" on El Camino is a good example. One bus every 10-15 minutes consuming an entire lane moving a few dozen passengers per hour to go from El Camino to El Camino. The VTA measure will not get 50% support in north county and will not receive the two-thirds needed to pass. But keep up the Con Job lady. It helps show that the VTA should be eliminated - not goven billions more to squander.

In this week's SANTA CLARA WEEKLY is a column about the disaster that calls itself the "Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority" (VTA). Take a look online - the column is under "MILESTONES." The VTA creates more congestion than it relieves.

Rosenberg continues to make decisions by throwing out (or avoiding) highly nuanced analyses in favor of non-sequiturs that have no direct bearing on the matter considered. We need council members who actually put local residents, neighborhoods, and their day to day concerns first. The hospital development should happen (the logistics end of things can easily be improved), but this approval should be given for the right reasons.

**Council member Ken Rosenberg supported the project, and said it's important to remember the development proposal is for a hospital, not an office building. He pointed out that health care is a human right under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and said its important to expand the capacity of local hospitals in the region at a time when the population in the Bay Area is expected to grow significantly in the coming decades.

"I'm not looking at it through the lens of the inconvenience it's going to cause people today from trying to drive on Grant Road," Rosenberg said.**

Under Rosenberg's line of thinking, we should not have any development standards or requirements for a hospital (or other facilities theoretically contemplated under the UNDHR) if it achieves an end that makes him feel good at the end of the day.

El Camino Hospital owns property which could be used to extend North Drive through to Miramonte thus easing Grant Road (and Cuesta) traffic. Why was that possibility not up for discussion?

@Grant Road User

Councilmember Siegel actually did bring it up, complete with a topological map. I think that connection is deemed to fall under the implementation of the plan, not the approval of it. I didn't completely understand.

But your point was mentioned.

When El Camino Hospital is not full, it doesn't mean that Trump and Clinton can have political rallies to use up the newly built parking spaces. They should not be allowed to have big loudspeakers at Cuesta Park to keep nearby Mtn View and EC Hospital patients awake.

Why does the Environmental Impact Report fail to take into consideration the diminishing quality of life of local residents?
We do not have sufficient natural resources (water, power) to sustain our quality of life and also lack the infrastructure.

Also it seems that the council failed to require sufficient traffic mitigation measures for cut through traffic coming to/from the new site, in addition to construction traffic. With the massive backup that will stretch from El Camino Real to ECH, drivers certainly will (aided by Waze and other navi apps) try to short cut the backup by cutting across streets that run perpendicular to Grant - Covington Ave, Cuesta Drive, Barbara Ave, Hans Ave, etc.

Does anyone else find it ironic that this same evening the Council voted to close Castro at the RR crossing, creating more traffic on surrounding streets?

Does anyone else find it ironic that the Council approved the expansion of Google by 1 million square feet and LinkedIn with many hundreds more employees replacing existing buildings at Shoreline and 101 making Shoreline virtually impossible to travel during peak hours?

Does anyone find it ironic that El Camino Hospital is where LinkedIn and Google people - and all of us - go when we have babies or get injured. Hey folks, think about your priorities. This is OUR hospital and a great hospital and it's been there since 1960. Get over the traffic. It's here to stay and at least this is a positive event.
Thank you, El Camino Hospital. Your nurses and the care you have given to me and my family over the years is outstanding.

I wish the City Council would focus on improving the conditions for the current residents, rather than approving more development, housing, etc. The City Council sometimes acts like it is the federal government!

Also, no to VTA tax and VTA propaganda but I support BART extension throughout the Bay Rea.

Definitely need more transit in this area. BART as far as it can reach, dedicated bus lane on El Camino are great projects that will benefit us all!

We need to pay for it, so I'm voting Yes on the sales tax.

Los Altans
Your points are spot on.
Others overlooked the importance of a reliable hospital for their district until the moment they get ill - sad.