The Grant Avenue Spine
The idea is to create a small road up the middle of the large block (technically a "super block") bounded by El Camino Real, Page Mill Road, Hanover Street, and California Avenue. This "spine" would run the long way up the block from El Camino Real to Hanover, taking off opposite Grant Avenue. It would be designed for pedestrian, bicycle, and low-speed auto use and should attract many of the cars and trucks which currently use California Avenue. It would also help serve the circulation needs of the proposed community center on the JCC site.
Over time, as the buildings in the block are redeveloped, they could be reoriented to face the new Grant spine. The commercial driveways along California could be eliminated and it might even be possible to free up some land along California Avenue for housing. The goal is to change the nature of California Avenue into a truly pedestrian-friendly residential street.
Much of this proposed route is covered by parking lot driveways which could be consolidated to create a single route. Only the Beckman building (behind the new construction at 1117 California) straddles the spine. Over much of its length, it is already in use by internal delivery shuttles belonging to Wilson Sonsini.
Other possibilities are opening a route from the end of Yale to connect with this spine, connecting to the signals at Ramundo and Hansen, or even connecting up past Hanover to Peter Coutts! The biggest concern about this is whether it would attract more cars: if it looks like a road, it will create traffic. This is particularly a concern with respect to the Yale Street connection.
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