forest lawn memorial park hollywood hills ......considering all of these factors, the forest lawn...
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FOREST LAWN MEMORIAL PARK HOLLYWOOD HILLS MASTER PLAN
TRIP GENERATION ASSESSMENT
The Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills Master Plan Project (the “Project”) is an
expansion of the existing Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills (FLHH) facility, which consists of
approximately 444 acres (area map attached). The Project proposes to expand the current
facilities and develop currently undeveloped areas of the property in order to provide
approximately 200,000 additional interment sites. The Project is expected to be developed
between the years 2010 and 2050, with the sale of the interment sites also occurring through the
year 2050. Thus, the development and completion of the Project will be gradual over a 40-year
period.
As cemeteries are a unique land use, their trip generation characteristics are best determined on a
case-by-case basis. The most authoritative and widely used reference source regarding trip
generation is the handbook, Trip Generation 7th Edition, 2003, published by the Institute of
Transportation Engineers (ITE). However, this source has very limited information regarding
the trip generation characteristics of cemeteries, as only five studies have been conducted by ITE
for this use. The average size of the cemeteries in these studies is 108 acres, which is much
smaller than existing FLHH. The Project expansion itself is also much larger. From the five
studies, only daily trip generation rates are available for weekday, Saturday and Sunday. This
source does have weekday, Saturday and Sunday peak-hour trip rates, but those rates are based
on an even smaller sample size of one study. In addition, there is no description regarding the
sites in the studies or any instruction as to the applicability of the trip rates, other than the
cautionary note that the information should be used carefully due to the limited sample size.
Even if the ITE sample size of the trip generation studies were larger and more background
information were provided, applying the ITE trip rates to an established cemetery such as FLHH
to estimate the new trips generated by the Project would be inappropriate and likely lead to
inaccurate results. Such rates are better suited for entirely new cemetery sites for which trip
generation estimates may be desired.
FLHH has been in operation for over 60 years and the number of interments that have occurred
at this facility has been stable over the last decade. A review conducted of the interment activity
at FLHH over the last 11 years, i.e., January 1, 1997 through December 31, 2007 provided the
following results:
Average Daily Interments on Monthly Basis by Year
o 1997 10.2 - 14.2 per day/month o 2003 9.9 - 12.8 per day/montho 1998 9.7 - 16.3 per day/month o 2004 9.3 - 15.7 per day/montho 1999 9.1 - 12.6 per day/month o 2005 9.4 - 13.5 per day/montho 2000 10.7 - 16.8 per day/month o 2006 10.6 - 15.0 per day/montho 2001 10.0 - 12.9 per day/month o 2007 9.0 - 11.5 per day/montho 2002 10.5 - 13.8 per day/month
Crain & AssociatesMay 1, 2008
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Average Daily Interments by Year
o 1997 11.7 o 2003 11.5o 1998 12.0 o 2004 11.7o 1999 11.5 o 2005 11.6o 2000 12.1 o 2006 12.4o 2001 11.5 o 2007 10.2o 2002 11.6
Average Daily Interments, 1997 - 2007
o 11.6
As can be seen, while there have been monthly fluctuations in the amount of daily interments,
which is typical of the industry, the daily average over the last 11 years has been approximately
the same. It should also be noted that the death rate in Los Angeles County has been relatively
unchanged for many years. Therefore, although the Project will provide approximately 200,000
additional interment spaces, the level of daily interment activity is expected to continue to be
stable over the life of the Project. In addition, as noted above, the new interment spaces will be
developed over a 40-year period.
To estimate the current level of trip generation of FLHH, manual peak-hour and machine 24-
hour traffic counts were conducted of the main driveway, Memorial Drive, during the week of
April 16 - 20, 2007. Historically, April has been a month representative of normal traffic activity
for FLHH. Memorial Drive is the only access into and out of FLHH, except for two minor
driveways that are closed except for emergencies and other infrequent activities. These minor
driveways were not used during the week of the traffic counts. Utilizing the manual counts
(April 16, 18 and 20) to calibrate and normalize the week-long machine counts, the existing
average trip generation of FLHH is provided below. The calibrated traffic volumes summary
and the traffic count data sheets for Memorial Drive are attached.
o Approximately 2,990 trips per day.
o Approximately 109 trips (154 inbound and 46 outbound) during AM peak hour (between7:00 and 10:00 AM).
o Approximately 259 trips (118 inbound and 283 outbound) during PM peak hour (between3:00 and 6:00 PM).
In addition, attached are data sheets for machine 24-hour counts for Forest Lawn Drive east of
Memorial Drive that were also conducted April 16 - 20, 2007, plus data sheets for machine 24-
hour counts for Forest Lawn Drive at or near Mt. Sinai Drive that were conducted by others in
1999 and 2005. Mt. Sinai Drive is less than 0.7 miles east of Memorial Drive. As there are no
intervening streets or significant driveways on Forest Lawn Drive, there should be no significant
difference in traffic volumes on Forest Lawn Drive between Mt. Sinai Drive and Memorial
Drive.
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Comparing the 1999 and 2005 daily volumes with those from the April 16 - 20, 2007 counts, it
can be seen that there has been essentially no increase in traffic on Forest Lawn Drive over the
approximate 7.5-year period. The daily traffic volume on this segment has remained stable,
approximately 21,000 vehicles per day. Since Forest Lawn Drive is the only street directly
accessing Memorial Drive, it can be reasonably deduced that traffic on Memorial Drive into and
out of FLHH also has not changed during the same period. As the number of daily interments is
expected to remain stable in the future, as it has been over the last 11 years, no increase in FLHH
trip generation, including with the Project, is anticipated.
If any additional traffic were generated due to the Project, it would be negligible and very
gradual. For purposes of a conservative analysis, it has been assumed that such growth might be
as high as 1.0 percent over a five-year period. Applying this hypothetical increase to the existing
FLHH trip generation every five years over the 40-year duration of the Project from 2010 to
2050, the resulting Project trip generation would be as follows:
o Project Daily Trips: 2,990 trips x (40 years ÷ 5 years) x 1.0 percent= 239 trips
o Project AM Peak Hour Trips : 109 trips x (40 years ÷ 5 years) x 1.0 percent= 9 trips
o Project PM Peak Hour Trips: 259 trips x (40 years ÷ 5 years) x 1.0 percent= 21 trips
These trip quantities are minor and well below the City criteria for triggering project traffic
studies. It should also be noted that the FLHH weekday peak trip generation generally occurs
between the off-peak traffic hours of 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM, and does not impact traffic during
the typical commute hours when traffic volumes are greater. This pattern is expected to continue
with the Project.
Considering all of these factors, the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills Master Plan
Project is not expected to result in any significant increase in traffic or significant traffic impacts.
Therefore, no further traffic study or analysis should be required of the Project.