BOARD AGENDA MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT:
Title
Receive an Update on Valley Water Signage and Related Cost.
End
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Receive an update on Valley Water signage efforts, including information about the signage consultant, signage inventory, campus signage strategy, and pilot signage progress related to project legacy signs and creek markers.
Body
SUMMARY:
Since the last signage update to the Board of Directors on May 28, 2019, staff has secured a new signage consultant who will collaborate with us to update the signage guidelines. Staff has developed and begun implementing a campus signage strategy to update Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) signs. Staff continues to work together to address the signage needs of Valley Water which include an update on our signage inventory, project legacy signs and creek marker progress.
Signage Consultant
Valley Water’s signage working group has begun engaging with Hunt Design, a nationally recognized graphic design consulting firm specializing in wayfinding design, signage systems, and exhibition design for public spaces, parks, museums, and attractions. Their notable projects include Golden Gate National Recreational Area, National Mall and Memorial Parks, Orange County Parks, San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, and Los Angeles International Airport. Hunt Design will offer their expertise to help staff deliver a rebranded cohesive design guideline for signage, provide specifications and technical drawings that will improve Valley Water signage efforts.
Signage Inventory
Valley Water continues its partnership with the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) to inventory existing Valley Water’s signs throughout Santa Clara County. In October 2019, SVBC piloted the signage scavenger hunt with their membership and identified more than 1,500 Valley Water signs in two weeks. Staff and SVBC are using the feedback from the pilot scavenger hunt to develop the full scavenger hunt, open to the general public, scheduled to run for three months this spring. The goal of the scavenger hunt efforts is to inventory 18,000 signs.
Campus Signage Strategy
Staff estimates there are 40,000 signs throughout Santa Clara County referencing our efforts and of those, there are 600 signs on our Valley Water campus. That campus signage inventory includes large, small, and mobile signs such as vehicle signs. In order to replace these signs in an organized and strategic method, staff will be implementing a campus signage strategy that categorizes about 24 campus sign types, which includes our headquarters and warehouse facilities. A prioritization criterion and a Likert rating chart were created. In addition, data was collected and analyzed to produce priority levels, along with a timeline identifying campus signage replacement implementation.
Pilot Signage
Staff continues to work on piloting signage efforts such as project legacy signs and creek markers. Valley Water’s first project legacy sign was unveiled in September 2019. Since then, two legacy signs have been unveiled and plans to complete the installation are underway. A total of eight legacy signs are anticipated to be unveiled this year at Valley Water community events, with follow-up updates via social media and other public engagement opportunities.
Staff is also developing plans to address design details and specifications for creek markers through the collaboration with signage consultant Hunt Design. Staff has identified Berryessa Creek at Calaveras Boulevard near Hillview Drive to be the location for the pilot creek marker.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no cost associated with this update, however funds have been budgeted in FY20 to accomplish the consultant signage guidelines, signage scavenger hunt project, and pilot project legacy signs.
CEQA:
The recommended action does not constitute a project under CEQA because it does not have a potential for resulting in direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: PowerPoint
*Handout 7.1-A, Addt’l Slide on COVID-19
UNCLASSIFIED MANAGER:
Manager
Rick L. Callender, 408-630-2017