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Meeting Announcement:
Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Place: Sonoma Co. Permit and Resource
Management Dept.- Hearing Room
2550 Ventura Avenue, Santa Rosa
Staff: Steven Schmitz
Phone: (707) 585-7516
e-Mail: steven@sctransit.com
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* Note new meeting location at Permit and Resource Management Dept.- hearing room.
Agenda:
I. Introductions & Public Comments (5 Minutes)
II. Approval of Agenda & Minutes (5 Minutes)
III. Staff Reports (10 Minutes)
Progress of Western Avenue Class II Bicycle Lane Project.
Request to Caltrans for Bicycle Facilities on Stage Gulch Road.
Safe Routes to Schools Applications Submitted by Public Works.
IV. General Meeting:
A. Recap of July 1 Sonoma County Planning Commission Public Hearing for the Draft Sonoma County Bike and Pedestrian Plan. (45 Minutes)
B. Discuss Potential Bicycle and Pedestrian Facility Projects as Proposed Sutter Hospital GHG Emissions Mitigations. (15 Minutes)
V. Other Business & Announcements (5 Minutes)
VI. Next Meeting & Adjournment (5 Minutes)
The next meeting of the Sonoma Co. BPAC is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010.
Sonoma County Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
June 16, 2010 Minutes
Members in Attendance: Other Participants:
Chip Roberson 1st District Rocky Vogler 1st District Resident
Bernie Album 2nd District Gary Helfrich PRMD - Planning
Joe Morgan 2nd District (alt.) Ken Tam Regional Parks
Vin Hoagland 3rd District Vince Sala Sonoma Co. Transit
Richard Burg 4th District Steven Schmitz SCBPAC Staff
Bill Harrison 4th District (alt.)
Tim Gonzalez 5th District
Erick Ratliff 5th District (alt.)
Meeting Summary
I. Introductions and Public Comments
Self-introductions were made. Rocky Vogler introduced himself as resident of the 1st District and a civil engineer who had read in the Kenwood Press about the County’s application for funding through Caltrans for the Central Sonoma Valley Trail project. He’s interested in becoming more involved with the committee, especially related to bicycle and pedestrian projects in the Kenwood and Sonoma Valley areas.
II. Approval of Agenda and Minutes
The agenda for the June 16, 2010 meeting was approved as presented.
The minutes from the May 19, 2010 meeting were approved with the following corrections from Vin Hoagland; on page 3 under General Meeting the word “for” should be deleted from the second sentence, and on page 4 in the second paragraph the word “elementary” should be changed to the word “middle.”
III. Staff Reports
Staff reported on behalf of Kevin Howze of the Transportation and Public Works Department that the beginning of construction for phase 1 of the Western Avenue bicycle lane project is eminent. Phase 2 plans from Windsor to Cleveland are still being completed and they hope to put that out to bid later this summer for construction possibly this fall. Staff also mentioned that Kevin has indicated that they plan to include signing and striping for class II bicycle lanes all the way to the Petaluma city limits as part of the scope for phase 2 of the project.
Regarding the request from the committee that bicycle facilities should be provide along Highway 116/Stage Gulch Road, staff said that a letter on behalf of the committee was mailed to Caltrans on June 8 but no response had been received yet.
Sonoma County Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
June 16, 2010 Minutes
Staff said that the Transportation and Public Works Department has decided to submit two applications for Safe Routes to Schools funding for this grant cycle. One is for making crosswalk improvements on West Avenue adjacent to Sheppard School and the other is for making bicycle and pedestrian shoulder improvements along Willowside Road between the Santa Rosa Creek Trail and Hall Road. The funding guidelines state that, if a single agency submits more than one application, then the applications must be prioritized. Staff added that such a prioritization has not yet been determined, although there are no local matching funds identified for the Sheppard School project. Transportation Development Act Article 3 funds have been programmed by the committee for the Willowside Road project.
After some discussion, the committee directed staff to prepare a letter of support for each of the two Safe Routes to Schools applications. The letters should indicate that the committee supports the Sheppard School application as the highest priority, but only if the County can identify a source of local matching funds. If no local matching funds are identified by the County for the Sheppard School project, then the letters should indicate that the Willowside Road application is the committee’s highest priority.
Ken Tam reported that the Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA) recently approved a grant for $618,000 from Regional Bike Program funding to complete a segment of the SMART Rail-Trail between Hearn Avenue and the Joe Rodota Trail. Also, the Santa Rosa Creek Trail project between Fulton Road and Willowside Road has begun and is due to be completed by July 6. In additional, Ken mentioned that the SCTA had recently approved through a straw poll a Vehicle Registration Fee (VRF) ballot measure that would provide additional funding for public transit, safe routes to schools projects, and roadway maintenance. The VRF measure will appear on the November 2010 ballot and must be approved by a majority of voters.
Gary Helfrich announced that the June 10 Sonoma County Planning Commission public hearing for the Draft Sonoma County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan was postponed until July 1 at 1:15 p.m. The public hearing was postponed due to a lengthy and complicated item on the Planning Commission agenda regarding vacation rentals and transit occupancy taxes. Gary also mentioned that the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has given him permission to utilize their bicycle and pedestrian design manual and all of the raw data for Sonoma County. Especially important is that VTA’s designs have already been fully vetted through Caltrans.
IV. General Meeting
A. Discuss the List of Regional Network Bikeways Proposed to be Included in the Draft Sonoma County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. Gary Helfrich distributed a list of the projects in Regional Bikeways Network as prepared by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which was updated in 2009. This list is included in MTC’s Regional Bicycle Plan and recently became tied to federal funding through MTC’s Regional Bicycle
Sonoma County Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
June 16, 2010 Minutes
Program. Staff said that, while the Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA) proposed to significantly expand the Regional Bikeways Network list for Sonoma County (including 125 additional projects for Sonoma County’s unincorporated areas) through the 2009 update of MTC’s Regional Bicycle Plan, MTC opted to maintain the list from its original plan that was adopted in 2000. Therefore, the Regional Bikeways Network still includes only thirty-three projects for Sonoma County, twenty of which are located in Sonoma County’s unincorporated areas and two that have already been completed.
Gary suggested that, until MTC permits additional projects from Sonoma County on the list of projects for the Regional Bikeways Network, the committee should accept the original list from the 2000 Regional Bicycle Plan and identify those regional projects in the Draft Sonoma County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. The committee should also continue to work through the SCTA to expand upon the Sonoma County projects listed for the Regional Bikeways Network. After some discussion, the committee agreed to accept the current list of Regional Bikeways Network projects. Gary said that the appropriate projects in the Draft Sonoma County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan would be identified as Regional projects and MTC Regional Bikeways Network would also be described in the text.
V. Other Business & Announcements
There was no other business or announcements.
VI. Next Meeting & Adjournment
Staff said that the next meeting would include a recap of the Sonoma County Planning Commission public hearing that is set to take place on July 1. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:45 p.m.