Issues meeting notes

5/19/2011

Ferguson, Public Works Department, City of Santa Rosa

Our guest today was Colleen Ferguson, the city’s Deputy Director of Public Works for Capital Projects. The subject was the proposed “Community Connector”, previously known as the Bike/Pedestrian Overcrossing. The bridge over Hwy 101 would connect Elliott Avenue on the east to Edwards St. on the west side. It would be for use by pedestrians and bicyclists, and would facilitate many things: access for east-siders, especially JC students, to use of the SMART train (a north city station site has been approved by the SMART Board); access the soon-to-be improved Coddingtown shopping center; and access the housing on the west side of the freeway. Apart from those benefits, there is the importance of a safe east-west connector off of surface roads for everyone.

The process history, according to Colleen:

In 2006/2007 (pre-recession) the Council voted for $200,000 in General Fund Capital Improvement Project (CIP) funds. This paid for a consultant, Steven Grover and Associates to do a feasibility study, which showed the various alignments for such a connector and what they might cost. The project was deemed feasible at that time. In 2007/2008, $100,000 of Measure M funds were allocated, again for this initial part of the project design.
For the Project Initiation Document (PID), a process which is required by Caltrans, the city decided to stay with the same consultant to save staff and project time, and because Grover and Associates had done and were then currently doing a similar project elsewhere. After that, the Redevelopment Agency gave the project $100,000 to be added to state funds from the state Safe Routes for Transit.

Because of the imploding state budget, by policy, Caltrans now charges for its services, which for the PID is $150,000. The Council considered other funds: state gas tax funds.

Nick Caston asked if there could be cost savings by merging or interconnecting the North Station Area Plan process, since the project would be helpful for SMART train ridership. For bureaucratic and timing reasons, Colleen said that wouldn’t be possible.

As part of the settlement in a suit regarding transportation against the Junior College, $1 million was set aside by the JC for this project. To capture those dollars, the city “must commit to construction” by December of 2012. The PID, once complete, might be usable for a delayed project with possible supplemental study.

We discussed the “elasticity” of the project cost. The costs quoted in the feasibility study were just for the bridge over the freeway, a span of 250 feet. Colleen estimated that the connector streets to the bridge, though, wouldn’t be hugely costly; perhaps in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Anne E. Seeley