February 7, 2023
Community Development
DATE: February 7, 2023
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Lina Velasco, Director of Community Development
Hector Rojas, Planning Manager
Lydia Elias, Planner I
Subject:
Adoption of the Richmond Bicycle and Pedestrian Action
Plan (BPAP)
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact related to the recommended action; however, adoption of the BPAP will support future applications for state and federal grants. As grant funds are secured, projects identified in the BPAP will be added to the City’s Capital Improvement Program.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
On October 25, 2022, City staff and consultants
presented the draft BPAP and received comments from
the City Council and public.
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan (BPAP) provides
a set of short-term infrastructure recommendations and
actions for the City to effectively improve biking, walking, and rolling (i.e., micromobility device, wheelchairs, etc.).
The BPAP is designed to work in conjunction with the
City’s Local Roadway Safety Plan (LRSP), which was
developed concurrently with the BPAP as part of the
“Travel Safe Richmond” initiative. Transportation
consultants Alta Planning and Fehr & Peers assisted the City of Richmond in preparing the plan. The BPAP was
funded via a Caltrans grant provided to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (“MTC”) with the cities of
Vallejo and Richmond as sub-applicants. City staff is
seeking approval of the BPAP.
AGENDA
REPORT
February 7, 2023
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
ADOPT a resolution approving the Richmond Bicycle and
Pedestrian Action Plan (BPAP) – Community
Development (Lina Velasco 510-620-6841/Hector Rojas
510-620-1220).
DISCUSSION:
The City is committed to prioritizing safety on its roadways for all users. The proposed Richmond Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan (referred to in this report as the “BPAP” and attached as Exhibit A) contains recommendations that are designed to provide infrastructure improvements with a focus on decreasing the risk of collisions for people walking, biking, rolling, and driving across Richmond. Recent data on bicycle- and pedestrian-involved collisions provided insight into locations and roadways representing the biggest safety challenges.
Richmond has a history of community-driven planning projects (i.e., neighborhood and corridor plans) guiding multi-mobility planning. The BPAP consolidates and sets those ideas into a prioritized set of infrastructure improvements. The BPAP combines past planning efforts, current mobility industry best practices, and community input to create a set of achievable objectives for the City to meet, improving existing bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
The BPAP recommends over 86 miles of new or improved bicycle facilities as well as pedestrian spot improvements at 111 locations. Recommendations include projects identified in other City adopted or approved corridor and transportation plans, including the recent City Council approval of the Local Roadway Safety Plan (LRSP). The recommended improvements directly respond to safety concerns and community feedback received during the outreach for the “Travel Safe Richmond” initiative. Four categories drove the recommendations of the projects: 1) safety; 2) health and equity; 3) connectivity; and 4) community support.
The BPAP sets forth 77 high-priority projects, 105 medium-priority projects, and 110 opportunity projects. These identified projects can be found in the tables and figures included in the proposed BPAP (see pages 24 – 62). The prioritized list of projects in the BPAP is not intended to be a hardened order of projects but rather a guide to support City staff in selecting projects that can fulfill a variety of grants, repaving, or opportunistic situations. As funding is identified, individual projects will be implemented.
Consistency with the General Plan and Other Adopted Plans:
Adopting the BPAP will align with previously adopted citywide plans and policies. The BPAP is designed to work in conjunction with the City’s LRSP, which was adopted by the City Council on July 19, 2022. The recommendations from the LRSP have been incorporated into the BPAP’s recommendations and together these plans comprise the “Travel Safe Richmond” initiative. The LRSP and BPAP work together to create unified policies and infrastructure recommendations for improving roadway safety and comfort for roadway users of all ages and abilities, including pedestrian, drivers, and cyclists. In
February 7, 2023
addition, the BPAP (upon adoption) will update the “bicycle network map” and “pedestrian and bicycle facilities” sections of the City’s Bicycle Master Plan and Pedestrian Plan, adopted by the City Council in 2012. The new maps reflect best practices, implemented projects, and updated networks.
The BPAP is also consistent with the City’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), which was adopted by the City Council in 2016. It is consistent with CAP Objective 3 – Sustainable Transportation and Land Use, Strategy TL2 – Complete Streets, and Strategy TL3 – Improve Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure. For Richmond to advance toward meeting its climate action goals and objectives, the CAP strategies and actions must be implemented in a timely and efficient manner. If adopted, the BPAP will provide a guide to achieving the CAP’s transportation-related objectives by identifying specific infrastructure improvements to complete.
The BPAP is also consistent with the General Plan 2030, which was adopted by City Council in 2012. The BPAP aligns with the following goals and policies from the adopted General Plan:
Goal CR1 – An Expanded Multimodal Circulation System
Goal CR2 – Walkable Neighborhoods and Complete Streets Goal CR3 – A Safe and Well-Maintained Circulation System Policy CR1.1 – Balanced Modes of Travel and Equitable Access Policy CR1.2 – An Interconnected Street System
Policy CR1.5 – Safe and Convenient Walking and Bicycling
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
The BPAP included a multifaceted community engagement process. The City used multiple engagement methods and partnerships to further the reach and effectiveness of the engagement opportunities. Community engagement included three community workshops, three pop-up events, the development of a project website with an interactive web map, consultation and input from the City’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), and neighborhood council meetings. The City partnered with Rich City Rides to engage Richmond’s various neighborhood councils. City staff also presented the BPAP to the Richmond Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Industry and Business.
Over the project’s development phase, the community engagement process provided hundreds of interactions (workshop or pop-up attendance and online interactions) with community members and stakeholders (see Attachment 3). The project team has worked to address and incorporate as many of these comments into the BPAP.
Many public comments focused on safety, high-injury areas, commercial corridors, and pedestrian improvements. There was a call to modify which locations were considered high-priority projects, with many requesting San Pablo Avenue and McBryde Avenue to be included. This change is reflected in tables 2 and 3 of the final BPAP outlining the high-priority bicycle improvement and pedestrian spot improvements. Trails for Richmond Action Committee (TRAC) requested the BPAP reflect the realignment of the
February 7, 2023
Bay Trail between Hensley Street and Gertrude Avenue. This is reflected in Figure 7 of the Proposed Bikeways map and Table 6 of the Bicycle Recommendations in chapter 3.
On October 25, 2022, City staff and consultants presented the draft BPAP and received comments from the City Council and public (Attachment 3). Comments from the meeting have also been addressed in the final BPAP. The final BPAP incorporates the feedback requested during the meeting, such as more explicitly stating the connection of the BPAP with the adopted LRSP in the executive summary as well as throughout the bicycle and pedestrian recommendations, calling out the locations that were identified as high-injury intersections in the LRSP. City staff also incorporated recommendations to create additional sidewalk-related policies and surveys, which are included in chapter 4, pedestrian recommendations.
For public comments that were not reflected in the final BPAP, this was generally due to a few reasons: the comments or proposed edits did not align with the overall connectivity of the network, the proposed improvements were related to projects that City staff had previously ruled out due to infeasibility to implement, the comments were already included in the BPAP or comments did not provide location-specific requests.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
Section 21084 of the California Public Resources Code specifically requires the CEQA Guidelines to include a list of classes (or categories) of projects that have been determined not to have a significant effect on the environment and are therefore exempt from the provisions of CEQA. The CEQA Guidelines Sections 15301 through 15333 constitute the list of categorically exempt projects and contain specific criteria that must be met in order for a project to be found categorically exempt.
Additionally, the CEQA Guidelines Section 15300.2 includes a list of exceptions to the use of categorical exemptions, none of which may apply to a project for it to qualify for a categorical exemption.
The improvements associated with the BPAP meet the requirements for a categorical exemption under Section 15301, Existing Facilities, with subsection (c) specifically covering alterations to existing highways and streets, sidewalk, gutters, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and similar facilities such as the addition of bicycle facilities, including, but not limited to bicycle parking, bicycle-share facilities and bicycle lanes, transit improvements such as bus lanes, pedestrian crossings, street trees, and other similar alterations that do not create additional automobile lanes, and Section 15304, Minor Alterations to Land - Class 4, with Subsection (h) specifically covering the creation of bicycle lanes on existing rights-of-way.
CONCLUSION:
City staff recommends the City Council adopt the draft Resolution in Attachment 1 approving the Richmond Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan. Upon adoption, City staff will incorporate identified projects into the Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) and future grant applications.
February 7, 2023
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Draft City Council Resolution
Exhibit A – Final Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan, dated January 2023 Attachment 2 – Council Presentation Slides from October 25, 2022 Attachment 3 – Public Comments on Draft BPAP