5PM City Council (Closed Session Begins @ 4:00 p.m.) [Updated 03/15/2022 @ 2:55 p.m.] *Meeting will begin at 5:20 p.m.
Meeting Time: 03-15-22 17:00
eComments Report
Meetings Meeting
Time
Agenda
Items
Comments Support Oppose Neutral
5PM City Council (Closed Session Begins
@ 4:00 p.m.) [Updated 03/15/2022 @ 2:55
p.m.] *Meeting will begin at 5:20 p.m.
03-15-22
17:00
34 13 7 1 5
Sentiments for All Meetings
The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown.
Overall Sentiment
5PM City Council (Closed Session Begins @ 4:00 p.m.) [Updated 03/15/2022 @ 2:55 p.m.] *Meeting will begin at 5:20 p.m.
03-15-22 17:00
Agenda Name Comments Support Oppose Neutral
11. 2022 Weed and Rubbish Abatement (Noticed 02/18/2022) File ID:
2022-00520
1 0 1 0
12. Transportation Priorities Plan Prioritization Criteria, Metrics and Points File ID: 2022-00279
12 7 0 5
Sentiments for All Agenda Items
The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown.
Overall Sentiment
Agenda Item: eComments for 11. 2022 Weed and Rubbish Abatement (Noticed 02/18/2022) File ID: 2022-00520 Overall Sentiment
Muriel Strand
Location: 95820, Sacramento
Submitted At: 7:13am 03-15-22
This does not sound like a good way to reduce GHG emissions unless you are using goats to do the weed abatement work.
Agenda Item: eComments for 12. Transportation Priorities Plan Prioritization Criteria, Metrics and Points File ID: 2022-00279 Overall Sentiment
Sachiko Konatsu
Location:
Submitted At: 5:27pm 03-15-22
On behalf of the Natomas Community Association, I would like to request that the Transportation Priority Plan meaningfully include the voices of those on the margins and poor working families.As the electrification ordinance, the city and county climate plans and TPP move forward, we believe that you must implement action plans that reverse decades of redlining and racist environmental policies that continue in this growing city.Based on recommendations by City reports, it is crucial that you pilot significant public improvements in marginalized communities, and use realistic units of measurement/specific neighborhoods. Meaningful inclusion and participation is key to success. Gardenland neighborhood an example of a community often overlooked by city planning professionals and policy makers.Y ou have the unique opportunity to begin undoing years of environmental segregation and inadequate policies that have harmed so many.
Thank you for your time
Sachiko Konatsu
NCA President
Kevin Fernandez
Location:
Submitted At: 5:03pm 03-15-22
I would like to strongly express support for the Transportation Priorities Plan staff recommendations for the prioritization criteria to equitably and sustainably address the City of Sacramento’s backlog of nearly 700 transportation-related projects. I appreciate the efforts of City staff to hear and actually listen to community priorities around: improving our air quality, centering equity, connecting Black and brown folks to important and valuable destinations, and reducing the rates of serious injury or death (where we are dramatically overrepresented) by addressing our safety.
Isaac Gonzalez
Location:
Submitted At: 3:53pm 03-15-22
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In the very near future, adjacent to the Phoebe Hearst campus, a highly-lauded childcare facility is set to open, drawing as many as 400 additional parents to the same corridor, already rife with motorists that travel well beyond the speed limit each and every day. We hope that in your decision-making process tonight and in the months to come, you place a particular emphasis on investments around school campuses that are currently experiencing freeway-like speeds on their adjacent road yet have pre-approved plans for immediate remediation. Please, take these proactive steps now so that another family won’t needlessly mourn the loss of their loved one, as Lupe’s family shall for a long time to come.
Thank you.
Phoebe Hearst Traffic Safety Committee
Isaac Gonzalez
Location:
Submitted At: 3:52pm 03-15-22
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Our school, Phoebe Hearst Elementary, is not immune to these issues or tragedies. Earlier this year, we lost a parent, Lupe Jimenez, when she was struck and killed by a car while walking to pick up her daughter, a student at our school. There are numerous measures that could have been taken to have prevented this from occurring, one of which could have been the reduction of travel lanes from 4 to 2 on Folsom Blvd to promote slower travel in this school zone, as recommended in an already completed “road diet” plan which the city approved years ago but failed to implement.
Isaac Gonzalez
Location:
Submitted At: 3:48pm 03-15-22
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To all it may concern,
The City of Sacramento is currently considering Transportation Prioritization Criteria, Metrics, and Points related to various transportation investments and funding. We applaud the City for taking this action, however, we also must vehemently criticize the delay which resulted in the collection of over $5 billion in unfunded projects throughout Sacramento.
When serious design deficiencies are identified, and safety issues are ignored, the public suffers. They suffer every day through the traumas they endure while traversing roadways that were designed to move cars quickly through our neighborhoods, through the increased stress they absorb navigating an obsolete system that ignores the needs of the carless, and they suffer when tragedy strikes and lives are lost in preventable collisions and crashes.
Cont.
Tiffany Wilson
Location:
Submitted At: 3:08pm 03-15-22
I support the city creating a project prioritization criteria to guide transportation investments. The equity criteria is of particular importance to address historical inequalities inherent in the land use and transportation system.
However, while I support the criteria, I advocate that the criteria is updated to define some of the general terms that could become a point of subjective debate, rendering the criteria ineffective. For example, what is considered "majority Black, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, and/or Indigenous? and is it "and" or is it "or"? Perhaps this means, if 51% or more of the population identifies as a race or ethnicity other than white per Census data. That may achieve the intent of this criteria with no confusion. Also, what is considered the "project area"? Is that .5 or 2 miles from the proposed development? Dan Allison
Location:
Submitted At: 12:48pm 03-15-22
I fully support the concept of the Transportation Priorities Plan, establishing criteria for selecting projects in a more transparent manner than has happened previously. We can expect better projects and better results from this selection criteria.
The ‘Provide Equitable Investments’ category should be weighted higher, at least 25% of the score. Our transportation system is the result of years of disinvestment and discrimination against communities of low income and people of color. Projects must undo these past harms The ‘Improve Air Quality and Health’ category neglects the concept of reducing vehicle miles traveled and therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Simply adding walking, bicycling and transit does not counteract a system that was designed to privilege private cars over all other modes. Either add VMT to this category and give it a weight of at least 25%, or create a separate VMT reduction category.
Susan Herre, President of ECOS
Location:
Submitted At: 11:45am 03-15-22
Please see the letter attached from Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS.) We recommend that SacRT’s transit system be the backbone around which the City’s transportation projects are selected, to make existing transit station areas and transit corridors more walkable and livable. This approach is consistent with state law (SB375, SB743), regional policies (SACOG Blueprint, Green Means Go), and it would enable the leveraging of federal grants. The priorities of equity, air quality, access to destinations, safety, and maintenance will have the greatest effect if they are applied along major bus routes and around light rail stations. Thank you very much for your consideration.
Debra Banks
Location:
Submitted At: 9:38am 03-15-22
Attached please see a letter from Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates. We believe that this criteria is important as it will prioritize this large back-log of projects. In light of the climate crisis, the playing field has shifted and it is imperative that Council direct Public Works to elevate projects that lower GHG and reduce VMT. Raising equity and climate indicators is of the utmost importance, but we also think that raising safety and Vision Zero goals should also be given a strong set of points to be earned when considering projects; many of them which were created over 20 years ago. Finally, funding must be in the equation if we are to implement the changes needed so that everyone can get around Sacramento safely. With new infrastructure dollars flowing into California, we must be positioned for these competitive grants. Climate, Equity, Safety and Funding, we believe, is the winning hand of criteria for these current and future transportation projects. Thank you.
Sue Teranishi
Location:
Submitted At: 3:14am 03-15-22
I support the letter submitted by the Sac Moves Coalition.
Of special importance, in order to meet our local and regional climate goals, the Transportation Prioritization Criteria must increase points for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled. The Criteria must ensure the City maximizes its competitiveness for state and federal and matching funds. With an expected increase in transportation infrastructure funds available in competitive grants, the City must position itself to improve our chances of winning these grants.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing more people safely walking and bicycling in Sacramento! Sue Teranishi, SABA Board President
Muriel Strand
Location: 95820, Sacramento
Submitted At: 10:59pm 03-14-22
Transportation projects to reduce GHG emissions should never increase total pavement as that would reduce the amount of possible carbon sequestration due to photosynthesis and also reduce possible local food production.
Some traffic measures such as stubouts that are installed for pedestrian safety also reduce cycling safety. No project should be built that reduces the attractiveness of any form of active transportation.
Unfamiliarity with cycling or transit use is an obstacle that could be remedied by pairing novices with experienced buddies to accompany novices until comfort is achieved. One obstacle to transit comfort is the nonworking condition of too many light rail ticket machines; being unable to process a ticket when a train is approaching is very discouraging. A high priority is intensive education of motorists about the recent law requiring drivers to give cyclists a 3-foot buffer zone. Cyclists should be legally allowed to yield at stop signs instead of having to stop.
Anne Stausboll
Location:
Submitted At: 4:02pm 03-14-22
Attached please find a letter from SacMoves regarding this item.
A few weeks ago, the Council held a Climate and Transportation workshop, focused on the urgent need for the city to accelerate its efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. However the Transportation Plan before you proposes to analyze 700 projects that have been proposed by council members over the last 20 years. The proposal appears to accept the status quo and does not include using the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or vehicle miles traveled as criteria. We urge you, as the city's leaders, to ask staff to revise the plan to: prioritize climate change, ensure that the city positions itself as competitive for state and federal funding, and develop a protocol to avoid spending precious time and dollars on evaluating out-of-date proposals.
Let's make sure this is a city that our children can live in twenty years from now. Thank you. 909 12th Street. Ste 110 Sacramento, CA 95814 www.sacbike.org
March 14, 2022 Dear Mayor Steinberg and City Council Members, The Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA) would like to express support for the Transportation Priorities Plan criteria to equitably and sustainably address the City of Sacramento’s backlog of nearly 700 transportation-related projects. SABA has been on the frontlines advocating for safer, more equitable, and cleaner, greener, modes for transportation for residents in Sacramento for the last thirty years. We have worked in partnership with a broad-base coalition of organizations to realize a vision for Sacramento that centers active transportation along with public transit as the most affordable means of transportation and one that provides excellent health benefits to individuals while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With a backlog of close to 700 transportation related projects, it makes sense to create a “rubric” and related metrics in which to prioritize these projects, yet, we have a different take on the set of criteria for scoring. We think that Council should require criteria that falls into four categories: Climate, Equity, Vision Zero/Safety and Funding. Given that it was less than a month ago in which we gathered for a Climate and Transportation workshop, it would be important to raise any project moving forward with criteria that shows a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per the agreed upon recommendations from the Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change. We need a transportation plan that reflects the current climate emergency and a plan that centers and creates the conditions for people to choose walking and cycling over vehicular travel. In addition, we agree wholeheartedly on criteria that works to address past and present harm at the intersection of transportation and race. We must prioritize investments in underserved communities so that all residents can experience and thrive in their neighborhoods. No one in Sacramento should lack basic infrastructure like sidewalks, street lights, or trees, which are less likely found in communities that are largely Black, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander and/or Indigenous. We can and should ensure that these neighborhoods receive equitable infrastructure that better connect residents to jobs, schools, and parks.
909 12th Street. Ste 110 Sacramento, CA 95814 www.sacbike.org The City’s work on Vision Zero needs to be raised to ensure safety for everyone. Lowering speed limits, improving safety by prioritizing projects on Sacramento’s high-injury corridors with the highest number of fatal and severe crashes is imperative. It is unacceptable that Sacramento continues to rank as one of the worst cities in California for transportation safety. We must do better for our families who suffer from the tragic and avoidable loss of a loved one due to a severe or fatal collision with a motor vehicle. Finally, with the influx of funds for transportation infrastructure flowing into the state, it is important that we not miss this window of opportunity. Adding criteria that addresses competitiveness for state and federal funds would assist in accelerating implementation of many of these projects that are so vital to a safe and equitable transportation system for all Sacramentans. We urge you to take the necessary action to prioritize the above criteria to create a blueprint for selection of projects that will yield a sustainable, equitable, livable, Sacramento for all of its inhabitants. Thank you, Debra Banks, Executive Director, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates Cc: Howard Chan, City Manager Michael Jasso, Assistant City Manager Hector Barron, Assistant City Manager Jennifer Donlan-Wyant, City Transportation Planning Manager Jennifer Venema, City Climate Action Lead
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Post Office Box 1526 | Sacramento, CA 95812-1526
March 14, 2022
Mayor and Council Members
City of Sacramento
915 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Sent via email (listed below)
SUBJECT: March 15 City Council Agenda Item No. 12.
Transportation Priorities Plan Prioritization Criteria, Metrics, and Points
Dear Mr. Mayor and Council Members,
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the City’s plan to prioritize transportation projects. ECOS recommends:
1) The schedule for developing the TPP plan should be accelerated so projects can be eligible for funding sooner and built sooner.
2) SacRT’s transit system should be the backbone around which the City’s transportation projects are selected, to make existing transit station areas and transit corridors more walkable and livable. This approach is consistent with state law (SB375, SB743), regional policies (SACOG Blueprint, Green Means Go), and it would enable the leveraging of federal grants.
Over the past year, the City has surveyed the public and identified priorities for equity, air quality, access to destinations, safety, and maintenance. These good
priorities will have the most effect from the climate,
equity, and mobility points of view if they are applied along major bus routes and around light rail stations.
We can make more of our transit infrastructure in
Sacramento. Consider the Place de l'Homme-de-Fer in
Strasbourg, France in which buildings frame the space
and the large canopy creates the place. People enjoy
being there, and we can make places like that here.
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At the City Council’s February 8 workshop, SACOG’s James Corless said the City needs a vision that clearly lays out the benefits to climate and social and racial equity, in order to be competitive for Federal Infrastructure funding.
Active transportation improvements with transit and transit-oriented development (TOD) can yield:
• Convenience and a healthy and car-free lifestyle. By funding walkability and safety projects near transit and modifying land use and zoning to support high density TOD, daily shopping can be just a short walk away, with local and regional destinations accessible by transit.
• Equity improvements. SacRT’s transit system connects a range of neighborhoods. Transportation improvement projects can be selected for lower income areas that have been historically disadvantaged.
• Good transit ridership results, and less GHG emissions. The decades-old analogy of pearls on a necklace for TOD is still a good model for Sacramento and most other cities. Robert Cervero of UC Berkeley noted that as opposed to origins and destinations that produce peak-hour commuters, TODs along transit corridors produce transit riders throughout the day:
“Another important ridership dimension of TODs is their mixed-use attributes. Some destinations, like offices and residences, produce trips during peak hours when trains and buses are often full. Others, like entertainment complexes, restaurants, and retail shops, generate trips mainly during off-peak hours, helping to squeeze efficiencies into the deployment of costly rail services. When mixed-use TODs are aligned along linear corridors— like “pearls on a necklace”—trip origins and destinations are evenly spread out, producing efficient bi-directional flows. . . This is in contrast to many U.S. settings, where peak-period trains and buses are filled to the brim in one direction but nearly empty in the other. Mixed and balanced land uses ensure mixed and balanced traffic flows.” [Transit-Oriented Development in the United States: Experiences, Challenges, and Prospects. Transit Cooperative Research Program, TCRP Report 102. 2004]
Thank you very much for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Susan Herre
ECOS President
Mayor - Darrell Steinberg, Chief of Staff Kelly Fong Rivas, [email protected] Vice Mayor - Jay Schenirer, District 5, [email protected] Angelique Ashby, District 1, [email protected] Sean Loloee, District 2, [email protected]
Jeff Harris, District 3, [email protected]
Katie Valenzuela, District 4, [email protected] Eric Guerra, District 6, [email protected]
Rick Jennings II, District 7, [email protected] Mai Vang, District 8, [email protected]
City Manager - Howard Chan, [email protected]
Assistant City Manager Public Works - Hector Barron, [email protected] Jennifer Venema [email protected]
Jennifer Donlon Wyant [email protected] [email protected]
Partner Organizations
2021-2022:
AARP
ACT
RiderShip for the Masses
SARA
Sacramento Regional Rail Working
Group
Sacramento Splash
Sierra Club, Mother Lode Chapter
Sierra Club, Sacramento Group
SKK Enterprises
The 50 Corridor TMA
March 15, 2022
To: Mayor Steinberg and City Councilmembers
Re: March 15 City Council Agenda Item No.12, Transportation Priorities Plan
For the past two years, SacMoves has been leading a broad-based coalition of business, labor and community groups united behind a common vision that Sacramento should have an innovative, seamless, and diversified transportation network offering a wide range of accessible, affordable, and efficient mobility choices coupled with supportive land uses, better air quality, safer neighborhoods, and a stronger and more equitable economy. To that end, we have consistently advocated for the inclusion of projects and policies in transportation, land use, and climate action plans for the City, the Sacramento Transportation Authority, SACOG, and the greater Sacramento region that are consistent with the groundbreaking work of the Mayors’ Climate Change Commission.
Once again, we write to implore you to act swiftly to take comprehensive and bold action to transform transportation in the City and the region. Such a transformation is nonnegotiable if we are to begin to respond to the imminent threat of climate change; it is also essential in fostering equity, addressing traffic safety, increasing the livability of our neighborhoods, and improving air quality.
Just a few weeks ago the Council held a workshop titled Climate and Transportation. Yet the Transportation Priorities Plan before you, which proposes analyzing 700 transportation projects that have been proposed by council members over the past twenty years, would appear to adopt the status quo and does not establish addressing climate change as one of the criteria. Our city is in dire need of a transportation plan that reflects the current century. Again, we urge you to direct your City Manager to set aside staff and resources to develop and implement a comprehensive active transportation and public transit framework for the city.
That being said, we offer the following comments on the criteria proposed in the plan before you. The criteria themselves are all important aspects of analyzing transportation projects. In particular, the coalition is pleased to see equity as one of the proposed criteria. It is essential that we prioritize investments in our underserved communities. Only then will we achieve an equitable and healthy Sacramento.
However, the criteria do not adequately address the climate crisis or the critical need to become competitive for increased state and federal funding.
As the City Council acknowledged in December 2019, climate change constitutes an emergency. In Sacramento, transportation is the source of over 50% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet, our efforts to curb its impact on our environment remain woefully inadequate. “Air quality,” which is important and is one of the proposed criteria, is affected by greenhouse gas emissions but is not a proxy for addressing climate change. In order to meet our local and regional climate goals, the criteria must include the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled.
The Criteria must also include competitiveness for state and federal and matching funds.
We have heard consistently that the City of Sacramento does not receive “its share” of available state and federal funds. With the influx of funding for transportation infrastructure, along with clear priorities on climate change, land use, and equity that have been established by both the state and federal administrations, it is imperative that the City not squander this opportunity and that projects be selected based on their competitiveness for the available funds.
Thank you for your consideration of these comments. While we continue to push for bolder action on these issues, we are appreciative of your staff’s efforts, particularly in the area of engagement. We remain hopeful and eager to work with you and your staff on a transportation and transit framework that reflects the vision we all have for a sustainable city.
Yours truly,
SacMoves Coalition
Anne Stausboll, former Chair, Mayor’s Commission on Climate Change Steve Cohn, President, Breathe California Sacramento Region Roger Dickinson
Angela E. Hearring
Glenn Jackson Jr.
Becky Heieck, Jibe
Rosanna Herber, SMART Steering Committee
Ali, Doerr, 350 Sacramento
Emel Wadhwani, Midtown Neighborhood Association
Debra Banks, Executive Director, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA) Civic Thread
Doug Thompson
Susan Herre, President, ECOS
Glenda Marsh, Chair, SMART
Julia Burrows
cc: Howard Chan, City Manager
Michael Jasso, Assistant City Manager
Hector Barron, Assistant City Manager
Lucinda Willcox, Program Manager, Public Works
Jennifer Donlon-Wyant, City Transportation Planning Manager
Jennifer Venema, City Climate Action Lead