City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: April 8, 2025
Agenda Item: 4.B
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Anuj Gupta, Director of Transportation, Mobility (DOT) Subject: Adoption of Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Resolution for the Santa Monica Neighborhood Greenways Quick-build project Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of categorical exemption pursuant to Section 15301 of the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines.
2. Adopt the attached resolution authorizing the City Manager to accept a grant awarded in the amount of $875,552, with no required local match, from the Southern California Association of Governments’ (SCAG) Sustainable Communities Program – Active Transportation and Safety, and authorize the Interim City Manager to negotiate and execute a Memorandum of Understanding with SCAG for the Santa Monica Neighborhood Greenways Project.
Summary
The Department of Transportation (DOT) continues to advance active transportation and safety improvements on local streets, which will help achieve the City’s strategic priorities of Clean Streets and Safe Neighborhoods. To that end, the City has historically identified priority streets and sidewalks for improving active transportation through several adopted plans including the Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), Bicycle Action Plan (BAP), and the Pedestrian Action Plan (PAP). The BAP in particular includes a 20-year vision for the City to develop a network of neighborhood greenways along residential streets. In alignment with the BAP, the Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway Concept Plan (MANGo) developed a design toolkit for Michigan Avenue and serves as an example for future neighborhood greenways that 2 of 5
encourage neighborhood connections while decreasing vehicle speeds and cut-through traffic.
The SCAG Sustainable Communities Program – Active Transportation and Safety, is a competitive grant program that provides funding for active transportation planning or quick-build projects that support active modes such as walking, bicycling, and transit. On September 27, 2024, staff submitted an application for the Santa Monica Neighborhood Greenways Project to improve treatments along the existing Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway, and to engage the community to implement quickbuild treatments for a new greenway along Washington Avenue. The application was prepared based on priorities of the Council’s adopted plans and the community’s need to decrease speeding and congestion on neighborhood streets. On January 27, 2025, the City was notified of being selected to receive the grant award for this project. Staff is requesting authorization to adopt a resolution to accept funding and develop an MOU with SCAG to proceed with the project with a total project cost of $875,552.
Discussion
Neighborhood greenways are calm neighborhood streets designed to encourage the most vulnerable road users to walk, bike, and roll. In 2011, the City adopted the Bike Action Plan (BAP) that established 5-year and 20-year visions for the City’s bicycle network, including a network of neighborhood greenways. Since the adoption of the BAP, the City has advanced one notable neighborhood greenway project through the Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway Concept Plan (MANGo), adopted in 2014.
Michigan Avenue
The MANGo Concept Plan was developed through a multi-year community-based planning process and envisions safe routes for bicyclists and pedestrians while discouraging through traffic and reducing speeding vehicles. This includes the installation of physical improvements that can help create people-centered streets, foster a greener environment, and deter excessive vehicle traffic. Over the last ten years, the City has implemented three phases of the MANGo plan including the construction of traffic circles and a bicycle/pedestrian connection on 20th Street over the I-10 Freeway (completed in 2024). Despite MANGo being an established neighborhood greenway that improves connections to the bikeway network for the community, in recent years, Pico neighborhood residents on Michigan Avenue along with Santa 3 of 5
Monica High School (Samohi) students have endured excessive congestion from cutthrough vehicle commuters as they compete for space with bicyclists and pedestrians on the street. The local organization Climate Action Santa Monica (CASM) regularly surveys students at Samohi and, through a 2022 commute survey, found that more than 60 percent of students arrive to school by walking, bicycling, or via transit.
Washington Avenue
Washington Avenue is the backbone walking and biking corridor between the Northeast and Wilmont Neighborhoods, connecting key destinations including Franklin Elementary School, Lincoln Middle School, Douglas Park, First United Methodist Church, and St.
Monica’s Catholic Church and Preparatory School. Although the corridor was identified as a future neighborhood greenway in the City’s adopted Bicycle Action Plan, today Washington Avenue does not operate or feel like a neighborhood greenway, with class III bike markings and a few other traffic calming measures (e.g. speed bumps). Franklin Elementary and Lincoln Middle Schools both have student and parent populations that are committed to walking and biking to school. Since 2022, both schools have experienced some of the highest participation rates in the school district’s Bike it! Walk it! events, with an average of 87 and 64 percent participation rates, respectively.
However, in recent years many parents from both schools have raised concerns about excessive vehicle speeding and traffic on Washington Avenue making it uncomfortable for students to bike to school. The Santa Monica Neighborhood Greenways Project will be the first effort to establish a neighborhood greenway on Washington Avenue using quick-build materials.
The Santa Monica Neighborhood Greenways Project will test and evaluate solutions that reduce and calm traffic along Michigan Avenue and Washington Avenue while maintaining local property access. By using quick build materials, the project will allow the community to experience the safety benefits prior to making permanent changes.
On both Michigan and Washington Avenues the improvements will introduce safety countermeasures that reduce vehicular traffic volumes and conflicts on the greenway, and could include traffic calming elements such as curb extensions, diverters, chicanes, speed cushions, and improved crosswalk markings.
The project will also include data collection and an existing conditions analysis of the corridors (collision history, volumes, turning movement counts), robust community 4 of 5
engagement through six outreach activities (pop-ups and walk audits and a citywide survey), use of the SCAG GoHuman kit of parts demonstration kit, concept design plans and full construction plans and specifications for installation, a robust evaluation phase performed six months after the installation of the project, and a final summary report.
Next Steps
Under the guidelines of this grant agreement structure, design consultant procurement and project delivery (research and data analysis, outreach and engagement, design development, and evaluation) will be primarily managed by SCAG in partnership with the City. The quick-build implementation (construction) will be managed by the City in coordination with SCAG. If Council adopts the resolution to accept the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant, SCAG will issue a Memorandum of Understanding to work with the City and establish respective responsibilities. Thereafter, staff will work with SCAG to release a Request for Proposals to procure a transportation design and engineering consultant to assist the City in conducting the Santa Monica Neighborhood Greenways Project during Summer/Fall of 2025. Staff will then return to Council to award a Construction Contract for implementation of the quick-build components in Summer/Fall of 2026. The project is anticipated to begin in Summer 2025.
Environmental Review
The Santa Monica Neighborhood Greenways Project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15301 (Existing Facilities) which exempts minor alterations to roadways 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. The project will test and include the installation of traffic calming elements such as curb extensions, diverters, chicanes, speed cushions, and improved crosswalk markings. These minor alterations would not increase the vehicle capacity of the existing roadways. Therefore, acceptance of the grant and implementation of the project is exempt pursuant to Section 15301.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks the adoption of the resolution to support the SCAG Sustainable Communities Program grant award for a total project cost of $875,552. Approximately half of the award budget will be managed by SCAG to procure a consultant team in the 5 of 5
amount of $435,000. The implementation of the quick-build materials will be managed by staff who will return to Council to encumber funds and procure a contractor in the amount of up to $440,552 at a later time. There are no immediate financial impacts and budget actions as a result of this recommendation at this time.
Prepared By: Kyle Kozar, Principal Transportation Planner Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Grant Acceptance Resolution
B. Written Comments