Agenda Item #16.1
For Council Meeting of: July 8, 2025
CITY OF SANTA ROSA
CITY COUNCIL
TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: ROBERT SPRINKLE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERING, TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT SUBJECT: ADOPTION OF THE ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN
AGENDA ACTION: RESOLUTION
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended by the Transportation and Public Works Department and the City of Santa Rosa Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board that the Council, by resolution, adopt the Active Transportation Plan.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Transportation and Public Works staff has updated the 2018 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and renamed it the Active Transportation Plan. The Active Transportation Plan includes revised existing conditions, projects, programs, and project prioritization to address current best practices and conditions on the City’s roadways and trails.
BACKGROUND
The update of the 2018 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan began in July 2023 with the release of a Request for Proposal for qualified applicants to propose on updating the document, to be renamed the Active Transportation Plan. After reviewing five (5) applications, three (3) consultants were interviewed, and one was selected, Alta Planning and Design.
City staff initiated the Active Transportation Plan process with a meeting with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board in September 2023. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board is the body responsible for helping City staff in updating the plan and where the majority of the review and public comment is received, outside of formal public engagement activities. City staff met with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board a total of eight times, including:
Thursday, September 21, 2023 to review and discuss the draft consultant Scope of Work and vision and goals adopted as part of the 2018 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan.
Thursday, November 16, 2023 to review and discuss the final consultant Scope of Work and the "working draft" vision and goals for the Active Transportation Plan.
Thursday, February 15, 2024 to review and provide comments on the draft Community Engagement Plan.
Thursday, July 18, 2024 to receive an update on Phase 1 of public engagement and review the consultant's methodology for creating the draft list of recommended projects and programs.
Thursday, August 29, 2024 to review a list of the draft recommended projects and programs and offer feedback to the project team.
Thursday, October 17, 2024 to review the online interactive map of recommended projects and provide feedback to staff for the next version.
Thursday, December 19, 2024 to review draft project prioritization for the Active Transportation Plan projects.
Thursday, May 15, 2025 to review the Final Active Transportation Plan and forward it to the Council for adoption.
Meetings with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board ensured that the process was reflective of the needs of the community and that the feedback collected was thorough enough to be summarized in the Active Transportation Plan.
PRIOR CITY COUNCIL REVIEW
On May 7, 2024, City staff provided a Staff Briefing to let the Council know about recently completed Phase 1 public outreach and to inform the Council on upcoming Phase 1 outreach.
On October 8, 2024, Councilmember Fleming provided a report out informing the Council and attendees of the Phase 2 public outreach campaign, including how to get involved and provide public comment.
On March 18, 2025, City staff provided the Council with a Staff Briefing on the Public review Draft of the Active Transportation Plan, asking the Councilmembers and the public to provide feedback on the document.
ANALYSIS
The Active Transportation Plan includes five chapters and six appendices:
Chapter 01: About the Plan
Chapter 02: Santa Rosa Today
Chapter 03: Community Engagement
Chapter 04: Recommendations
Chapter 05: Implementation and Funding
Appendix A: Plan Review
Appendix B: Existing Conditions Memo
Appendix C: Summaries of Public Engagement
Appendix D: Development of Recommendations Methods
Appendix E: Policy and Program Memo
Appendix F: Prioritization Methodology Memo
Chapter 01 highlights the entire Active Transportation Plan and includes the listing of the vision, goals, and objectives that define the plan. The overall vision, goals, and objective aim to ensure that the City’s active transportation system is built for all ages and abilities by focusing on safety first and completing the network to ensure there are no gaps.
Chapter 02 includes the existing conditions, which documents project successes since adoption of the 2018 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. This chapter was the framework for project recommendations in Chapter 04, since there is identification of gaps and of facilities that may not reach the City’s vision and goal of “all ages and abilities” facilities.
Chapter 03 highlights the two phases of public outreach, and the feedback heard. Phase 1 of outreach focused on asking the community where there are barriers or challenges in the active transportation network while Phase 2 of outreach focused on the recommended projects and whether the community felt they captured the needs expressed in Phase 1. This information was pivotal in developing the recommendations in Chapter 04.
Chapter 04 is where all the previous feedback is synthesized to create a list of active transportation projects that would help the City meet its “all ages and abilities” goals. This chapter also includes programmatic suggestions through educational campaigns, marketing, and engineering.
Chapter 05 includes a project prioritization exercise where a limited subset of projects was chosen as higher priority due to various factors, including, but not limited to location, proximity to services, degree of comfortability, etc. Chapter 05 also tallies the estimated cost of all the projects included in the Active Transportation Plan, which amounted to approximately $748 million. The subset of high priority projects results in a lower cost of approximately $221 million.
Due to the sheer number of active transportation projects, and their cost, Chapter 05 also highlights the need to be strategic about project implementation given limited financial resources. Some projects will be implemented through grant funding, as is already done, while some will be absorbed into pavement maintenance projects to save on cost and to decrease the time it may take to construct.
FISCAL IMPACT
With limited funds dedicated to the Transportation and Public Works Department for active transportation improvements, City staff will utilize a mix of internal funds, grant funding, and creative project implementation to reduce the burden of project cost while also maximizing project completion. Currently, no General Funds are programmed for these improvements.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The adoption of the “City of Santa Rosa Active Transportation Plan” (ATP) is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under the “Common Sense” Exemption, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3). This section states that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. The ATP is a long-range planning document that does not authorize or approve individual construction projects, and therefore it can be seen with certainty that its adoption will not result in a significant environmental impact.
To the extent that future individual projects identified in the plan are implemented, each will be subject to separate project-level environmental review under CEQA, where the potential for impacts can be assessed in detail and appropriate mitigation applied if necessary.
Additionally, to the extent that the ATP focuses on planning for bicycle transportation in an urbanized area, and was developed in accordance with Streets and Highways Code Section 891.2, it may also qualify for the statutory exemption under Public Resources Code Section 21080.20, which applies to bicycle transportation plans in urbanized areas following a noticed public hearing and the filing of a Notice of Exemption.
No exceptions to the use of these exemptions under CEQA Guidelines Section 15300.2 apply.
BOARD/COMMISSION/COMMITTEE REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS
At their May 15, 2025 meeting, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board recommended that the Council adopt the Final Active Transportation Plan.
NOTIFICATION
Not applicable.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 – Final Active Transportation Plan
Attachment 2 – Appendices A-F
Resolution
PRESENTER
Torina Wilson, Transportation Planner
ADOPTION OF THE ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN
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