Speaker 0: Thank you. It's a good point. It was a it was a very informative report. Thank you. All the comments. Okay. We've got a motion. We've got a second. All in favor. Hi. That was Five Eyes. Right. Okay. That motion passes unanimously. So then we go on to vote for a.
Speaker 1: Recommendation to authorize the city manager to execute a Second Amendment to the service provider agreement with CDM Smith to extend the term by three years and increase the compensation by 2.2 million for total aggregate compensation not to exceed 2.57 to 9 to eight to complete the project approval environmental document and the Plans and Specifications and estimates for the Central Avenue Safety Improvement Project and Adoption Related Resolution.
Speaker 0: So then do we have a speaker on this or did one of the council. Okay, so councilmember out Councilmember Vice Mayor Knox was also a councilmember. Yeah. Do you want to lead off since you pull this?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'll just ask a question and I want to be clear. I'm didn't pull this because I have a concern about the actual item itself, but we just had an entire vision zero policy discussion with the school community here, talking about complaint concerns about traffic safety. And here we have one of the biggest, most transformative projects that this city has approved to move forward three years ago. And it's 3 to 4 years off from actually existing. And while it's in it's a leading question because I know that it is not city staff who is causing this problem. But I wonder if we can talk a little bit about what this city can do and what the city council can do to move the needle. Because what Caltrans is doing on this right that they got the governor to veto a complete streets via bill SB one 127. And but yet the governor promised that they were going to fix the issues they have in this case. We have two projects on ants and we have the central project that is a state route. But we also have a flashing a rapid flashing beacon that is on a four year implementation plan to put a sign with lights that flash and say somebody wants to cross the street because Caltrans is treating our local streets like a freeway. What can we do? I know you don't know the specific answer. I know that the big cities, L.A. and SF have been working on this for a couple of years. But but we need to do something and we need to raise our voice and we need to call this out because, you know, this can't this can't be they can't hold up our residential streets safety projects because they want to overbuild them for four large trucks driving at 65 miles an hour.
Speaker 0: So just for Mr. Thomas's edification, the vice mayor and I did not talk before he got an email from me. There is no.
Speaker 6: Problem. There's your your frustrations are not yours alone. This is other council members have asked similar types of questions. The mayor yesterday a staff has been frustrated by this process. Just how long this has taken. We're using federal money. So there are certain hoops that we need to jump through that are established by the federal government. This money passes from federal government through Caltrans to us.
Speaker 0: You know what? I'm sorry to interrupt you just briefly for the public who's following, who might not know, just just just give a bullet point. One points is about real quick.
Speaker 6: This is about transforming the and improving the safety of Central Avenue from Alameda Point Pacific. You can sort of see it on the red line up on the map of anybody behind me is looking so improving central as it moves from Alameda point at Pacific past and central high school past the Hayden school past the intersection of Webster Street along central all the way to Sherman. The idea here it's one of the most unsafe streets we have in Alameda. This has been known for years. And there's Gail Payne who is the point person on this, knows all the statistics and but a number of schools in this area, lots of kids, lots of accidents. So the city council 2016, you approved this project. You said, let's get this going. There were still some design issues around the Web Street intersection that we still need to work through with Webster Street Business Association. And then the good news is we got a big federal grant to help the construction. The bad news is a third of over half of this segment is a designated a state highway. So and I think. The vice mayor sort of described the frustration, at least on staff's part, is we really feel like the way Caltrans is approaching us and Caltrans staff has sometimes described themselves this way as a big, slow bureaucracy that is hard for them to think outside of the box. Our basic frustration is this is not a freeway that we are redesigning this. We're not trying to build new freeway on ramps. We're trying to put bike lanes on a city street. You would think we were asking to put bike lanes on I-80. I mean, it's we need to have a different process. We are concerned. And I think that to answer the question more specifically, yes, we have been lobbying and pushing on Caltrans staff at our levels for the last couple of years. Like how can we move this process faster? How how can you be thinking, can you please think about this project differently? It's a city street. This is about safety. Bike lanes are specifically exempt from further environment review under California state law and under the National Environmental Protection Act. So why are we spending almost half a million dollars on environmental review? Why are we struggling to move this project faster? I think help from the council at a more of a higher level to just sort of bring this project to the attention of the folks at Caltrans and your other representatives at the state level. This is so solvable. This is so easy. It's not that hard. We're building bike lanes and and protected bicycle ways on an existing street. We're not changing the width of the street. We're not tearing out sidewalks. We're just trying to make it safer for kids to cross the street and all of us to cross streets and to drive and to ride our bikes on these streets. So, you know, we'll keep slogging away. We have another meeting with Caltrans next week at the staff level to try to work through some of these issues. But obviously, any help we can get from the council and with your connections would be much appreciated.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Mr. CODY.
Speaker 4: Thank you. MODERATOR Thank you, Andrew. Yeah, Caltrans is that I used to work for the state, as you probably remember, and they're not the worst. The DUI is probably the worst part of education, but they're up there and we had more interactions with them. And, you know, if my other colleague who worked for the state can chime in also if she wants, but, you know, we should reach out to our local representatives. I mean, I'm happy to do that. I mean, our our leadership teams to do that. That was one of the things we used to do was unclog the bureaucracy. We were able to, I think, to get the crosswalk at in and out. We were able to get the the flashing light on Otis after the the gentleman got run over there. You know, we I think before I left that they're actually going to people don't know this but on Doolittle where we had a couple Alameda residents go into the into the estuary and die, they are putting a guardrail all the way, you know, but those things take a while. So, I mean, I'll volunteer to do whatever I'm legally allowed to do. So just let me know what that is and I'll do it. You know, I think we might want to think about and you know, San Leandro did this or wants to do this with East 14th and I think Hayward did it with part of one of their streets is, you know, see if we want to take it back and we want to be responsible for portions of it. So, I mean, that's not a discussion for today. But, you know, might be something you guys think about and bring back to us.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember De Soto.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you. Just a quick reminder. So it was back in 2016 and I think I was on council back then. So is is this the part from Central Avenue, from Sherman, in the direction of Eighth Street? Is this still going to be like a one way, one lane, one lane and then an enhanced bike lanes that are protected?
Speaker 6: Yeah. In what? Essentially in 2016, the council. You can think of this segment in three sort of subsegments from Alameda point through to Mackay the sort of the western segment protected to a cycle track along the school side of the road. The next segment from Mackay to just passed Webster Street. Mm hmm. Not yet. Completely figured out. Council said go work with Webster Street Business Association and get that sorted out. And then the council approved the third segment, which is just past Webster Street, all the way to Sherman. Eighth to Sherman is bike lanes straight three lanes, one in each direction on either side. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And one lane. One direction. One lane. The other direction.
Speaker 6: Right. Right. And the reason for that on that portion is because of all you know, that's the where the the residential curb cuts are literally every house. Right. So. That's right. That's why the lanes made more sense there.
Speaker 2: Currently, the general plan designation, that's still a truck route, right? In our general plan.
Speaker 6: No, I don't. Not. Not. It is. Am I right? Yes. So I'm sorry. Yes, you're correct.
Speaker 2: And the general plan designation also gives it a certain street. Status. I don't know what that has to do.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Designation material. That's a major street traffic.
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. Well, thank you.
Speaker 6: Yeah. And you know, the other for us, of course, is it's the other piece of this is the conversion from four lanes to three lanes, which has shown and lots of studies to show that that will reduce speeds, increase safety.
Speaker 2: Is it three lanes or are we still going to have two lanes going in one direction?
Speaker 6: No, it would be one in each direction in a center turn lane.
Speaker 0: Okay. Any other questions or do we have a motion?
Speaker 5: I move approval of the staff recommendation with a recommendation that staff engage the Council at their discretion to engage with our legislative leaders, to really break openness and see what we can do to solve it.
Speaker 0: Good suggestion. Okay, so that's a motion. That's a second. All in favor.
Speaker 2: Of.
Speaker 0: Comment. Councilmember Desai I'm.
Speaker 2: Not going to support this, even though I supported this back in February 2016. The concerns that I'm hearing is that poor people who live in the Gold Coast and Pryor and those immediately north of of Central Avenue around Taylor, you know. Central Avenue is a major feeder street. If there are safety issues there, as there are, then I think certainly that's where enforcement ought to be enhanced if if anywhere. But I recognize that this is a policy decision that was made back in 2016, and I even supported it in 2016. But because this is a major arterial that handles traffic, I think that the approach that we're employing from Sherman to Eighth Street or Sherman to Page Street, I don't think that really is the right solution much in the same way that I didn't support the same reconfiguration of Otis Drive. And I do, like I said from the outset, I do think enforcement really is is the key here. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Okay. We have a motion in the second. All in favor. I abstain. And oppose the case. So the motion passes with four support and one oppose. And so the motion carries. Thank you. Okay. We are still on the consent calendar, but I think was our last item. This is five.
Speaker 1: H adoption of resolution limiting natural gas infrastructure for new residential construction on city owned property. And we do have one speaker on this.
Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Second Amendment to the Service Provider Agreement with CDM Smith to Extend the Term by Three Years and Increase Compensation by $2,200,000, Including Contingencies, for a Total Aggregate Compensation Not to Exceed $2,572,928, to Complete the Project Approval and Environmental Document (PA&ED) and the Plans, Specifications and Estimate (PS&E) for the Central Avenue Safety Improvement Project; and 

Adoption of Resolution Adopting Caltrans’ Local Assistance Procedures Manual Chapter 10 for Consultant Selection. (Transportation 4227287)