Good morning everybody. It is August 3rd 9 a.m. And I will now call to order the regular meeting of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission Clerk, will you please call the roll? Commissioner Peterson President commissioner Sandy Brown Commissioner Johnson Commissioner Montecino Commissioner Hernandez Here commission alternate shifrin here commission alternate Quinn here commissioner Koenig here mr. McPherson Commissioner Kristen Brown here commissioner Cuddles Carter Here commissioner Rotkin here you have a quorum Thank you, and I see commissioner Sandy Brown Now as well as commissioner Johnson. I think that's everyone so I'm assuming we don't have any AB 2449 requests I'm sorry Chair Koenig and commissioner Eads. Ah, yes, of course We have any additions or deletions to the consent or regular agenda today Chair Koenig we have no additions or deletions, but we do have a couple replacement pages for item 15 and Handouts for items 24 and 27 and those are posted to our website. Thank you Proceed with item four oral communications And a member of the public may address the commission on any item within the jurisdiction of the commission That is not already on the agenda the commission will listen to all communication But in compliance with state law it may not take action on items that are not on the agenda Speakers are requested to state their name clearly so it may be accurately recorded in the minutes of the meeting We'll begin with folks here in the board chambers anyone wish to address the commission so approach the podium Seeing none. Is there anyone online? Mr. Brian Peoples Corridor when you look at the cost of corridor coastal commission requirements and their past decisions on other coastal approvals It's well understood. It was limited what we can build on there. The tracks are located feet feet from the Pacific Ocean in many locations Park Avenue is Located on the plan and since he trained today along this stretch out to that is not the best idea the coastal and sea level rising apartments What can we do with it one of the requirements for the Coastal Act is providing access beach access? So when you think about what you put there such as a train, you have huge barriers fencing Which will prevent access to the beach and that's one of the main criteria of the Coastal Act Which will restrict what we're allowed to build there Selecting here if our TC staff is going to follow up with supervisor McPherson's requests last year To ask them what we can build it Pleads ensure that you specifically state can have huge fancy and barriers Prevent access to the beach. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Peoples. Mr. Michael St Commissioners Michael St campaign for sustainable transportation Climate change is real. It is happening now. It is driven by humans. It is accelerating less Than 2.2 percent of peer review climate science papers dispute these facts Climate change impacts and greater threats of extreme weather events sea level rise Regional water scarcity waves wildfires and destruction of biological systems Yeah, we as a society put our heads in the sand and we know What is happening to our planet when I started my advocacy work seven years ago? My first public talk was right here and I remember supervisors back friend welcoming me to the RTC meeting And thank you me for participating during public time Something to have an impact and help Santa Cruz County become a leader in the fight against climate change and Help the RTC build a future transportation system That would be a shining example to the rest of the world Talk about being naive. I had a very limited experience in the workings of local state federal systems and the world of politics After a few years and continued to try and pull certain commissions along to help mitigate the effects of climate change I realized these entities were just checking the box and title public comment and pressing forward with the agenda Needless to say I became somewhat jaded with this reality But I'm still hopeful and look for leaders who have a cut commitment to lead us out of business that is usual I fight this inner feeling of disappointment and that my words mean nothing when I do public comment But yet I'm still that naive Advocate down deep inside and I want to make The world a better place and safer place to live. Thank you for your time Thank You mr. St. Thank you for continuing to show up We have no other speaker All right, then we'll end public comment and proceed with the consent agenda This is items 5 through 20. Does any commissioner have questions or comments on the consent agenda? sure Yeah, thank you. I'd like to comment on item number 10. I want to commend the and thank the RTC staff for their diligence of patients to develop the partnership of five public agencies that created this collaborative study to Improve highway nine between the downtown of Felton and Glen Arbor Road It involved Caltrans the RTC the county metro in the center in the Valley school district And they work together to create the study which will facilitate a Leveraged funding and a phased approach to building improvements My office started working on this more than 10 years ago when I was first elected Because of the daily school traffic and unfortunately we had one fatality on that stretch Really appreciate the support of the Commission It's given this project, and I know it will make a significant difference for decades to come in the center in the Valley This project probably will not really get going until 2024 probably 2025 But I wanted to just appreciate you say how much I appreciate the collaborative effort to make Make this a reality in the center in the Valley and in particular the Felton area. So thank you very much Thank You Commissioner McPherson. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none. Is there any public comment on the consent agenda? Seeing none, I'll turn to the Commission for Action. We'll approve all the consent agenda. Second Motion by Commissioner Rockin second by Commissioner Schiffern to adopt the consent agenda any further discussion seeing none I guess we still have to do a roll call vote No, you can do a voice again. All right then all those in favor. Aye. Any opposed. Any abstentions? That was refreshing. All right All right, the consent agenda passes unanimously will proceed with the regular agenda commissioner reports. Does any commissioner have Port you'd like to share Commissioner Rockin Supervisor McPherson, I have talked about this before we got to the meeting on Highway 9 The Commission and all the other partners we've been involved in have done a really great job of dealing addressing the traffic issues between Felton actually a little bit south of Felton and up to Boulder Creek, but There's a problem that's going in the other direction between Felton and Santa Cruz Every weekend there are like this is not an exaggeration 250 300 cars parked along the road I'd say over half of them are on the actual pavement because there's no parking spaces there There's only two parking lot small ones at the two state park locations There are no public restrooms And weekdays or so maybe I don't know the exact numbers there, but more like 150 people or something that are in there No restrooms no control of parking It's not that nobody's doing anything I'm sure there are resource limitations and state parks can that's all that land Is owned by state parks most of it Limits for what they can do they're involved in other things But I'd like to get something going where someone looks at that and Starts a process of trying to figure out what might be done because it's dangerous Cars are forced into the other lane to get around those park cars, and they're there both Saturday and Sunday again hundreds of cars and and the Sanitation issues that are involved. I think are worth the parks department probably responsible for that But somebody needs to deal with it And so what I like is just to send a Letter of some kind or form a letter of some sort to Caltrans and to the state parks Just to notify them of this problem and maybe start some process going again I'm not trying to say anybody's done anything wrong because there are sure I'm sure resource limitations But something needs to be done to address this Supervisor McPherson may have some stuff to add. I also want to say there's somewhat similar situation on Fall Creek Road or Felt an empire If you go about a mile up from highway 9, there's a big parking lot up there No restroom facilities, but the cars are parked along the road parked on the paint again It's not just up against the pavement They got wheels up on the pavement and so there's not room for a car to pass without going into the oncoming lane So someone needs to look at this and I mean a lot's been it's sort of somewhat like the situation up on highway 1 up near You know where we're The road coming down from body doing come by the room comes down So something needs to be done to address it because there's going to be a horrible accident up there at some point If someone doesn't doesn't address this in some way. Maybe Bruce has something to add. Yeah, I just recognize that especially this summer and Especially on highway 9 and I don't I know that there's limitations Of what could be done there and we have the problem of some of these areas being Featured in the New York Times at times and stuff like so it really is a drawing card for a lot of people To come to the center runs a valley or the lower valley between Felton and Santa Cruz And I don't know what can be done, but if there can some be some accommodation It's just purely for safety purpose purposes or considerations I don't know if we made my right letter to Caltrans and state parks to see if they might be a cooperative effort of some type to Provide more parking or sanitation facilities something of that nature I It's it's not a huge reach and I don't expect a huge parking structure to be put up in the in the Redwood trees But it is something that is of concern in the parks. The cars are parked in the On the highway itself and as far as Felton Empire the same goes which is a county road, of course I think they both deserve some attention to see What possibilities if any we could do to improve that situation? Thank you Happy to work with both Commissioner McPherson and rock into maybe draft a letter and put it on a future consent agenda for approval The other comments with missioners All right seeing none will proceed with the director's report Director Preston. Thank you chair Koenig and commissioners I have a quick status update on storm damage repair projects on the Santa Cruz branch rail line First all emergency down tree removals are complete field work on the emergency embankment washout repair project And that was two locations is also complete The debris removal is partially complete the phase one emergency portion of the debris removal an erosion control project We should be completed this month But phase two removal and erosion control work is going to be rebid and that was Explained and authorized in item 12 on today's agenda Engineering design for the remaining storm damage repairs including the damaged bridge at New Brighton our underway Staff has been coordinating with FEMA Throughout the pub through their public assistance program, which should provide reimbursement for the majority of RTC repair costs I have some comments I would like to make about the measure D annual report which was item 16 on today's consent agenda The annual report is a requirement and the measure D ordinance requiring that an oversight committee provide an annual report to the public regarding expenditures and audits the report not only provides the public with a safeguard regarding compliance But also provides an opportunity for RTC to document the progress achieved in delivering the measure D expenditure plan I want to thank the voters for having the faith in RTC to administer the program and Staff for their excellent work in delivering the program as well as the commission for its thoughtful decision-making As for the work in completing Report itself my appreciation goes to all RTC staff for their contributions But especially Shannon months for leading staff support to the tax payer oversight committee Additionally five private individuals donated their time and effort to work on the report. Thank you. To see members Gail Jack David Culver Philip Hudson Trina Kaufman Gomez and TOC chair Andre DuVort This is not glamorous work and their commitment to public services both appreciated and commended We'd like to now call your attention to our legislative update Which was item eight on today's consent agenda the report includes some very good news for transit in California recently approved in the state budget the budget included four billion dollars for a new Transits an inner city rail capital Program and 1.1 billion for a new zero emission transit capital program The 1.1 billion for the new zero emission Program is meant to help revision transit to help California meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals that funding will be distributed to RTC for programming by formula based on both Population and transit revenue generated within the county the exact amount that RTC will receive will depend on what revenue is used for the Calculation, but it is expected to be between seven and ten million dollars. I Expect the new zero emission funds will be programmed to our transit agencies Eligible expenditures such as fleet conversion. We are awaiting the program's guidelines and will provide more information as it becomes available The four billion and new Tursep or transit in inner city rail capital program formula funding will also be directed to RTC by formula The formula will be based on population only this funding is expected to be fairly flexible and RTC will be responsible for determining how the new Tursep formula funding will be programmed to meet the programs guidelines Eligible expenditures are expected to include transit operations, which is important to our transit operators Additionally eligible pre-construction project development Costs for capital projects will also be allowable These two allowances are unusual but welcome in that it addresses two historical needs that are Typically not included in many traditional transit funding programs This provides a unique opportunity for the Commission to consider where best to program the region's estimated 27 million dollar share to meet our transit priority needs RTC staff is monitoring the guidelines as they are developed by the California State Transportation Agency Staff welcomes commissioners thoughts and comments on these new funding programs. I have a staffing announcement to report out Matt Schroeder who came to RTC about a year ago as a planner one has left RTC to take a senior planner position with the city of Campbell Although Matt only worked here a year. He made an impact and we will miss him His last work was on the legislative report, which I addressed earlier in today's report Finally, I have my own announcement to make after a very dynamic and fulfilling 34 years in transportation planning programming engineering and project delivery I have decided that on December 1st I will pack up my empty copy coffee thermos jump on my bike and ride home from RTC office for the last time RTC has made great progress and I am very proud of our accomplishments. It is now time for me to retire and spend more time at home Tanya and I have always known that we would retire here in Santa Cruz We are well settled and I have a long list of home projects to keep me busy while I ease into this new chapter of my life We love it here in Santa Cruz And I hope to see you enjoying a newly built segment of the rail trail as we plan to do I want to take thank RTC commissioners staff and the public for their support that I received while working here at RTC The commission has achieved monumental successes and I believe RTC's program as well position for more groundbreaking achievements and With that I conclude my directors report Thank You director Preston are there comments or questions from commissioners the chair I'd just like to say that I've been on this commission for 10 years and I have never experienced more Success stories on projects and getting projects delivered than we have under Guy Preston. He has been phenomenal. I think in trying to get people together in some very controversial issues in particular the rail trail it That split votes and so forth and he has always been had a measured approach and delivery of what can be done and what is being done I I just can't say how much I've appreciated his professional presentations and his His consideration of what this board or commissioner of this county wants to do in our transportation network He's been terrific with working with the state and federal agencies as well We are very lucky to have had him as our executive director for these years and I dutifully appreciate your professional attitude and your Success in delivering helping us deliver projects for the people of Santa Cruz County. Thank you. You're here Thank you commissioner MacPherson. Mr. Johnson. I Was gonna ask a technical question, but I think I was kind of blindsided by this announcement So I'll forego that maybe talk later Mr. Schiffin, yeah, I just want to Agree with what commissioner MacPherson said and to say I'm really saddened that you're gonna be retiring I think you've done an amazing job and the commission's been incredibly successful under your leadership I Wish there was some way to persuade you to stay on there's still so much to be done But I think I know I'm very appreciative of all the that's been accomplished under your leadership, so Thank you commissioner Schiffin commissioner brown Sorry, well, I'll I'll just add my Appreciation there will be more to say as You make the transition so I'll keep it brief, but you know, I just want to say that in my experience Both on the commission and just in public service more broadly Working with you and in particular last year's chair when I got to know you and talk with you regularly Your your commitment your your expertise and the way that you Do this work engage with us as commissioners to help us understand what's going on and and the way that you have been so effective in Delivering projects for our community is just it's phenomenal and We'll miss you so very much You know also just working with you personally I felt that you're so responsive to commissioners you're generous with your time and You are you know, it really You know one of the best leaders of a public agency that I've I've ever worked with in my albeit seven years and You'll you'll really be missed so I wish we could persuade you to stay it sounds like you're set on retiring and that also sounds wonderful So congratulations We'll see you on the trail Thank you Commissioner Brown Mission Rockin I just want to add is someone who's been on and off the commission for the last 30 years that Your job here has been phenomenal and the specific Job you had which is needs to be noted is the shift of this commission from being It's not that it's not anything but simply a planning agency to an agency that actually runs delivers projects It was critically important, and I think that transitions something you handled amazingly well I'm blindsided by this as well. I'm used to at this point now having such great access, you know, you're always available to talk and Respond to situations and it's you've done a really really wonderful job here, and I think you're definitely going to be missed. Thanks Thanks, Commissioner Rockin Mr. Hernandez It's on Slight to really name here You know, I want to echo some of the comments that were made as well You know, we've got to I appreciate that you took that you took us as a new RTC member when I came in initially You gave me a tour of the different sites and explained to me a lot about, you know About being RTC Commission as well and some of the issues that we're facing But I really want to thank you though for you know the projects that were delivered I think there's a lot of outcomes for South County, especially The you know the highway one project different projects that we've got In coordination with Cal Trans as well. So thank you for all your hard work Thank you commissioner Hernandez. I know all of us up here could go on and on and on about um, I Mean, I think sadness really is the overriding emotion for me at hearing of this announcement As has been said, I think you really helped move this Organization light years forward bringing your engineering expertise as well as your knowledge understanding of the state funding environment and We're seeing those projects delivered now beginning to be as we're about to get an update on Certainly wish you could hang out longer and and see and help us see See more of them to completion, of course, you will continue to be in the community, which is great news And I'm sure well many of us will be reaching out to you informally for Thoughts on one thing or another But definitely some big shoes to fill so thank you for all your service to this organization and again, I'm sure we'll We're having more items to discuss and celebrate your your service here There any public comments on the commissure or sorry on the executive director's report? Seeing none here in chambers is there any online? Okay, thank you and we'll proceed with item 23 the Cal Trans report director Eads. All right Well, good morning, mr. Chair and members of the commission pleasure to be here today, and I'm caught by surprise this as well and Just want to say it's been really terrific working in partnership with director Preston and his staff. I think he's The wealth of experience that he's brought into this position and just a recognition of the complexity of the project development process and what we're dealing with and the ability to really work in partnership to get some stuff done and Has been terrific and look forward to continuing the progress that we've made in the momentum that we have All right, I have an announcement as well, but I'm not retiring So that there's a new district deputy district director for transportation planning and local assistance backfilling my previous position in district 5 So brandy writer is stepping into that role She has a wealth of experience in planning Environmental planning and project management that she's bringing into that position She's been working most recently in Transportation planning has been doing a great job. So You'll you have actually seen her here. I think attending some of these meetings She said she served in the acting role in the deputy position in the past, but you'll be seeing her more here so and Then just a few other announcements, and then I'll talk about storm damage A climate action a climate adaptation planning grant workshop is being held Are scheduled within district 5? So it's district 5 focus on August 16th from 1 30 to 3 p.m. And it's focusing on the upcoming second cycle Applications are due in January 2024. There's about almost 32 million dollars available And so it's a good opportunity and the workshop is intended for all eligible entities Which would be MPOs our TPAs tribal governments cities counties and transit agencies? So anybody's welcome that is an applicant that is willing to sit welcome to sit in on that workshop and Try to tee that up for some funding opportunities All right, there are several permanent storm damage repairs underway in Santa Cruz State Highways So just to explain a little bit of the Our process so when we have when we lose access to a highway due to a slide or a washout or Some other emergency situation we do it We can't a quickly reestablish the roadway and sometimes that takes months as you know and but In in some cases we're able to reestablish the roadway quickly with a temporary fix and then we work towards Moving directly into a process to design a permanent fix and then construct the permanent fix And so we that's what we've been up to in some situations on where we were not able to put the permanent fix in initially and Then there's also a landscape project that will follow oftentimes in either situation to address the Whatever has been taken out from a landscape perspective So a few of those that I'd like to highlight that are upcoming We're trying to get these permanent fixes in this year before another series of storms potentially hits this this winter So just to highlight some of these that are happening now or will be shortly in the future So we have one called this so Cal Creek Bridge scour protection project. That's a mouthful. It's happening right now It's on highway one and you've probably seen some intermittent Ramp closures to the north to the Bay Porter northbound on ramp So work is happening there. It's Probably a little confusing because it's not clear which is the construction work On highway one for the oxalans and what is this but nonetheless? That's what's happening there and again. We'll have some a planning project that will follow. We anticipate Completing construction by October 30th on this one, but there will be some other activities will continue beyond that and then on 236 we have a significant closure that needs to occur to put in some permanent fixes It'll be a full closure And there's detours around big big Basin State Park and highway nine and our estimated construction date is beginning this week All the way through December. So appreciate everybody patience on that some information went out with more detailed information about Alternative routes and access Highway 35 at post mile three, which is here around Bear Creek Road. We have a this is upcoming So in September 11th is when we anticipate starting that and then the improvements will continue through January again a full closure is being planned at that location and The closure would not go all the way to January. So we're looking at up through November mid November for that closure And then there will be some one-way traffic control after that And the detour on that will be skyline boulevard and Bear Creek Road at this point in time But we're court will be coordinating with the county on that and then highway nine Jane's wall We're familiar with that slide. So we have an estimated start date on that of mid-October October 23rd, and that will continue into early next year and a full closure again we'll be needed there for a period of time and and Then some one-way traffic control following and then again on highway nine We have at post mile 22 A Single lane will be open at all times. So that's another project that we'll be working to do a permanent restoration But we will be able to have traffic control there So I know that's a lot. Thank you for your patience We're trying to get these in before the next series of storms hit These are important and as I mentioned you're gonna see some follow-on landscaping work at each of these locations That concludes my report. I'm happy to take any questions Thank You director reads and I'll just I would have questions But you I'm probably answered a bunch of them over email for me about the SoCal Creek bridge scour repair project Which surprised some of my constituents that live down there by SoCal Creek But I think those are all very comprehensive answers and just want to thank you for those Yes, a couple of questions one has a follow-up on the 236 closure Commissioner Cummings was contacted about that concerned about that and had a couple of questions You answered one in terms of how long it's gonna be but the other question is is there any possibility of allowing Passage at certain times of the day Is it have to be sort of permanent 24-hour closure or could there be times when it the road could be open? Thanks commissioner chifrin through the chair My understanding is we need to close it fully In order to get the work done as quickly as we can so that's the challenge with any of these locations if you're If you're trying to work in a situation where there's live traffic happening We often do that in many locations, but if we're able to get in and just get the work done It we're able to do it more efficiently and get it get out of there more quickly In this particular situation to answer your question more fully I'm not certain but I know that they have considered different options And this is the one that they feel like is the best way to get the work done efficiently and effectively They will be working with a local and all of these locations will be working with local emergency response providers to make sure that Should there be an incident or something in a need to have access that we would be you know doing what we can to accommodate that And anticipating the fact that they're these closures will be occurring So happy to talk in more detail about that specific location and if there's things that can be done At this point in time that was our plan I think the concern was that if the work isn't going to be done at night Whether there was any way to allow for you know that kind of access from the people who live up there Yeah, I understand usually the issue is It's a construction zone with you know impassable conditions But you are willing to check it out. Certainly willing to talk about it. Yeah, absolutely the other question I have is a follow-up from Issue I raised last meeting Which is about sharks finn Cove on highway one and I would do appreciate Caltrans getting back and we've been trying to set up a meeting with Caltrans I'm sure you know to really talk about it But I wanted to tell you in the Commission This is one that really follows from what we said earlier about the danger on highway nine. It's a very serious public public safety issue and During the weekend even during the week people park on the road and it's extremely dangerous that as you know in terms of Highway one as I understand it Caltrans owns the right of way where off Off-road parking could be sort of formalized. I was at a meeting on Monday talking about a variety of north coast projects And this one was one that got received a lot of attention and the Caltrans representative was You know sort of there was seemed to be agreement that Where the parking should be Provided is in the cal is a part of the Caltrans right of way But the group was told that Caltrans has no money to build Parking lots. There's no funding source for that so I guess a question I had and talking to supervisor And commissioner Cummings he this is a concern of his Would there be a possibility and I guess maybe this is also a question for first our staff of Adding some money to or including a project in the next round of Stip funding one of the various sources that would be able to Fund that project and since it's on the Caltrans right of way to logically Caltrans should be the lead agency Is is it something that if the if the could Caltrans submit a project for Stip funding for that location That if the Commission approves it and the CTC approves it could really provide assistance in carrying out a project at that location Even though it's not part of what Caltrans normally funds or has other funding for so I guess that's my question number one And if the answer to that is no What other agencies do you think could possibly? apply for funding that Could core coordinate with Caltrans to carry out the project since it's in the Caltrans right of way It really makes most sense at least to me to have Caltrans do the project Happy to happy to take that answer answer that question so in terms of the funding source Caltrans probably wouldn't be the applicant first at funding because it probably be talking about our tip funding Which is actually programmed through SEC RTC There Caltrans does can apply for itip funding, but that's really interregional Interregionally focused so it probably wouldn't be a good candidate for that funding source for these kind of improvements either either way Whatever funding source could be found Caltrans is happy to Work with RTC in terms of who's the best implementing agency I don't think there's anything precluding Caltrans from being the implementing agency on something like that We would have you know want to make sure we're on the same page in terms of future maintenance and The facility you know like we already talked about with the informal parking the same kinds of challenges can sometimes a play out with formal Parking where you have if you don't have restrooms or you have trash that accumulates things like that so Those can those are the kind of questions we'd want to work out But I don't see the reason why Caltrans could not be an implementing agency Either way, we'd be working with others to partner on funding and I don't I'm not aware of a funding source that Caltrans has available But we could certainly work to talk about what could be what funding sources might apply and then work out the details in terms of ownership and maintenance and implementing agency Okay, well as I understand that the county could submit an application I'm wondering could the RTC submit an application as one of its program Projects, I know that you have a very significant workload, but There is a good deal of concern and it does appear to be a significantly dangerous Public safety problem and if I could add to this particular item, this is a Common situation, especially in coastal areas like the Big Sur coast We have some really challenging ongoing parking issues related to a state park down there as well I think it's a state park or maybe it's a county park Either way, this is an ongoing challenge where we have areas of high demand and Caltrans You know isn't really in the parking business, but it's there's challenges that are happening on our right-of-way and sometimes those are You know a trash accumulation Sometimes it's safety. Sometimes there's operational implications So either way we want to be a partner, but we don't see ourselves as the full solution so in all of these cases we're usually working with You know local stakeholders to identify what is appropriate Next steps and and who's you know jointly responsible for or separately responsible for carrying those things out So we're happy to partner in these situations certainly important And we recognize that these things can be challenging in terms of the situations that are there. Thank you Thank you commissioner Schifrin. Any other questions or comments? Yeah? I just want to say a thank you to Caltrans on the aforementioned highway one project There's a group of property owners there. They're gonna be heavily impacted in their parking Which is in the the state hide-out right away, and I just want to say how much I appreciate members of representatives from Caltrans meeting with the property owners and me to work out something that I think is going to be accommodating to all And then secondly on the 236 Yeah, there was a lumber company that was just needed another 30 days I know you're you considered it fully and I just want to say appreciate you Right back to them and said this is what what it's like. That's what we can do and what we can't do so They've been very responsive to requests From individual property owners on some state highway projects, and I it's very much appreciated If I could through the chair, please quickly say I meant to say it earlier In your packet where we have the project updates. There's Page 15 through 17 or 18 or so. There's a whole list of resources So we know you're getting inquiries constantly on these projects, and there's a lot happening So please I would encourage you to you know even send that list of resources to your constituents when there's questions Because there's a lot of resources there in terms of folks that you can go to if there's maintenance service requests You see something that needs to be addressed from a you know trash or maintenance standpoint There's a place to to enter those and there's also if there's inquiries of any kind in terms of project updates Or even lane closure charts where you can see the look ahead for the next year next week in terms of what the upcoming lane closures are So there's a lot of information there and encourage you to look at when you have a chance. Thank you Thank you Yes, Commissioner Hernandez Yes, I wanted to get the date for the for the workshop that's happening is it August 16th or 15th When one the 16th 16th and it's from 1 to 1 30 to 3 and also Who would be a contact person for any like issues that arise or concerns or questions or? Anything like that for like or delays that we might have like on like 152 a Cont a contact person for highway for Calter ends So I think our PIO office a public and information office is probably a good starting point because they're familiar with the construction Activities and there's different leads in different areas. So I would say it's again It's in your packet Kevin Durbin ski is absolutely terrific He's in our PIO office and his contact information is listed on page. I think 15 of the packet Thank you. All right seeing no other commissioner questions or comments with any member of the public who's to comment on the Calterns report We do not have any raised hands Okay Great. Thank you director AIDS Now I know we have a public hearing scheduled for 9 30 a.m. And we're running a little bit behind But we're also teed up for the update on highway one So, okay, let's proceed with the public hearing This is item 25 draft 2023 public participation plan for the association of Monterey Bay Area Governments Council of San Benito County Governments the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and the transportation agency for Monterey County Good morning commissioners. I'm Shannon Munn's communication specialist on your staff So every four years a public participation plan is federally required to be updated and approved by Metropolitan planning organizations and regional transportation planning agencies the draft 2023 public participation plan has been prepared by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments in collaboration with The RTC the Council of San Benito County Governments and the transportation agency for Monterey County This draft plan complies with applicable federal and state legislation including the current federal transportation act fixing America's surface transportation act Which was enacted in 2015 and the infrastructure investment and jobs act by partisan infrastructure act of 2021 Additionally under the California Transportation Commission's 2017 regional transportation plan guidelines a documented public involvement Process should be prepared prior to each regional transportation plan and agencies development of its regional transportation plan The purpose of this public participation plan is to establish the process by which the public can participate in transportation planning programming and project implementation The draft 2023 public participation plan incorporates strategies to ensure that to the greatest extent possible interagency consultation and public participation are an integral part of the regional transportation planning and decision-making process Public participation activities provide a feedback loop for projects to inform and vet issues in the project planning and development Stages which help mitigate issues early on Once this plan is adopted by the RTC the 2023 public participation plan will serve as the RTC's official public participation public partation plan for the four-year period from 2023 to 2027 in particular this plan will play a key role in The public outreach strategy for the development of the 2050 Santa Cruz County regional transportation plan Key sections of this plan are a public partation plan guiding principles Incorporating limited English proficiency populations into public participation Public participation processes and development a list of interested parties that We would work with on public engagement in the community and then online and this visualization outreach strategies Ambeg and the three RTPs works together to restructure the previously adopted 2019 public participation plan to make the plan more useful for transportation decision-making in the Monterey Bay region The 2023 plan also includes a new section on equity with public engagement methods to increase equitable participation and distribution of resources in all outreach efforts the projects and programming so we are currently soliciting public input on the draft plan and Comments received by August 2023 will be considered during the development of the final plan We also have Heather adamsen from Ambeg here today to answer any additional questions along with myself. So Thank you. Thank you miss months their comments or questions from members of the Commission Seeing none the members of the public. Oh, I guess I will officially open the public hearing Any members of the public that wish to comment on the draft participation plan? So none here in chambers. Is there anyone online? I do not see any hands raised Okay, and I will close the public hearing and Bring it I guess back to the Commission out. Is this just an information item? It's just since there wasn't any public comment. It's worth noting. This is a really fine job. I mean it really does Set out a way to make sure the public is involved in these decisions and obviously that's critically important So I would say something publicly that it this is not working just one month of the shelf or something This is going to affect how we hold our public hearings and do outreach work with the community. Thank you Yes, thank you, and we have received public comment through email And all that so we have heard some things from the public that we will be incorporating as well. So Yes, Dr. Brown or sorry commissioner Brown I'll just add that we did at at ambag have a presentation about this and there was some discussion And and I also want to thank you for a very comprehensive plan and your great work I had there there. I The couple of the things that came up there that I just want to I think I'll make a comment about here one was related to How we do social media all of our agencies and and the the way that that Can or cannot or does not does or does not really elicit Increased engagement. So I think that was and and we had a good conversation about that I think that's something that we want to be thinking about and focusing on as well as that list of You know CBO community-based partners who can help Get this out into the community and get people involved who are not really traditionally involved in Transportation planning. So I just wanted to say that since there was some discussion at ambag and and thank you for the presentation here Great, thank you. Thank you this month Well now I'll go back to the update on highway one this is Item 24 Sure, sir. Konig if I could interrupt We have guests here to do a presentation and since we're running a little late I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if the County Public Health Department got I don't I don't 26 That's fine with me unless anyone has any objections All right, sure then we all proceed with item 26 and receive a presentation from County Health Services Services Agency Public Health Division on safe and active transportation programs and for a presentation on this we have Arnold sure and Teresa Rodgersen from Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency Good morning commissioners and staff my name is Teresa Rodgersen and My senior health educator with the County Public Health Hello to some of you that I know already and to others that I don't Let me get my computer up here Arnold and I are here this morning to present to you some of the programs that we work on in a County Health Services Agency for the Public Health Division and I oversee the safe and active transportation programs and Arnold and I work closely together on those programs along with a couple of other team members So we wanted to give an overview for you this morning of of all of what we do But with a particular focus on the TDA funded programs at Transportation Development Act funding that you've committed to us every year for specifically to Programs the Community Traffic Safety Coalition and our ride-and-stride education program in the schools, so I'm going to Hand it over to Arnold to introduce himself and get started with telling you a little bit more about CTSC Yeah, thank you. So hi everybody, my name is Arnold sure I'm a health educator here with the with the County Public Health and thank you for allowing us to speak and present on the Presentation so if you could move to the next slide, please There we go. Perfect. So we just wanted to give you all a quick and brief overview So the Community Traffic Safety Coalition is the umbrella that covers all of the programming that we conduct throughout the county What the CTSC is it's a county-wide coalition staffed by County Public Health? Thank you. Sorry about that Yeah, so the Community Traffic Safety Coalition is a county-wide coalition staffed by us at County Public Health and has members various public works departments attend city planning law enforcement community members non-profit non-profit Organization staff and many other stakeholders from multiple jurors to can throughout the county that meet with us on a bi-monthly basis Our mission is to Prevent traffic related injuries and fatalities for all road users with a specific focus on those cycling and walking through a vision-zero lens We support all of all jurisdictions in passing vision-zero policies to achieve a goal of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries Point it forward Just next slide. I'm so sorry that there were most just Not working for me my apologies for that We're more used to the online meetings now, so thank you. Thank you for bearing with this We wanted to give you all just a quick and brief overview as well of the vision-zero Policy and the safe systems approach so vision-zero for for people who aren't familiar is an international policy that aims to eliminate all fatal and serious injury Traffic crashes vision-zero in the past few years has moved towards utilizing a safe system approach Which evaluates our road safety? our roadway safety from a systems level perspective vision-zero really focuses on improving safety through an equity lens for all road users at all levels of our Transportation system and especially those who are the most vulnerable road users so cyclists and pedestrians Vision-zero is the goal and the safe systems approach is the vehicle that gets us there the safe systems approach if you take a look at the slides on the right on the outer ring it has Six principles which are death and serious injury are unacceptable humans will make mistakes humans are vulnerable Responsibility is shared safety is proactive and redundancy is crucial With those six principles we aim to We aim for the five objectives that are on the inner spokes So that would be safe for road users safer vehicles safer speeds safer roads and post-trash care and The safe systems approach and vision-zero really aims to bring together stakeholders from various realms to Work out a systems level and move past the individual blame that we really see Occurring on our roadway system and focusing on the system level so they evaluate the responsibility of all of the stakeholders and and all the responsibility that we share when Death and serious injury occur and next slide please Okay, so the vision-zero work plan objectives are provided for you here So currently we have four four objectives which are to continue to assist the city of Watsonville in vision-zero action plan implementation Assist the city of Santa Cruz in developing a vision-zero task force and action plan promote vision-zero adoption and implementation in all other jurisdictions and Develop and maintain county-wide vision-zero collaboration and support so we work on a two-year work plan And we are currently in the second year of our current work then next slide please Thank you as Ardall mentioned we We briefly touched on some of the jurisdictions in the last slide and Watsonville was our first vision-zero city due to a high number of pedestrian fatalities mostly in 2017 there seemed to be a spike which led to City council adopting the vision-zero policy in 2018 there and soon after they formed Watsonville vision-zero task force in 2020 and That came out of what was a subcommittee of the CTSC that had been meeting down there for quite a number of years they adopted their vision-zero action plan in 2021 and This plan acknowledges that traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable with a goal of eliminating them by 2030 The city of Santa Cruz was next in becoming a vision-zero city within Our county and they adopted their policy in August of 2019 CTSC staff are actively working with community advocates and the city of Santa Cruz public work staff as well as others at the city On vision-zero efforts, and we are encouraging them to develop a task force and a standalone vision-zero action plan for their city Passing it back over to Ardall next slide, please Awesome, thank you, Teresa So moving a little bit forward so over the last year we worked with the different jurisdictions here within Santa Cruz County on An opportunity called the safe streets and roads for opportunities So this is a grant a federal grant opportunity that was associated with the bipartisan infrastructure law So we worked with our public health staff worked with the county community development and infrastructure department and the cities of Scotts Valley and cities of Watsonville to apply successfully for a for the first round of funding We were awarded just under $688,000 in federal funding for the county of Scotts County CDI city of Scotts Valley to develop new vision-zero action plans and for the city of Watsonville to update their own Their current vision-zero action plan to make it up to par with what the federal government is aiming for CTSC staff will be actively working with each of the jurisdictions to provide a public health perspective into the vision-zero work and Assist with the development of task forces and action plans in each of those cities Currently within the county four out of the five jurisdictions have now passed vision-zero policies And we've also spoken with the city of Capitola who is the last jurisdiction that we're working with on On passing a vision-zero policy, but when we spoke to them in the past they mentioned that there were a bit of staffing barriers So we'll be continuing to work with them moving forward. Thank you so the other program that is funded by a TDA through the RTC is our Ryan Stride and And this program offers bilingual interactive classroom presentations on bicycle and pedestrian safety to all elementary schools throughout the county for grades TK through fifth and sixth grade Topics that are oftentimes covered in these presentations are helmet use traffic rules and safe street crossing The photo that you see here is a collaboration with ecology action To do a walking field trip with students after they received a classroom presentation For this fiscal year a total of 16 schools were served through this program And the TDA funding in addition to other funding sources Reaching 1,472 students with 61 classroom presentations This is a bit under what we usually reach in a year Due to staff vacancies and some of the winter school closures due to flooding this past year Next slide, please Our CTSC and Ryan Stride staff hours work well beyond the TDA objectives to many other bike and pedestrian safety activities Such as distributing reflective bike safety items and bike lightsets to community members in need Doing bike and a bike helmet fitting and distribution throughout the county Conducting group walks and bike rides traffic safety presentations and outreach events Coordinating our bicycle traffic school, which is a diversion program for those who've received a citation on their bicycle We also offer this program to the public for free And then in addition to that safe routes to school and complete street planning efforts Next slide, please We also coordinate a child passenger safety program for the county Our team Usually has one to two certified car seat technicians that work one on one with families For car seat inspection appointments and for low-income families. We also provide car seats through some of our funding We do trainings for social workers health care staff teachers and parents Um, uh, those folks that that transport children either through their job or in their families We also work with partner organizations To identify families in need and best support those families to get the safety items Necessary to transport their children safely And we're currently partnering with Santa Cruz community Health centers to assist them in getting their own car seat program kick started for their prenatal patients Next slide, please So moving forward, um We help secure grant funding for local, uh, non-infrastructure transportation programming focused on safety as we have reviewed today um, and uh, our idea for the future is to uh to Basically bring everything under that vision zero umbrella Through our community traffic safety coalition Ride and stride as we mentioned bicycle traffic school child passenger safety bicycle and pedestrian safety efforts As well as neighborhood traffic calming So in addition to the tda funding through your commission, um, we've been successful in uh being awarded competitive grants Through the state office of traffic safety the active transportation program and other sources Um And we want to thank you for providing the foundation for continuing to do the public health work of preventing death and serious injury on our local roads next slide So we just wanted to um close with um offering you an opportunity to ask us any questions and We'll try to provide the information to you if we have it now or get it to you. Um, if we don't um And I also wanted to just uh on the next slide if you wouldn't mind pulling that up for just a second um, thank, uh everyone that's on our team currently we do Have some staffing shortages and uh, I must say that arnold This is be the first and last time that you see him because santa clara is getting him from us um We have been losing people um, unfortunately because it's a very expensive place to live and So we wish arnold the best in his um new work in santa clara county and thank him for being here today Um, and then yeah, we can go back to the question slide. So so I want to offer you an opportunity to ask any questions Thank you both comments or questions from commissioners Mr johnson go ahead. Thank you chair. Uh, thanks for the presentation safety for Particularly our young people is so important. I do want to discuss a couple of topics namely e-bikes and scooters um, I was to get away from the heat a couple of weeks ago was fortunate enough to go to abbott square And it was a great experience on a friday night however um, there were five 15 16 year old kids on these e-bikes with kind of the big tires just flying around right uh breaking all sorts of uh Traffic rules and so forth. So to me it seems like there is a need to really really concentrate on um Providing education for those people especially young people that use e-bikes um, none of none of the young Writers were wearing helmets. Um, you know, it's just one of those things. They're so fun to ride, right? But there are a lot like scooters The other thing is Speaking of scooters where you sometimes have And even in scott's valley, I see eight ten You know 12 12 year olds flying around on these scooters um Sorry my You watch is uh ringing um And there's there, you know, they're Not accompanied by any adults They're breaking all sorts of rules as well. So i'm just wondering if there's a specific program That would kind of address scooters and e-bikes that Kind of are not really being ignored, but you know, probably need a little bit more attention Yeah, sure no problems. So we do we do offer things so as sarisa was mentioning earlier One of the the programs that we offer is the bicycle traffic school. So while that while in title that focus on bicycles, we we also Offer that class for free to community members and what that really works on is it teaches community members About the laws associated with biking or riding riding a wheeled mobility device here in the county We also through the ctsc Discuss the same concern about micro mobility devices and specifically e-bikes and the concerns that folks had regarding like speeds and and speeds and unsafe behaviors and specifically by younger individuals as well too So we conducted some research onto that and what we're what we're aiming to do is to develop an informational sheet To hand out information with educational resources that are available such as our bicycle traffic school that community members could take um For uh to help educate and also we have the Riding stride courses which help to uh teach to that specifically in some of the elementary school classes Which sarisa could talk about as well too Yeah, if and if you would like to be on the subcommittee that's talking about e-bike Uh and micro mobility safety. We'd love to have you join us Yeah Thanks. Thanks. Yeah, I'll add that's definitely the number one concern. I'm hearing from the community as well as Teenagers riding with e-bikes the wrong direction on the sidewalk without helmets So hopefully some of those informational pamphlets that you develop Will maybe include a list of potential fines that they could face. I know that chp and I asked them about it said that they do have increased funding for You know more cracking down on this issue So I think you know, we've got to approach it from from both sides the educational side as well as the Consequences side. Um, but you know, hopefully you can incorporate that into the information that you distribute. Yeah, and we're also Distributing helmets and lights. So hopefully that'll help as well. Okay Is there another commenter question over here? All right, so you know does any member of the public wish to comment On the presentation So you know one here in chambers. Is there anyone online? We do have some speakers. We'll start off with mr. Ben vernasa Mr. Vernasa Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yes, we can Okay, uh very briefly We have a new program for vouchers In 2001 I sent the the rgc up And got a voucher, but I had to go to three hours Safety class Now here's a perfect match Between r and the rgc These vouchers should require a safety class Now if if the rider is going to be under 16, I suggest a parent come With the the younger child That's my suggestion. I think it's horrible and I really appreciate the county health services agency and what they're doing. Thank you Thank you, mr. Vernasa Yeah, I'm wondering if you might be talking about the incentive programs that exist for purchasing e-bikes There have been a number of those throughout the years Dating back quite a ways, but I know there are some current ones as well and um Yeah, that could be something that is added to that I suppose is a requirement to do a safety class That has been done in the past by ecology action for sure Thank you Any other comments? Ms. Lonnie Faulkner I thank you so much. I really want to appreciate Trisha and Arnold for the work they've done. It's been a pleasure working with them with the community traffic safety coalition and I know we've had these conversations many times and uh, working on both education and consequences Just want to remind us to look further at infrastructure for traffic calming. I think this is really essential um We can see this uptick of e-bikes on the streets and kids because it is the new popular thing And it's a fun way to give kids independence But what a lot of people may not see is the um aggressiveness and speeding issues that are done by Drivers that are in the six thousand ten thousand pound vehicles. I know that we're trying to move away from Focusing on the individual and moving towards infrastructure. And I think that's really key Because especially now when we're seeing these huge trucks with f-150s and really giant sized trucks A lot of bicyclists and pedestrians are in danger of getting hit by these giant sized trucks And we know that speed or lowering speeds To about 30 kilometers per hour Directly translates to safe passage for our pedestrians and cyclists on the roads And with that I just want to echo That a lot of families I've talked to a lot of parents are Really upset that their kids can't bike to school anymore. It's just not safe for them And so again, I want to appreciate teresia and we're all for the work they do to help Vision zero be implemented in our streets. It's so important to our community. Thank you Thank you. Ms. Faulkner Yeah, I appreciate the comments about infrastructure and uh, I will mention that our county was very successful in receiving a number of awards through the state active transportation program cycle six Including one that we received at the health services agency where we'll be Going into 12 different school communities in wassenville To do non-infrastructure programming as well as temporary pop-up infrastructure projects And building traffic gardens for folks to practice Site safe cycling and walking Without being on the street Until they're ready to do that Thank you Mr. Jonathan Goren Jonathan Goren, I live in Santa Cruz. Um, I just want to pop up vision zero a little bit and I feel that Well, there's been progress that hasn't been enough when I went to school I feel like I'm going to get killed every single time.  I agree that I think it's unsafe that That I'm that they're not wearing helmets, but the same thing can be said about car drivers Why isn't the commission doing anything more when I walk around downtown and I see car drivers rolling boost offsides Rolling through run lights how clean the commission isn't addressing that why is bikes the target when historically A previous speaker mentioned that tens of thousands of fatalities because of cars while the bike In pedestrian fatalities are much much much less than non-existent. Thank you very much Thank you, mr. Gordon Mr Well, I was just gonna say I would encourage Mr. Gordon to just uh We would love to have more youth involved in our traffic safety efforts and Feel free to reach out to us to become You know a member of the community traffic safety coalition if you wish Mr. David van Brink We can Hi, so um, yeah, thank you for the presentation. This is obviously super important stuff E-bikes kids on e-bikes. It's it's totally a thing. It's it's a good thing. They're not cars and that's good So the thing about motor vehicles is that they really do facilitate the possibility of rude behavior When you operate any motor vehicle, it literally takes effort not to be a jerk So on the test side, you know, these these kids will likely be slightly more to do to non-car road users When they start barreling around in SUVs and whatnot Um, I like to bring this suggestion to encourage safety training for new users And the whole efficient zero system approach. That's just super important stuff. So thank you Thank you, mr. Van Brink We do not have any more speakers All right. Well, this is a non-action item. So unless there's any more comments Uh, yeah, sure commissioner Hernandez You know, I want to thank Teresa and Amir for all their work. They've been doing with uh with the with the programming and and also With uh vision zero throughout the county, but especially in watsable, of course, you know, we've always had a In issue with traffic and pedestrian, uh collisions. And so we wanted to address that Since I think probably 2014 15 and I think that we made good good progress since then and I think that As the county too we have to address that countywide in a lot of our rural roads And creating the infrastructure in a lot of our rural roads as well because there's a lot of folks that And I'm starting to see more and more young people actually riding their bikes out in the out in the rural areas a lot of latino, uh youth also riding their bikes And the the big wheel bikes as well out in in south county too So it's something that we're gonna eventually really have to focus in on So thank you for all your work and commitment to vision zero Thank you for your support over the years All right, there's no other comments. Thank you Mr. Scher and ms. Roderson very much for the presentation today Thank you for having us. Thank you All right, we will now proceed with item 24 the highway one construction update or a report by senior transportation engineer sarah christensen Thank you chair So, um, I think we've all experienced the construction out there. It's been really busy uh over the summer And um, I'm here to give you a little glimpse of what's going on behind the k rail And just for reference the k rail is the temporary, uh construction railings that are protecting the workers from the live traffic so, um Next slide So we have, um The first project under construction now That's the one that you see out there now, uh, 41st to soak hell Which includes the shana claire bicycle pedestrian over crossing But we are about to start construction on the phase two project, which uh goes from bay porter interchange An additional three miles south to state park drive and that project was awarded earlier this year and The contractors on board and they're getting ready to break ground in the next couple months here. So, um, We'll talk a little bit about that um I also wanted to touch on our public outreach plan We want to give regular updates to the commission on construction of the project But we're also very busy behind the scenes, um putting out information And so we just wanted to touch on that and how we're, um, doing more focused outreach in south county as well as Coordinating with other major projects in our region Um, and then I'll be available for questions and any kind of discussion next slide So this is uh, this is really exciting for me. I don't know Retaining wall number two is a soldier pile type of wall that is along the northbound side of the highway These are steel piles that are vertically drilled down, um into the embankment This wall is located adjacent to rodeo gulch. So you could see the drone footage on the right side. Um, showing Rodeo gulch in kind of the vegetated area and then this retaining wall That's being built The next step is, um lagging is going to be installed. So those are the horizontal pieces that are kind of, um In between the piles that are installed and those will start being installed today actually Here's a couple other shots. It's a large structure, um, and a lot of grading involved. So, um, pretty heavy equipment right up against that k-rail On the right side, you can see the drill rig, uh for the soldier piles And that's how they kind of dig the hole in for the vertical pile Yeah, next This is another retaining wall. It's a reinforced concrete, uh standard Type of wall, uh number four. It's also on the northbound side and uh, here's just a couple photos of The form work, which is the kind of carpentry type of, uh, building of the the forms and then they pour the concrete Um, and then once the concrete is cured, uh enough they break the forms off So you could kind of see from left to right the progress of how that, um, wall is being constructed And then the next step is going to be to backfill Um for future northbound lanes The pedestrian overcrossing is a major, um, element of the project This is a rendering showing what, uh, the bridge will look like once it's done And you could see the aesthetic features we have up there, which are the humpback whales that the community chose when we did outreach back in 2019 Uh, and next slide So this bridge has several, you saw several columns and each of those columns means a foundation So what they're building right now is a foundation Um, you've probably seen this very tall, um drill rig out Uh in the median of the highway as well as on either side of the highway There are eight vents that they are drilling the piles for And this bridge is going to be, um Happening over time, um, once the foundations are done they're working their way up So, um, it's pretty exciting to see Here's a couple other shots of the median, um It's bent five just for reference, uh big, um Reinforcement cages going into the, uh The casing underground and this is a major drainage system also on the northbound side Just for reference on the left side you could see Those are two people down there So that's a those are some big pipelines that are coming into the state right of way and We're building a structure to make it a continuous system all the way through So, um, this is a major I think the biggest drainage structure on the project. So they've been, um building the And then putting in the reinforcement and pouring the concrete next slide So this is kind of a progression and then in the bottom right you could see, uh after they pop the forms off That's what it looks like So just a reminder of the schedule of the phase one project so cal the 41st We started earlier this year and construction's going to go through, um Probably the end of 2025 Uh pending, uh weather conditions and then I mentioned the phase two project Uh construction is about to start and it's going to go into 2026 so Stay tuned for more We have prepared a project specific public outreach plan for this project because it is a major regional project um, the public outreach plan, um includes um press releases both by cal trans and the rtc. We actually, um translate the press releases in-house and So that all of our spanish speaking community can also receive the information We also have a very robust social media presence and put information out that way um e-news and even radio So you could see, uh We're on you know all the social medias twitter and facebook and Just some examples of what we're doing here We try to do the news releases weekly even if we don't have any major closures or anything But um obviously ramping up our press releases in our outreach When there will be a closure anticipated like, um overnight a couple weeks ago They were removing a couple overhead signs Uh, so we really ramped up on that next slide So we're also aware, um of a lot of other major projects that are About to go to construction or our start our under construction so Mainly county of santa cruz is about to start construction on the so-called drive multimodal Um project, which is the buffered and protected bike lanes 22 signals 100 curb ramps Um, that's about to start construction and we are coordinating with the county public works folks, um and their construction Um closures will be during the day and they are planning to go, uh So called drive is a four-lane facility So they're planning to do in one direction at a time closing one lane during the day between the window of 830 and 430 And so we're working with them Reviewing the schedules and making sure that we're coordinating Luckily the highway one closures if we're doing any closures, which we haven't been recently We only closed lanes at night. So there's no You know closures happening at the same time there However, our city of santa cruz is Soon advertising the murray street bridge project And that project will overlap a few months with the so-called drive multimodal project So we're working together to make sure that Maybe we could get the so-called drive multimodal North end of the project built first so that um It kind of evens it out and doesn't have sequential closures happening and then There's other regional projects that are on the horizon Including city of watsonville park and slew bicycle and pedestrian over crossing, which I believe is going to go To bed next year like in the spring or summertime frame So we are considering lane and shoulder closure timing. We're coordinating quite a bit. Um, we are planning Weekly consolidated updates for regional projects to get the word out as best as we can. Um, and the next slide We have a few tools that we use. Um The cruise 511 actually has gis layers Already loaded in it that automatically get updated There's highway lane closures, which are the cones. Um, if you could see that but I encourage you to go to cruise 511.org and see those two yellow Arrows on the bottom left. Um, make sure you click those on and then you could see all of the Various activities happening. Um, so these are the caltrans layers and the county layers That both agencies update regularly and those automatically get updated in cruise 511 So we feel that that's going to be a really good tool to kind of get a holistic picture of what's going on And we're also right now working on getting the city's layer uploaded into our system. So that city of Santa Cruz will have That layer in there and working with other cities to try to get whatever information is available The other kind of cool thing that I wanted to put out there was that caltrans has a cctv map Um Hold network across the whole state, but there's a couple of cameras along highway one One of which is already installed and pointed toward construction. So you could see on the right side of the screen You could see the rodeo gulch area and the Children pile wall that's being constructed So, um, if you just search in your browser for caltrans cctv map and then zoom in to the project area You could watch it live Construction happening right before your eyes Another cool thing I wanted to mention is they are working on installing another cctv camera That will be pointed, um in the southbound direction That will be pointed at the bridge construction So we plan to have a time lapse video made hopefully at the end of the project to show like the progression and then we can all um See how it was built in, you know, one minute or something even though it's going to take about two years. So Um, so those are a couple things we're working on next slide And that concludes my presentation here for questions Thank you miss christensen See a question from commissioner rockin Could you comment on the timing for the, um bus on shoulder underpass at soquel avenue, for example Um, is that being done Painlessly and will buses go under there before we get to the next thing or is it we're doing everything first and then the buses come back later? How's that being structured? I'm not sure I understand but the the bus on shoulder element of the project is it's part of the construction So, um once the project's completed then the bus on shoulder will be operational We'll be working with metro on um There's a couple things that need to happen mainly, uh public Outreach campaign specifically for bus on shoulder training of all the operators on how to use the bus on shoulder facility So that will all be in the works. Um Soon yeah Yeah, but so as I finished for example soquel bridge It won't be waiting till 41st is done to be able to have the bus go under at soquel It's probably not gonna have like little incremental It's probably just going to be you know, operational all at once and not in phases All right If you can if you can do a little research and let me know what that sort of plan is there I'd like to know Okay, sure. Thank you Thank you commissioner rockin commissioner quinn Thanks, sarah. Uh, somewhat guiltily share your fascination with the construction I do have a question though. I think predictably soquel was really jammed up around the hospital And sutter getting through there and so I wanted to loop back on something you mentioned months ago Any progress on getting the lights synchronized on soquel to try to speed traffic along Anything we can do about that three-way stop at robertson that Literally can take 10 to 20 minutes to get through southbound And then in terms of the lane closures on soquel will the lane priority be Northbound in the morning and southbound in the afternoon Will you be able to switch that third lane to try to mitigate traffic congestion? Okay, um, let me start with your first Question about syncing the lights. So the the multimodal project Is upgrading 22 Signals and they will be synced great. So it will take about a year, but they'll be synced by the end of the construction of the project robertson I don't have much of an update on that and I know last time you uh, chairman a chair conic had um quite a bit of information, but um, I can check with the county public works if To see how that is being staged specifically that area. I know between 41st and robertson. It's really bad My understanding is they're completing the planning work for that right now, but I've not yet identified funds for construction Stoplights can be stubbornly expensive In the neighborhood of a million dollars. So um, I think Right now the hopes that maybe some uh development project in the area could help pay for it But I don't think it's going to be done Any there's there's almost no chance it'll be done before this soquel drive project gets underway And then finally the closures, um The way that the county wrote their contract is they They allow the windows and they didn't specify direction, but it's a 30 to 4 30 and it's one direction at a time So they won't have they won't go down to one lane In the same location Um, it's essentially at each intersection where they're building the ADA ramps Is when they need to go down to one lane So they envision, um, you know one direction completing it and then going to the other direction If that makes sense No, I get that but is it is it possible that the side with two lanes can be Directionally coordinated with the time of day I could check with the county. I don't think their contract specifically um Covered that or had that arrangement. I think it's just a full daytime window unfortunately So but I could check you can always I think be helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Quinn other questions or comments All right, seeing none. Is there any member of the public that wishes to comment on the update Seeing no one here in chambers. Is there anyone online? We do not have any hands raised Okay This is a non-action item. Thank you senior engineer christiansen for the report Well, yes, that's uh, the the action already happened as far as the voting on this project Can I say one more? Sorry the um safety is really um the most importance and just a reminder to abide by all of the speed restrictions and know that the the workers have families to go home to and just Be cautious out there and thank you for your attention Great. Thank you All right, now we'll proceed with item 27 transit and inner city rail capital program or tersep grant funding master agreement contract award for professional engineering environmental services And amendment to the measure d rail category five year program of projects for the zero emission passenger rail and trail project between pahero junction In the santa cru and santa crews along the santa cru's branch rail line And for an update on this we have transportation engineer riley jabran Thank you, sir. Come in. Good morning, sir My name is riley jabran. I am honored as associate transportation engineer to be partner staff I joined the rtc on the engineering team in 2021 have been working on a capital project along the santa cru's branch rail line I'll be serving as project manager for the zero emission passenger rail and trail project And before you hear today regarding item number 27 on today's agenda to request that the commission authorize Signing the master agreement to administer grant funding for the transit and inner city rail capital program referred to as tersep Signing master agreements another agreement with the state or federal agencies to receive and administer regional state and federal funds Thirdly signing the professional engineering and environmental services contract not to exceed seven million seven hundred three thousand five hundred And forty dollars with hdr engineering incorporated To complete the full project concept report for the zero emission passenger rail and trail project Between pahero junction and santa cru along the santa cru's branch rail line Hopefully to amend the measure d rail category program of project So add 1.63 million of funding over the next two years to fully fund the project concept report To amend the rtc budget accordingly And lastly to operate inner program from other measure d fund category To manage cash flow if needed in december 2022 commission to authorize the contract with the hdr engineering Any amount of three million dollars to partially fund the completion of the project concept report for the zero emission passenger rail and trail project That had the rtc and through their additional funds to the project In april of this year to state amount a church of church of psychosis grant award At 3.45 million to the rtc for the project concept report That recommends that the commission award with professional engineering and environmental services contract to fund the project concept report To receive and administer these church of funds church of guideline requires that the rtc Enter into a master agreement a program supplement agreement and other agreements with the state The master agreement will enable the rtc Through program supplement to receive psychosis church of fund as well as future church of fund With the award is 3.45 million dollars of church and church of psychosis competitive funding And previous program 3.8 million of measure d rail and 350,000 of measure d trail Fund an additional 1.63 million dollars Of measure d rail's category funds is needed to fully fund the project concept report over the next two years The rtc could choose program for future church of formula funds or other discretionary funds providing 28 Any agenda today to fund the project concept report or subsequent phases of the project This concludes my staff report the staff team is available if you have any questions. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Grubrett are there comments or questions from commissioners? I see uh commissioner johnson Thank you Thank you for that report. Um, I guess, you know, it seems to me that seven Whatever million dollars is a lot of money. Why is another 1.63 million dollars needed when you have all these grants coming from the fifth in the state? the um When the church of psychotic award came out Um, we were rewarded as only part of what we requested from the church program The program awarded us 3.45 million dollars for the project concept report that did not fully fund um, the The amount of money required to complete the project concept report So we need to supplement with what we've already programmed Plus the grant award to Complete that project concept report Well, is the scope of the project um Sometimes when the scope of the project exceeds funds sometimes you Monitor it and then reduce the scope of the project. Was that ever a consideration? So back in it was a consideration so back in december of last year Um, when the commission Awarded the 3.3 million dollar contract. That was after the rtc had gone through negotiations with the um The best proposal at that time hr engineering for the project concept report initially, um the The proposal came in, um for more than we could fund at that time So during the negotiations, we were able to reach an agreement to keep us going Um, since that time we've as I mentioned before received features of over-grandwork We've also been in negotiations with hr engineering to Um develop a scope of work that would um complete what is necessary for the project concept report um, and also to uh, you know, address some of the um Concerns that have been raised through things um like climate change um environmental concerns, but we're actually bringing some of the Summit for the engineering into that Project concept report to make sure that when we develop the the concept it is something that we can move through All the way through the environmental document So we have done a lot of work and hr engineering has really been Part of the team in this to develop a scope that both of us feel We need to but in the end of the day, we do have a shortfall that we need to um address And right now we're reflecting that the uh one point six three million dollars be programed the next two years So is it one point six three million dollars essentially Taking from the future bug Bucket of funds that will become to the rtc through measure d Yeah, there's two things that occurred one. Um, because we've been in negotiations for a length of time We didn't start the project And um originally intended for this year So we are going to be starting the project in this current fiscal year. Um, which allowed us to Has allowed us to program or allowed us to program some funds that Haven't worked originally available because they pushed me down the road Um And secondly, yes, so we would be programming Some of the future funds over the next two years from that measure d for the bucket to fund the the ranger of the project Will rating that money have an adverse effect on our future plans or What those dollars were intended for for our future concerns? No, no at the moment With our current program, we feel that we have capacity to Complete everything that's on our um Part of your list of projects and concerns Thank you, chair Thank you commissioner johnson Commissioner mcPherson. Yeah, thank you for the presentation and um, I I'm going to support this item because I believe it's the only way We can get to the correct answers regarding, uh, the cost and other challenges associated with uh, Building and operating our passenger rail system As envisioned and I understand we need enough design and environmental Review to fully grasp the wide Spectrum of these challenges and it's the only way we can really get a truly informed position On this for to make that decision I appreciate the staff continuing To seek outside funding for this endeavor and I'll continue to support future development efforts to leverage Measure d rail and trail funds because we must get to an accurate understanding of the feasibility um, but that said what and this was uh, Mr. Johnson Commissioner johnson alluded to what I will not support is diverting Local funding to proceed with passenger rail at the expense of other critical transportation projects That kind of decision cannot be justified until we really have a very clear understanding of the cost to build And operate the service and frankly whether it is even logistically feasible to do so in the coastal zone The coastal zone feasibility is but one of the numerous potential obstacles, uh, some of which could end uh Being project killers in fact and we need to know what we're getting into We need to care about the cost to build and operate the service We need to know the full cost and benefit to the community compared to other transportation projects And I think it's important to note that these are rail category funds that are going to be used So i'm going to be supporting this Thank you. Commissioner McPherson commissioner shifrin Yes, a couple of questions. Um, it wasn't totally clear to me whether the um Project concept report included the environmental document Is that part of what will be produced as a result of the funding that's being proposed here? It is not no the The both of the project environmental document would come in such a quintessence Okay, so that's not So what we're going to get is a could you talk a little bit more about what a project concept report is going to tell us? mm-hmm In a nutshell we'll deliver us with a project definition as able Enable to be brought through the environmental document space So it looks at all of the um existing information we have it looks like looks at the corridor It takes in an initial engineering work and some initial environmental analysis work to develop a A project that will be able to be It's um, actually, you know completed and gone through the environmental environmental document So it brings all of that together that this size didn't give us something that we didn't before Okay, thank you. The other question I have is I guess I'm not sure it's to you or to other staff has to do with whether some of the step or our tip funding That is alluded to in the staff report is potentially available Could be available could be applied for without threatening other Locally local priority projects. I think commissioner McPherson's concern is a valid one On the other hand, there's a lot of different funding sources that were alluded to by staff and I think in the directors report even talked about Funding state funding that could be for, you know intercity rail. So I'm just wondering whether it might make sense to at least develop a possible project for consideration for the Consideration by the commission that could be funded Without threatening other local projects So I'll take that question Certainly, uh This project is eligible for the r-tip funding and we could Use r-tip funding instead of measure d rail category funding But the issue of course is the prioritization of our multiple needs here in santa cruse county There simply is not enough money to fund all of the projects that we're interested in funding So the commission will have some difficult decisions to make with regards to prioritization The measure d rail category funding is specifically Earmarked for both rail preservation as well as rail studies including the environmental study The r-tip funding could be used for this and now the Third potential funding source is this new tersep formula funding that that's available One of the challenges we've had in programming excessive amounts of measure d rail category funding for this project is The strain that we've had on that account due to the multiple needs on the branch line We've had to reduce the amount of preservation activities that we plan on doing over the next few years To be able to provide this match We also have not been refunded from the federal Emergency management agency or FEMA yet for the 2017 storm damage jobs. We expended four million dollars on that And unless we get reimbursed for that that will create a negative clash cash flow situation for that account Which is why we're looking at potentially Using other funds to relieve some of the pressure off a measure d It's good to hear the commission's Uh Desires to not take money from one project or another but when you have a finite amount of money available and multiple project needs They will be competing against each other And is that true even for the rail the funding that's set aside for rail The The tersep whatever you call that Well, the tersep funding is a little bit different in that um that project Has to go to a transit project So the roadway projects won't be competing with it But it would be competing with the needs of our transit district. So Metro Is interested in using that money for operations and other potential capital needs We could Work out an agreement with metro where some of that money would be used for the rail project and some of that money would be Provided to them that would be a future decision that the commission could consider Okay, thank you Commissioner rockin Am I correct in understanding that we're not being asked today to choose between project xyz and The the funding gap here. That's that's an issue that still awaits us We're saying that we're directing staff to go look for additional funding to fill that gap And that's part one of my question and part two is we're not prohibited from We haven't done it yet, but bringing money forward from eight percent Of measure d. That's real money Might be another way to possibly fill that in the short term. Am I correct? So um an answer to your first question You are correct in that. We're not asking for you to Decide on using the rtip funding For this project versus another project or the tersep funding for this project versus Providing it to metro. We don't have We haven't issued a call for projects on the rtip project That is the next item on today's agenda There are evaluation criteria and included in that staff report and we would have to Apply for the funding consider the performance measures and Criteria that we provided and then make a recommendation likely Later this year In december I believe is when we target coming back to the commission To make that decision as for the tersep formula funds We still don't have the guidelines from the california state Transportation agency We need to wait for that funding and then issue a call for projects for that funding So the only money available today is the measure d Rail category funding and so we ask only that the commission consider using that funding to Um bridge the shortfall that we currently have with respect to um You know the last part of your question which was um Remind me for measure d money Oh bringing bringing measure d that is a possibility including interprogram loans We will be looking at our strategic implementation plan with regards to other programming actions and likely be considering bringing money forward through One of many different financing strategic Strategies including either bonding or using a new infrastructure bank that has been provided to bring money forward We could do that for the rail category as well. We're trying to Because of the ongoing preservation needs Live within our means within that program and not bring the money forward too much But if it comes to it that is another decision that the commission could make so so i'm correct in understanding that a commissioner could vote for number 27 today But still reserve their right to say i'm not taking money from the transit district or i'm not taking money from Another competitor perhaps in the future. We're not even asking that you do that today But in a future decision we could come back and say do you want to consider doing that and then you could Choose to or not to it's about that. I'm trying to be respectful of People's versus another people's expression about that issue. Thank you Thank you commissioner rock and commissioner hernandez So I agree with uh commissioner mcphearsons and in uh commissioner shifrin's concerns as well I agree with this uh with this as well staff's recommendation But you know just with the concerns as well If we can you know seek for an apply for alternative funding sources not just the ones that were mentioned but the ones that that Mr. President was just mentioning as well too that were just you know just different that right that You were mentioning and I think that that's why we've got to keep you maybe as a consultant after retire as well For future projects like this But yeah, I just wanted to mention that. Thank you And if I can respond a little bit to that too Is we are trying to figure out how to fully fund the environmental document and commissioner You know shifrin asked that question does this fund that and it does not That's still a priority for staff based on the feedback. We've received from this commission as to how to fund that um We were I was informed last week that the state plans on um releasing a call for projects for state rail assistance funding It's one of the few funding sources that actually allow funding to be used for project development Work which would include an environmental document I think our best strategy is to come up with an idea of how much we think would be reasonable to ask for And then work with the commission as to how much match do we need to put in To allow us to get that we don't want to use all of our discretionary funding On this one project if we don't need to if there's a grant we can go after that would be our priority And then we would want to use just the amount needed to match that grant So we can stretch the dollars as far as we possibly can Thank you Commissioner johnson And it's my understanding that the full eir document is pretty expensive in the 15 to 60 million dollar range Is that correct? I think sarah might be better Equipped to answer what the full additional cost would be to fund the environmental document It was with the concept report over 20 million, but the concept reports about eight. So what does that leave us with? It's still about 20 million. Maybe a little more. Um, but Um, our full ask for a tersep funds earlier this year was 16 million and so we only got 3.45 um We're going to continue to Pursue the competitive grant sources that are out there, but it's just there's very limited sources of state rail assistance program funds that guy mentioned is um Is really one of the only ones that's available most competitive funding sources want to fund construction They want to see projects built um, so Unfortunately, you know discretionary funds are helpful to have for pre construction As well as the construction match But staff will continue. Um Refining the scope of the project. I think during the project concept report we could find Um, as we developed the project the the cost could change Um, the project can change And so we'll be bringing a lot more information to the commission through the project concept report work Um, and give accurate cost estimates when they're available. So thank you Any commissioner johnson A commissioner quinn Thank you. And um guy, I apologize for the simplicity of this question But if if I look ahead in the agenda On measure d the revenue is greatly exceeding the expenses and so if resources are reallocated How to get quote-unquote paid back or does the rail bucket dig itself a hole it won't be able to dig out of So we manage all of our programs via a cash flow model. Uh, we have it Strap elated out until 2047, which is the last year of the measure We bring in about 1.6 million a year in the rail category funding So it would um, you know, if we do need to borrow money and utilize it for This project it will impact our ability to Continue to preserve the rail line But over time, um, you know, depending on how much we actually You know have to use We do feel that a 30-year measure provides a lot of capacity To pay it off and we've looked at that pretty closely right now We're not overextending ourselves past just a few years If we were to try to fully fund The eir with only measure d that would stretch out, you know, quite a quite a distance further But still we would have enough capacity It's it's challenging to try to balance the various fund sources And that's why we want to try to go for grant funding if possible and possibly take a little bit of the pressure off of measure d Um rail category with the tersep formula funding that recently became available And that will be a decision that the commission could consider When we have the guidelines and and work out something with metro and make a recommendation So so doing the mental math The rail fund would be borrowing four to six years out If we receive money back from a grant Without a grant just to fund this 1.63 million. No, it wouldn't be that far out. It'd be like a year or two If we tried to fully fund the 20 million, then you're talking four or five years out If we don't get reimbursed from FEMA, you maybe want to add another two or three years to that So it does create an impact and we are Very challenged in trying to make sure we have enough capacity to do All of the projects we want and make sure we have enough to continue Thank you Thank you commissioner Quinn Any other questions or comments? I've got a couple myself. Um, first is on page 27 dash four of our agenda. Um, it talks about um, the additional 1.5 million which is needed for community outreach and, um Management and oversight. So is that like an internal cost simply of of RTC staff time that, um Where where that would be realized? Yeah, so you do you want to answer that Riley? I can take it. Okay, go for it. Yeah, so, um, that's a combination It will be internal RTC staff time. Um, it'll also be the community average dependent as well as, um Yeah, well, there will be probably some need for some budget management, um consulting expenses as well. Um, Okay, so the contract with HDR is 7.75 million That's what we're proving today, but we can expect to have to Reconcile the additional 1.5 million at some point in the future. Is that? The request for the programming of the 1.63 million covers that Okay Okay, got it And then just to translate Engineering speak into something that we can be sure that the general public can understand We talked about how this report will create a project definition that can be taken through The environmental planning process So if I understand correctly that means we'll really be looking at some of these core questions of You know where will the stations go right and then of course they Later we can look at the environmental impacts of those Where additional sightings could go which would be able to yield You know more frequency of trains and so ultimately we'll come away with from this report with an understanding of just how frequent service could be We'll look at things like beach street, which of course is a particularly constrained area Where you have traffic on the city streets You've got roaring camp and then of course you've got the rail line So a better understanding of how those Elements are impact this and you know, what additional infrastructure would be needed there And of course we'd look at I think what kind of structures would be needed Over places like harkin slew galliars slew And along the manresa cliff so and then of course if those are even Could get the necessary permits from the coastal commission and other state agencies Is that a fair translation of the accomplishment? Okay. I didn't again just want to make sure that the public understands You know, I'll Sort of largely agree with super or commissioner McPherson's comments I mean, I think you know whether you think that rail is a great idea And we should move forward with all deliberate haste or if you are skeptical of rail You know this report is Is for you You need to move forward with this as the next step I think really to try to reach consensus in our community and ultimately decide whether we're going to go all in You know pass more funding measures and try to build passenger rail or if we're going to change course But at the end of the day, we're going to have the best information possible once this report is done So, you know, I'm Definitely going to support it today and I think also conditional on that. Well, I don't need to make any additional Conditions, but part of the reason for that is because it is all coming from Rail money. It is coming from the measure d funds Specifically allocated towards rail. So I think that Really with both measure d's we can point to Point to fulfilling the will of the voters that we're using the 8% allocated from the revenue measure for rail and We are continuing to study rail as Is really our our best assumption of what voters want to see after the 2022 measure d Sure commissioner johnson Thank you, chair didn't mean to interrupt you So you mentioned I'm hearing a lot of capital projects of of Where stations might go where? Infrastructure where bridges and so forth But if you look at the smart train, you know The capital expenditures have been pretty much settled, but it's it's kind of like Metro The operational expenses are what kills these projects So this explores some of the operational challenges, namely how many employees Pensions, you know, everything associated with running a railroad or is it just, you know, where? You know stations are going to go That's my question Riley you want me to take that one? Okay So the project concept report will include cost estimates for the capital, but also we will through Defining the project so knowing the frequency knowing the stations The sightings where they're going and how many we need That will help us estimate the operational costs as well. So we'll have um You know at least preliminary operation and maintenance costs to work with based on the Definition of the project And then we will definitely need another funding source to fund the operation and maintenance of this new transit facility There's no question about it. Do you ever do peer reviews? Say and smart trains a pretty good example of what their projections were say back in 2010 when all this Was being planned and voted upon and then what actually happened in other words You know, this is all going to be speculative to a certain degree, right? I mean we're going to best guesses and you know, uh use all everything available to make a informed decision At the same time You know, if you look at the bullet train, it was it was originally 33 billion now It's well over 100 billion. Okay. Those were projections best gets And estimates so, you know, there is a validity question associated with every projection and um I'm hoping that that's taken into consideration Their estimates definitely so um, but Uh, we've got a really good team. Um, we hired a really good consultant and um, we're gonna We're gonna do our best, but you know things like covet happened and Uh, nobody really expected that so um So the last question promise. Um, when you talk about public outreach, um You know this Whole question of rail and trail and so forth has been there's been a lot of public and a lot of outreach A lot of comment. How will it be different from reaching the For lack of a better word the usual suspects in terms of who people are just really committed on one side or the other I mean, will it be outreach and how it affects your neighborhood? what what the What this will do for your particular Circumstance as a commuter or what I'm just curious as to what is the nuts and bolts of an outreach program So the scope of work, um, which um, if you want to Look back to the december 2023, uh, or 2022. Sorry, um agenda There was the scope of work that had all the outreach activities But we typically for this magnitude of a project prepare a public outreach plan specifically for the project and we get Um, we've been getting really creative on how we reach people Because you're right. We get a lot of people who, uh, you know advocates for example But we really want to reach the community members who May not have the luxury of being able to come to our meetings Or come to other type of events and things. So, um our communication staffs working with the consultant and HDR has a really solid consultant Public outreach Team that is going to be supporting us. And so we're we're confident that we'll be able to Reach as many people as as feasible. So Thank you Thank you commissioner johnson commissioner rockin We haven't voted yet, so I don't count it until it's done But I I want to give credit to my colleagues who are more skeptical than I am about this train Uh, it was I don't know if it's in the good times or somewhere, but uh commissioner, um Coney made some comment. He was being questioned, you know, like about this project and Said at some point. Well, I've done everything we could do to move it forward. What else would you like me to do? I'm paraphrasing that's something along those lines and I think it's fair to say that that's the case with this vote. Um There's still room for skepticism. I said this myself. It's like at some point. Maybe this thing isn't feasible, but I'm excited by its possibility and I just want to appreciate my colleagues who are less excited by or maybe less excited but less less, um Confident that it's going to be a successful project And I think that's a responsible position to take and I appreciate that people are willing to let's find out What does this thing cost? Is it where is it? You know, how many sidings will it take? How much more land do we need to purchase? Where do we have to raise the track because it's underwater in a lagoon somewhere and so forth and Finding that stuff out is critical to making a rational decision here rather than Have it be based on how many letters to the editor somebody writes So I want to appreciate people again who don't necessarily share my confidence in the project. Thank you Thank you commissioner rock and I appreciate that Any other comments or questions? All right seeing none. I'm going to open it to the public Anyone here in chambers wish to comment on this item? Good morning, uh chair conan again commissioners. My name is matt ferrell. I'm here today Representing the friends of the rail and trail We submitted a letter enthusiastic support of moving forward with this agreement and with the master agreement with with caltrans for the transit and inner city rail capital program project um or grant project um I'd just like to uh remind all of us that um in 2012 When the ctc approved the funding for purchase of the rail One of the commitments We made was that we would evaluate and commit to operating passenger rail on this line I think it's really important to move forward with this evaluation process Because I think we have a contractual obligation under that agreement to You know consistently and Uh passionately evaluate that option uh Secondly, I'd like to say that uh We have had project and cost overruns in almost every capital project that's come before the commission And we shouldn't have a separate yardstick for transit projects and Somehow ignore the fact that highway projects have the same problem in the climate we live in So if we're going to be consistent about evaluating cost There should be some metric about how much the 41st avenue and the freedom projects are costing compared to the original estimates Because it's not really Being transparent with the public About the trade-offs between these projects. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Farrell All right, so no one else here in chambers. Is there anyone online? I wish to address the commission Mr. Brian peoples You know want us to step back and look at the high speed rail Which is billions of dollars for two years from san francisco to l.a One of the biggest flaws of that project is that they took all those billions of dollars And spent it on the local transit problems. It would be phenomenal for california And instead they're wasting all this money on that Trying to know where it's never really going to serve the san occurs So you are going to have competing funds where this is going to take away from metro And we know that and we don't need to spend eight million dollars to find out if the california coastal commission will allow 60 trains to gain a new passenger remiss system along the calisthenics coastal It doesn't mean the coastal act. It's not hard. It's not a difficult equation So then i'm going to ask policy makers who have residents That live next to the trains Can you imagine if somebody now is going to have 60 trains driving the marine your house? Now a lot of people will say well, they should have never bought a track house next to the train tracks Well, no, they bought a house next to a freight car that had one train going by a day So it's essentially like you're going to house on a country road and the county came and said we're going to build a highway We're on this county road. That's essentially what you're proposing to do So you like voting for this by saying, yeah, we're going to study. We're going to spend more training You're basically telling your constituents your work or a train behind your back And what the problem really the ultimate problem is is that coastal board or has sat unused for a decade there You built 1.25 miles of the trail You built a 12 foot wide trail that cost more than why you need the highway and you're disrupting more trees Building a 12 foot wide trail Then to widen the highway because of your policy of your strategy It's exactly like the high speed rail. It makes no sense. This makes no sense. Open the coastal trail and be smart. Thank you Thank you, mr. People's Mr. Ben vernasa I'm very sure the card before the horse simple Can it answer from the coastal commission? Whether or not You can have a train I will tell you one thing the problem is Ceasing a salva and madrasa as well as others But we're not going to allow a train come from the middle of a salva beach Or cease it That's something to think about Find out from the coastal commission Simple simple have a non voting member On rtc Thank you Thank you, mr. Vernasa Miss Lonnie Faulkner. Thank you so much um A future with passenger rail means a future where people have a wise choice To travel throughout the county without having to get into their car It's an equitable choice that serves our elders people with disabilities If we are growing wise young population that do not want to drive we've got a lot to learn from them Our quiet electric rail system will connect us with monorail selenus san jose san francisco and And the uh coastal commission is expressed in past letters their support for passenger rail Excessive automobile use is currently the only choice which leaves many of our community members without access to opportunities jobs With their social network We urge the rtc commissioners to approve this item to move quickly towards providing our community with a robust Equitable environmentally wise alternative form of transportation that will get people out of their cars And cars being the leading contributor to our climate crisis We endanger our delicate coastal zone when we continually prioritize infrastructure that makes driving easier Then prioritizing robust integrated multimodal public transit infrastructure And systems that allow a far greater percentage of our community members to walk and hike and use transit We hope you will ensure 30 percent engineering and 15 minute headways in the study Our county can serve as environmental leaders in the state and nation growing the mode of transportation that reduces Our extremely damaging impact on the environment This is the promise we made to the california transportation commission and to our voters and rod darin don Goes out the united states expressing that rail is our future answer to our environmental crisis. Thank you so much Thank you. Ms. Faulkner Mr. David van Brink We can Hi, I'm sorry for dialing you today and a brief aside. Thank you Guy Preston for all of your work here. I miss you already In oral communications earlier, my fellow citizen Michael St. expressed some disappointment at the progress we've made locally in Necessary and sweeping changes in the cultural transportation conditions I'd like to offer a partial count for counter-finding an appreciation Nothing happens fast. It's true. But there are things moving forward with trail sections natural improvements These are real things that I directly see and use and many of us do So anyway, please keep all these good things moving forward A healthy tension and debate is great into fiscal prudence is mandatory I just removed my house. So I gave residents the herbs. Do you want to do that? So, okay already more trail work and of course more rail work Please approve staff recommendation for this next step. Thanks Thank you. Mr. Van Brink Mr. Berry Scott And first I want to thank Guy Preston very good question for all the significant work that you've done. I wish you well And I hope you may be able to help us as we go forward I support this item and I anticipate approval I want to say that I attended the counter-finding Show for their new electric rail vehicles And it reminds me that we're we're moving forward in case throughout the state with rail projects of Monterey and the Salinas to Gilroy extension And I hope that we are Continue to be a part of this regional rail network And remember that the the rail corridor and the rail line itself It's an active rail line recognized by the federal government And we need that corridor for rail for trail and for future resilient team recovery We live in a tsunami earthquake landslide world and we bought the railroad for rail transit I just hope we do for it. It's very encouraging. I want to point to I thank commissioners for discussing The possibility for applying for additional grants whether they come from the uh Our kid or cursive or some place else and it's mentioned on page Uh, five and six of this item the desired by the commission staff could be turning recommend Programming one of these other funds sources for the rail and trail project reduce the burden on measure D We used were going to be for interprogram modes and serves a match for future grants fully funded the preliminary engineering and environmental analysis and I I hope that we see some effort made in that direction So that we lessen the load on measure D funds and again, thank you and Thank you director president Thank you, mr. Scott We have no other speakers. All right, then I will return to the commission for action I'd like to make a motion to uh prove the staff recommendation Second motion by commissioner shifrin second by commissioner rock and let me speak to that for a minute if I could I was contemplating Uh, also making a motion or including in this motion that uh, the commission Do follow what the staff mentions? about applying for Funding additional funding But i'm not doing that for a couple of reasons one in terms of The r-tip which is all really we're as I understand it. We're pursuing with item number 28 It's going to mean a big fight at the commission if we would do it. They just even pursue it And there are all these other projects that are very important and I think It doesn't make sense at this point to have that kind of Conflict at the commission. I am sympathetic to what commissioner McPherson said and others that have agreed to however, I do what I did here is that when the Tersip and the rail grants come when there are really other Funding opportunities that could be used directly for rail I think it would make sense for the commission to consider doing that and for two reasons one Just like with the highway projects the measure d money is really best used as leverage as a portion of As we've seen with the rail trail projects as we've seen with the highway projects Measure d funds are a relatively small percentage of what those projects are costing and I think it makes sense to be considering rail The rail feasibility study in the same light that to the extent that we can get additional funding Which is part of this recommendation is a 3.4 million to help move this project forward I think it's important the other thing I wanted to mention in in that regard is that we're Really From my perspective very to be honest about it. This whole project is a result of the failure of measure d Um and the recent measure d not 16 the measure the last year's measure d I think everybody knows which one I mean and the original measure didn't fail And I think there was a message there that the public wants does not want to rip up the rail line They want to consider whether Passenger rail is feasible and the commission very responsibly I think Immediately decided to move forward with a serious attempt to figure out how feasible that would be how much it would cost what it would mean and I think that's what we're doing And this is a step to approve this recommendation is this there's a step moving towards what is a pretty expensive analysis But an analysis that needs to be done in order to be able to make that decision I think um, we're responding to the public by doing that Uh, I think it's the responsible thing to do And I also think that to the extent that we can find other sources That would help do that that would provide the money to get it done As expeditiously as we can that makes a lot of sense as well so I think this motion is simply to uh Really what it comes down to is accept the funding that the commission has received and recognize that We want to complete the concept report and if necessary we'll use additional measure d money to do that Hopefully we can find other ways of funding it, but if we can't I think we need to do it So I I think it's important to approve the staff recommendations for this item Thank you. Thank you commissioner shifrin Any other comments commissioner johnson? Thank you chair So, um, I I guess the question really is you have a um You have a study and It seems to me that you know results are going to come back But the important question is how do you interpret this study? I mean we've seen in the past that Uh, there are a lot a lot of different Um perspectives on the data that enters our minds here up here on the dais Thank you, uh, but gets interpreted in an entirely different way So when I hear That what we need is and will have is with with a passenger rail That it will be a robust integrated equitable alternative to cars to me that's naive because Uh, if history has taught us anything we have metro Now metro is I think re imagining right now but um It's not doing that great It has all the means of with new buses new infrastructure all the things but what they're doing is going through a Vast study and how to improve their services because the demand just isn't there So when this study comes back How will we interpret it and we'll you know to commissioner rockin's point of being open And being honest as to what the results really are And so I think that's a challenge because Um, you know the parable of the elephant with the visually challenged men Each had never known what an elephant is when Grabs a trunk and says this this is a snake. No he grabs the tusk. No, this is a spear The body it's a wall. So everybody wants to interpret it as as they Meets their needs and we can't do that if we're going to be totally honest. So That's my challenge Thank you commissioner johnson. There's no other comments then we'll proceed with the vote All those in favor. Hi. Hi any opposed? Any abstentions The motion passes unanimously. All right. Thank you mr. Gobrant for the presentation. Thank you miss christensen for supporting questions We all press Yep, thank you. Thank you all to all the staff involved in that We'll not proceed with item 28, which is the regional transportation improvement program call for projects I am not amy. Good morning commissioners. They're like you anyway, um, rachel morricone of your staff Stepping in for amy. Who's feeling ill today? so I appreciate your patience as I wasn't aware I was presenting this until last night Um, but before you but you've heard from me before most of you on a very similar topic Which is that every other year the regional transportation commission is responsible for selecting projects to receive specifically the state transportation improvement program funds that um flow through the california transportation commission But in addition to those funds, we are responsible for selecting projects to receive certain state and federal funding sources those include things like the Federal surface transportation block grant funds, which because we're a small county We're allowed to trade them out for state funds And through the regional surface transportation program exchange The senate bill one program the local Partnership program funds which only exist for our county because we have local voter approved sales taxes And then there's other funding sources, which the commission is responsible for programming funding For those include things like the transportation development act funds Some transit funding programs Some measure d right regional funds, but before you today, we're just going to focus on Primarily three of the funding sources that the commission has the discretion on selecting projects to receive And we we recommend doing this through a consolidated call for projects rather than Looking at each funding source individually and and sending out different calls for projects for each of the the different sources there so There's a little power point here that amy prepared Before you today specifically we're looking for your input on the process that we're proposing to program these funds um that that includes the evaluation criteria that will be used to evaluate submittals and and project ideas that are submitted by Project sponsors. Um those project sponsors might include the regional transportation commission But also santa cruz metro the cities the county some nonprofit agencies that have public agency sponsors kel trance The health services agency all of the different types of organizations that help Deliver projects in our transportation projects in our community ucse cabrillo There you know a lot of folks are involved in and making our transportation system work here And so I anticipate that we'll see applications from many if not all of those folks And then just to go over quickly the funding sources that are available We have about 8.6 million dollars estimated to be available through the state transportation improvement program That is based on the um kel trance draft fund estimate which will be finalized in a couple weeks here So that number might change slightly um it changed from their initial june estimates to their july estimates based on the state budget So there are some you know possible minor changes to that dollar amount But ballpark we're expecting about 8 8.6 million dollars out of the state transportation improvement program We have a larger share of regional surface transportation Program funds available those do come to us as I mentioned earlier based on the federal Infrastructure act how much money is set aside there in our county? We receive about four million dollars a year of those funds and we're recommending programming several years of funding For that program And then we have just a small about 300 000 a year of the local partnership program funds And we have two years of that available for programming and we still have some leftover change from So the so-called amoracy auxiliary lanes project right away that um kel trance didn't end up using That we had secured as a federal earmark um And so we're hoping that we're going to get the opportunity to quote repurpose those funds And so it rather than issue a call for projects for something like 186 Thousand dollars. We want to just consolidate it here and look at all the different funding sources at one time We are required to use a performance based process when we're selecting projects We can't just decide we're going to fund this project over here and that one over there The state and the feds guidelines as well as our own regional transportation plan guidelines Require that we look at what are the benefits of these projects Especially in comparison to other needs in the community and then make decisions on how we're going to utilize those funds And so before you today are also evaluation criteria that staff recommends Utilizing and this was based on input. We've received Both from state and federal guidelines that mandate that we use some of these But also input that we received from our bicycle committee our elderly and disabled transportation advisory committee And the interagency technical advisory committee Um specifically at that at all those committee meetings We received both public comment and comment from your committee