January 2011 Update
On January 11, 2011, the Santa Rosa City Council held a public hearing and adopted the Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan. To view the adopted plan, click here.
December 2010 Update
The Draft Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan has been reviewed by the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, the Board of Community Services, the Community Advisory Board, the Cultural Heritage Board, the Design Review Board, and the Planning Commission.
The Planning Commission held a public hearing regarding the draft plan on November 17, 2010. The Planning Commission considered the public testimony, and asked questions of staff from the Fire, Public Works, and Transit Departments regarding technical and operational concerns on the corridor. Generally, commissioners found that the corridor has great potential and can help to create a vibrant downtown, that the neighborhood vision should be met, and that reduced parking will negatively impact businesses. The commission did not support the Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan as drafted. A resolution formalizing that direction was adopted 7-0 on December 9, 2010.
The City Council will hold a public hearing regarding the Draft Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan and consider public testimony and the Planning Commission’s recommendation on:
Tuesday, January 11, 2011,
At or after 5 p.m.
City Council Chamber, Santa Rosa City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue
For additional information, or to provide comments, contact Lisa Kranz at 707-543-3259 or lkranz@srcity.org.
October 2010 Update
THE DRAFT SANTA ROSA AVENUE CORRIDOR PLAN IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW. Click here to view the draft plan. The plan includes a streetscape plan and design guidelines for Santa Rosa Avenue from Sonoma Avenue to Highway 12.
The plan will be presented to the following city boards for information and comment at the dates and times indicated below. The public is invited to attend.
| October 21, 2010: |
Joint meeting of Design Review Board and Cultural Heritage Board at 3:05 p.m., City Hall, Room 7, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue |
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October 21, 2010: |
Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board at or after 4:00 p.m., City Hall Annex Room 7 A/B, 90 Santa Rosa Avenue |
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October 27, 2010:
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Community Advisory Board at 5:30 p.m., Finley Community Center, 2060 West College Avenue
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A public hearing will be held:
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November 17, 2010: |
Planning Commission at or after 4:00 p.m., City Council Chamber, City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue |
A public hearing will also be held by the City Council; it is not yet scheduled but is anticipated to be in January 2011.
A Mitigated Negative Declaration has been prepared for this project. To view the Initial Study, click here. To view the Notice of Intent to adopt a Negative Declaration, click here.
For additional information, contact Lisa Kranz at 707-543-3259 or by email at lkranz@srcity.org.
September 2010 Update
A revised streetscape plan was presented at a community meeting on September 8. Click here to view the presentation slides from that meeting. This revised streetscape plan, with some changes including a widened sidewalk on the east side of the street and addition of a small median between Pine and Oak Streets, will become the basis for the Draft Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan. It is anticipated that the Draft Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan will be available for public review in October. It will be presented to city advisory boards for comments, and then public hearings will be held before the Planning Commission and City Council.
Tentative dates for this review:
October 21: Cultural Heritage Board, Design Review Board, Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board
October 27: Community Advisory Board
November 17: Planning Commission
January 2011: City Council
Please check back to this website for updated information. The draft corridor plan and meeting times will be posted as soon as they are available. For additional information contact Lisa Kranz, lkranz@srcity.org or 707-543-3259.
August 2010 Update
A progress report was made to the City Council on June 22, outlining the planning process and potential circulation ramifications of the preferred road diet streetscape alternative. The council weighed the issues and asked staff to continue to work with the neighborhood to identify an alternative which would meet citizen and technical interests and ensure safe operation of Santa Rosa Avenue.
Following the council meeting, staff and a number of citizens who had been involved in the corridor plan process met and discussed a variety of alternatives. Staff then convened several times to identify an alternative that it felt met technical needs, while addressing citizen interests to the greatest degree. This alternative was then presented to the smaller citizen group for its consideration. The group found that the revised alternative offered many of the same components as the preferred alternative, and there was general support.
The revised alternative generally includes: two northbound travel lanes, one southbound travel lane, a center turn lane or median, bicycle lanes in both directions, pedestrian crossings with refuge islands, “bulbouts” of some sidewalks to decrease pedestrian crossing distance, on street parking in front of Luther Burbank Home and Gardens and Juilliard Park, which necessitates encroachment on the park frontage, a reduction of on street parking mainly on the west side of the corridor south of Sebastopol Avenue, which results in a reduction of about 9 spaces from the number existing on the corridor today. To view the revised alternative, click here. Parking is denoted in orange, and bicycle lanes in blue, with green trees designated in medians and along the sidewalk.
A meeting will be held to present this alternative to the community on September 8, 2010 at the Senior Center, 704 Bennett Valley Road, at 6:30 p.m. Click here for the meeting announcement. Contact Chuck Regalia at cregalia@srcity.org with any questions about this meeting until September 3, and thereafter contact Lisa Kranz at lkranz@srcity.org or 707-543-3259.
June 2010 Update
The Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan is ready to be drafted. Preliminary designs for the two streetscape alternatives are complete and the series of three public workshops were a success. The “road diet” neighborhood preferred alternative was chosen by 75% of survey respondents and 95% of workshop attendees over the streetscape improvement plan that maintains four lanes. Advance Planning staff and our consultants at DC&E are prepared to move forward with design of the neighborhood preferred alternative and the drafting of the final corridor plan. That draft plan will be reviewed by various advisory bodies before going to city council for final approval later this year.
At the last community workshop the Public Works and Transit Departments were given an opportunity to explain to the residents some of the circulation ramifications of narrowing the roadway from 4 to 2 lanes. While benefits such as shorter crossing distances, slower speeds, wider sidewalks and preservation of on-street parking can be realized, the city’s traffic engineers cautioned against creating a condition where peak hour volumes entering the corridor will have long queues and increased delays in entering the corridor both directions. One common outcome of these long queues is cut-through traffic and rerouting – potentially increasing auto traffic through the very neighborhoods which want to see traffic calming on Santa Rosa Avenue. The Transit Department too has expressed concerns that peak hour drops in on-time performance could impact connections and routing city-wide, as well as a desire to preserve a future lane for express bus service (Bus Rapid Transit) along the city’s main north-south arterial roadway.
To inform the City Council of this complex urban planning issue, a progress report regarding the Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan is scheduled for June 22nd. The purpose of the report will be to update the council on progress to date and explain to them both the benefits and drawbacks of the neighborhood preferred alternative. The public is invited to attend the meeting.
April 2010 Update
NOTE – Date change for final Community Workshop – now Monday, April 26th, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Bennett Valley Senior Center
City staff continue to work with our consultant team to refine and develop the community preferred alternative A – Multimodal Transformation. Along with fine tuning the streetscape design and roadway configuration, finding ways to incorporate aesthetic and safety improvements, this is also the portion of the project where we begin to develop the planning document which, if adopted, will serve to guide future public and private improvements along the corridor.
Our final round of advisory committee and community workshop meetings occur in April. The purpose of these meetings will be to review the draft preferred alternative and see if there are any changes that need to be made before the streetscape design becomes solidified. The final Community Workshop will be held on April 21st. It will be a chance for the consultants to unveil the preferred alternative, reflective of the results of Community Workshop #2 in February. Another key component of the workshop will be a chance for the city’s Public Works and Transit Departments to convey some of their concerns with the community’s preferred alternative – these relate to traffic operations, peak hour congestion and future transit services.
April meeting schedule:
• Technical Advisory Committee will meet on April 8th.
• Citizen Advisory Committee will meet on Wednesday April 14th, 5:00-6:30pm at Dierk’s Parkside Café
• Final Community Workshop will again be held Monday April 26th at the Bennett Valley Senior Center 704 Bennett Valley Road from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Next Steps – Late April and May will be focused on drafting the written portion of the plan that will include text, maps and graphics, and design standards. This draft plan will be posted on the website in May and available for review and comment from the public. Public meetings will also occur at the Board of Community Services, Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the Design Review Board, the Planning Commission and finally at City Council by late summer.
February 2010 Update
On February 4 the city held the second of three community Workshops and heard input from about 40 residents and property/business owners in the area. The purpose of the meeting was to analyze and critique the two proposed draft streetscape alternatives and to see if it was possible to achieve a consensus on which “preferred” alternative should move forward for further refinements. The community spoke loudly in favor of Alternative A – Transformative Multimodal Improvements including a road diet concept which recommends transformation of the corridor from four lanes to three lanes – two travel lanes and a center left turn lane with landscaped medians.
The near unanimous support for the Road Diet Alternative was supported with strong data (94% for Alternative A, 6% for Alternative B and 0% for maintain existing conditions). By contrast when surveying the public on the Mendocino Avenue corridor between College Avenue and Steele Lane, the results were 40% in favor of a 3-lane Road Diet, 41% supported landscaped medians with 4-lane improvements and 19% wanted to maintain existing conditions. Average daily traffic on a typical Mendocino segment is in the 29,000 cars per day range vs. here on Santa Rosa Ave - 22,600.
I’ll be working with our consultants on the preferred alternative which will be presented to the Technical Advisory Committee and community for further refinement prior to going to various boards/commissions and then council. The city’s Public Works, Fire and Transit departments have expressed some valid concerns regarding reducing travel lanes on this regional north-south arterial. These concerns will need to be carefully balanced with current professional practice as well as community preferences prior to the selection of a preferred alternative.
Lastly, due to right of way constraints and Fire Department concerns coupled with mild community support, deferring further consideration of a roundabout at the Sonoma Avenue intersection may be necessary.
Below are links to the two Alternatives being considered as well as a survey questionnaire. If you would like to fill one out and mail/fax/scan/email a copy back to me, please do so by February 15th.
Community Survey Results -74% of respondents prefer Alternative A
January 2010 Update
The city is pleased to report good progress on the corridor plan. Based upon input from professionals, business owners and citizens of the area, DC&E has developed two streetscape improvement alternatives for our review. Each of the alternatives will contain some combination of the safety and aesthetic improvements that have been discussed thus far and which typically make up roadway improvement plans. The purpose of developing these two draft alternatives is to evaluate how they will achieve the project goals, how they will function in terms of circulation and multi-modal safety enhancements and to shape the vision for future public and private improvements in the corridor.
This middle phase of the corridor plan involves evaluating the two draft alternatives and, either by selecting one or combining portions of each, moving toward a “Preferred Alternative.” The preferred alternative will need to balance multiple objectives and yet should meet the purpose and need of the project, address most of the neighborhood concerns and meet city standards for design, costs and engineering.
In order to evaluate the two draft alternatives, the city will conduct meetings with the Technical Advisory Committee (January 13th), Citizen Advisory Committee (January 21st, 5pm, Dierk’s Parkside Café, 404 Santa Rosa Ave. With consideration of input from the two committees, we will conduct the second of three Community Workshops on February 4th at the Bennett Valley Senior Center, 704 Bennett Valley Road from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. This community workshop will involve surveying attendees on which components of each alternatives they find most/least appealing. It should be fun, interactive and informative.
November 2009 Update
The first of three Community Workshops was held on October 21 with great success. With over 60 attendees, the community made their preferences and interests known. After a presentation by Bruce Brubaker of the DC&E, the citizenry broke into study sessions to discuss what they saw as key issues along the corridor, what they would like to see improved, and which set of urban/transportation design tools could be best implemented by the eventual corridor plan. These suggestions were then summarized to the larger group along with questions and answers before the workshop concluded.
The City of Santa Rosa and our consultants are compiling this information, along with interests that have been expressed by our various city departments. The next step is to develop streetscape improvement design alternatives and present those to our Technical and Citizen Advisory Committees in December. With some likely modifications based on committee input, we’ll be ready to bring those alternatives back to the community at large during our second Community Workshop, likely to occur in January.
The Citizens Advisory Committee will be meeting at Dierk’s Parkside Café, 404 Santa Rosa Ave., at 5pm on Wednesday, December 2, for about a 1-hour meeting. Feel free to stop on by.
Stay tuned, and below please find copies of the PowerPoint given at the workshop and workshop summary. Feel free to call or write with any concerns or suggestions.
October 2009 Update
The city and our consultants have collected the baseline data (right-of-way maps, utilities, transit/bike/ped facilities, applicable planning documents, etc.) in order to fully understand the existing conditions on the corridor and which areas are ripe for improvement. The Technical Advisory Committee met in early September to go over this data and provide input into the corridor plan development from various city departments (Recreation and Parks, Public Works, Advance Planning, Utilities, Fire, etc.)
Two memorandums; one on the Land Use and Urban Design existing conditions with neighborhood maps and the other describing existing Multimodal Circulation are posted below. This is great information to review prior to the first Community Workshop which will take place on October 21,2009, from 6:30-9:00 p.m. at the Bennett Valley Senior Center, 704 Bennett Valley Road. The City will be seeking a great deal of community involvement, resident concerns, and business operator's input on the potential improvements to Santa Rosa Avenue. We look forward to seeing you all there.
July 2009 Update
The City of Santa Rosa is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Community Based Transportation Planning Grant from the State Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan will be a focused transportation and land-use study for the corridor between Highway 12 and Sonoma Avenue, adjacent to downtown Santa Rosa. The project limits are contained within the Downtown Station Area Specific Plan, therefore, that plan and connections to the future SMART train will play a strong role in shaping this effort. The plan will address transportation and land-use issues within and along the corridor that impact safety, traffic operations, multi-modal travel; pedestrian and bicycle improvements and transit access. Through a broad and inclusive public process, the plan will develop an overall community vision for land-use and transportation improvements. It will include policies, urban design concepts, multi-modal transportation enhancements, and development standards.
On July 14, 2009, the City Council acted to award a consulting contract to Design, Community and Environment (D,C&E) for professional services. A draft of their scope of services is available below and initial meetings will occur in August. Also available for review is a UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design coursework student project; the title of the course which studied Santa Rosa Avenue is “Shaping the Public Realm:”