Few city planning projects in recent memory have stirred interest and garnered public participation the way Santa Barbara’s Bicycle Master Plan has.
After months of planning, public input, revision and more than a little controversy, the City Council on Tuesday adopted the city’s planning guide for its bikeways.
The stated goals of the BMP are to close gaps in the city’s network of bike paths, improve safety for all road users and create a more integrated transportation system that better accommodates a variety of modes of transportation.
The plan would also reduce the city’s carbon footprint, transportation staff said, as more people are expected to bike.
In addition to outlining the city’s priorities for its biking infrastructure, the document lays out specific projects intended to realize those goals, priorities and values.
The majority of public interest and controversy had centered on the proposed east–west connection — the route to join the city’s Eastside and Westside neighborhoods.
In February, the City Council approved a route along Micheltorena Street that would have removed four blocks of parking along the road, generating considerable blowback from Micheltorena residents and business owners who balked at the consequences of losing spaces in a neighborhood with an already saturated parking environment.
The council then directed city staff to conduct further public outreach, resulting in a Sola Street bike boulevard option that would run from Castillo Street to Alta Vista Road.
The bikeway would meet up with the green bike lanes of Micheltorena’s bridge over Highway 101 via a contra-flow green lane on Castillo.
Other elements of the Bicycle Master Plan are a bike boulevard along Chino Street in the Westside neighborhood, green lanes on Cota and Haley streets, Cabrillo Boulevard bike lanes and Rancheria Street bike lanes near Santa Barbara City College.
It also includes so-called road diets — eliminating one vehicle lane to make way for a bicycle lane — for westbound Cabrillo Boulevard from Highway 101 to Milpas Street, and portions of De la Vina street.
The array of projects the BMP envisions are categorized by the years by which the city is slated to begin their implementation: 2020, 2025 and 2030.
A bevy of public speakers spoke before the council, most of whom either praised the BMP’s planning and outreach processes, or blasted them.
“Our community needs to be informed,” said Lucia Casso, a Westside resident who takes care of elderly neighbors.
“We’re the Westside locals who have been there and are deeply rooted, and we demand that this be recognized as an issue before any vote can take place,” she said. “Scheduling a final vote is completely inappropriate when the first step in the process has never been completed: informing the residents and the homeowners who have been there for several decades.”
The city’s outreach efforts on the Westside became a flashpoint in the BMP planning process, with a few residents criticizing the council and city staff for not adequately informing the neighborhood.
Two city-led public meetings held on the Westside about the proposed bike boulevard were met with no discernable discontent over the process, principal transportation planner Rob Dayton told the council.
Once design money is acquired, he said, more specifics can be presented to residents and projects can be fine-tuned.
“There is going to be change, there are folks who are supportive, there are folks who are not happy with the result,” Councilman Gregg Hart said. “But on balance, we have tried very diligently, very hard, over a long period of time to accommodate those concerns, to address them, to work through these issues, and I think this process has been exemplary.”
Last month, the council directed city staff to submit three last-minute grant applications to Caltrans’ Active Transportation Program for three projects: the Westside bike boulevard gap closure, the Eastside green lanes and bike boulevard gap closure, and the Las Positas–Modoc roads Class 1 path construction project.
Adopting the BMP, which shows the state that the city has formalized its transportation plans, is a requirement for the ATP grants, Dayton told Noozhawk, and makes the BMP projects strong competitors for the limited available money.
The city will find out in October whether the applications are successful, he said.
For now, the ATP grants are the only funding for the plan, though in two years’ time, Dayton added, the city could consider a local ballot measure for additional funds.
The Chino Street project passed 5-0 without Mayor Helene Schneider and Councilwoman Cathy Murillo, who live in the vicinity of the project and abstained from voting.
The rest of the plan was passed 6-1, with Councilman Randy Rowse expressing reservations over the potential effects of removing vehicle lanes and losing parking spots in particular project areas.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
