It was the Santa Barbara Planning Commission’s turn to hear about proposed updates to the city’s Draft Bicycle Master Plan a week after the city’s Transportation and Circulation Committee offered its recommendations for the city’s bicycling future.
The hearing was a review, Q&A, and public-input session covering Cabrillo Boulevard bike lanes, a Chino Street bike boulevard, Rancheria Street lanes, Cota Street lanes, and the options for a bike route connecting the city’s Westside and Eastside.
The commission did not come to any consensus on the plans or make any recommendations, unlike the Transportation and Circulation Committee.
Opposition to a February City Council decision to implement the original and highly controversial Micheltorena Street east–west route was so fierce that the council decided to put implementation on hold and directed staff to more closely look at the projects on the table.
That route — “Option 1a” — had a green painted bike lane from San Andres Street to State Street and removed parking along the route from Castillo Street to State.
“That’s really the challenge,” said principal transportation planner Rob Dayton. “It’s whether you are going to get parking right in front of your unit, or are you going to have to walk blocks to access parking.
“Even though we did find a lot of supply, the issue we’re really hearing is that we really want to have spaces in front of our houses.”
Dayton, associate transportation planner Peter Brown, and supervising transportation engineer Derrick Bailey presented the updates to the commission.
City transportation staff deemed viable only a handful of the original 11 east–west options that were presented at a public-listening workshop last month. Dayton said viability is based on how favorable they are to bicycles, cars, and receiving grant funding.
At its own hearing, the TCC had recommended immediately pursuing an option that would paint the iconic green bike-lane stripe on both sides of Micheltorena Street from San Andres Street on the Westside to Bath Street on the Eastside.
Twenty-five parking spaces on both sides of Micheltorena between Bath and Castillo Street would have to be removed. The roughly $50,000 “Option 7” alternative would be paid for by existing Measure A grants.
The committee also recommended going with one of a few related “Option 6” alternatives as a future replacement of the Micheltorena one.
One would add the green lanes on Micheltorena from San Andres to Castillo and down Castillo to Sola Street, where it would continue east to Santa Barbara High School as a bike boulevard, a low-motor-vehicle-traffic road that gives priority to bicycles as through traffic.
New traffic signals would be added along Sola, and 35 spaces along the east side of Castillo would be removed.
Another sub-option entails extending the eastbound Micheltorena green lane to Bath and adding another northbound green stripe on Bath between Sola and Micheltorena. Only 15 spaces would be removed on the north side of Micheltorena between Bath and Castillo.
The sub-options would cost between $2 million and $2.5 million, and would be paid for through a competitive Active Transportation Program grant from the state.
Over 20 public speakers turned out to provide community input, with most of their focus directed at the proposed east–west routes. Many of the speakers expressed concern — or, more often, outright exasperation — at the consequences of reducing residential parking, particularly on Micheltorena.
Micheltorena routes were also criticized by the public as being unnecessarily dangerous. Many of the speakers expressed support for a variation of the Sola-based routes, citing them as safer; according Bailey, Sola sees one-fifth the traffic Micheltorena does.
A few residents told the commission that they had not received adequate, if any, notification about the planning process, and another couple expressed concern over the possibility of the city failing to secure grant funding and being stuck with a Micheltorena solution.
The Active Transportation Program’s grant application window closes June 15, a day after city staff will present its review, the TCC’s recommendations, and the Planning Commission’s comments to the City Council.
City staff have been focusing on three grants that they had deemed most favorable for the options on the table, and hope the council will provide direction on what to pursue, Dayton said.
The “viable” east–west projects were judged attractive in terms of grant favorability, he said, after a handful of transportation planners scored the alternatives using the Active Transportation Program’s criteria.
The city could try to move forward with the applications without the specifics of a single chosen option for the east-west connection, though not having a concrete decision could still hurt the city’s chances of winning a grant.
The next Active Transportation Program grant cycle would not be for another two years.
The Cota Street bike lane is intended as a westbound-only compliment to Haley Street’s lane. Like most of the bicycle plan projects, Dayton said, the primary obstacle in drawing it up was the prospect of having to eliminate parking.
The Rancheria Street lane received support from several public speakers, who cited the two targeted blocks between Montecito Street and Coronel Place as dangerous to cyclists headed to nearby Santa Barbara City College.
Staff also covered what a bike boulevard would look like on Chino Street, proposing two intersection vehicle diverters that would let bikes through but compel cars to turn right.
— 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.