Title
Recommendation to Review and Provide Input on City Staff's Draft Support Letter for the Oakland Alameda Access Project and to Provide Comments on the Project's Draft Environmental Document
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Transportation Commission
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Oakland Alameda Access Project, formerly called the I-880/Broadway-Jackson Interchange Improvements Project, proposes to improve connectivity between I-880, I-980 and the cities of Alameda and Oakland. It is being led by the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) and Caltrans. After almost 30 years of planning and three failed attempts to reach consensus, a project design, with a full cost of $120 million, has been selected and a Draft Environmental Document (DED) was released last month for public comment.
This is an opportune time for the City of Alameda, after over 20 years of working collaboratively on this project with ACTC, Oakland and Caltrans, to state its support for this project, before the project moves into the final design phase. Staff prepared the attached draft letter (Exhibit 1), stating that the City's support for the project be contingent on two conditions being met: (1) the City of Oakland support the project; and (2) funding be allocated to the next two major planning phases of a bicycle/pedestrian bridge across the estuary, to move towards creating true multi-modal access.
Staff are continuing to review the DED, a Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment (DEIR/EA), and developing specific comments on it which will be provided to Council before their meeting.
At its meeting on October 28, the Transportation Commission will receive a presentation (Exhibit 2) from Alameda CTC on the project design and status. Staff request input from the Commission on the project, the DED and the draft letter, which will be brought to the City Council's November 17 meeting where they will be asked to approve a final support and comment letter t...
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