Title
Adoption of Resolution Authorizing the City Manager, Retroactively, to Apply for and Receive up to $292,000 in Grant Funds from the Alameda County Transportation Commission’s 2022 Comprehensive Investment Plan to Construct Multi-Use Pathway Connectors to Close Gaps in Accessing the Cross Alameda Trail in Jean Sweeney Open Space Park; and Allocating $158,000 In Matching Funds, Should the Grant Be Awarded. (Planning, Building and Transportation 4226287)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In December 2020, the Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) issued a call for projects for the 2022 Comprehensive Investment Plan (2022 CIP), with $26.0 million available for bicycle/pedestrian and transit-related improvements within Alameda County. Projects must be included in the 2020 Countywide Transportation Plan project listings, and the grant prioritizes projects that enhance equity, safety, and gap closure. The grant requires a 25% local match for capital projects. City of Alameda (City) staff evaluated various potential projects to submit based on the grant criteria, City priorities, available staff time, and local funds available for matching the grant. Staff brought a recommendation to the Transportation Commission’s January 27, 2021 meeting to submit up to two applications, for gap-filling trail connectors in the west end of Alameda, and, if not funded separately by the Alameda CTC, the Project Study Report (PSR) for the west end bicycle pedestrian bridge across the estuary. The Commission supported staff’s recommendations.
The grant application deadline was February 1, 2021, and given the short turnaround time, staff were not able to bring this item to City Council before submitting the application. On January 28, 2021, the Alameda CTC approved funding for the PSR. Staff further evaluated the potential trail connector projects and ultimately submitted one grant application requesting $292,000 to build four trail connectors to the Cross Alameda Trail (CAT) in Jean Sweeney Open Space Park (JSOSP or Park). The grant application committed $158,000 in local match funds, for a total project cost of $450,000. While a resolution of local support was encouraged to be submitted with the application, it is not required unless the project is recommended for 2022 CIP funding. Staff are bringing this resolution to City Council now to keep the City Council informed, and to provide a local show of support to Alameda CTC as they evaluate the submitted projects.
BACKGROUND
Due to the available funding sources for the 2022 CIP, eligible projects were limited to the following project categories:
1) Bicycle and/or pedestrian capital projects and programs
2) Transit-related capital projects
3) Shuttle operations
4) Plans/Studies
Only projects that were ready for implementation in fiscal years 2021-22 through 2025-26 were allowed to apply. Available funding will be prioritized towards improvements that can be implemented and/or demonstrate construction readiness within the first two years of the 2022 CIP and decisions on funding are expected from Alameda CTC by April or May 2021.
DISCUSSION
Multiple connector paths to the Jean Sweeney Open Space Park (JSOSP or Sweeney Park) and Cross Alameda Trail were included in the adopted Alameda JSOSP Master Plan (2014). They had a high level of community support, and only a lack of funding and control over the land has prevented the City from building these connector trails. With resolution of the land issues expected imminently, the City can pursue four of these new gap-closing connectors at 8th Street, Wood Street and through Marina Village Business Park to Challenger Drive and Triumph Drive. This will create access to and across the 0.65 mile segment of the city’s crosstown Cross Alameda Trail. This long segment of the CAT is essentially land-locked, and bordered by Constitution Way and Sherman Street, and the Marina Village Business Park and residential neighborhoods (see Exhibit 1).
The only north/south access to the CAT and Sweeney Park in this area is a rough dirt path at the foot of 8th street, which does not meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. By building four new ADA compliant access points, the project will break up this "mega block,” creating new north/south bicycle- and pedestrian-only connections that will be designed to provide safer, more direct alternative routes for people traveling between the residential neighborhoods to the south of Sweeney Park, and the Marina Village business park and shopping center to the north. Low-income residents living in the affordable housing adjacent to the park will finally have direct access to the Sweeney Park and the Cross Alameda Trail.
The new connectors will provide low-stress bikeways and convenient pedestrian access, and will include:
• 8-12 foot wide ADA-accessible asphalt paths.
• At the southern locations (8th and Wood streets), curb ramps and short segments of sidewalk.
• At the two northern connectors, new trails will be built on the park land from the Cross Alameda Trail to the park border where the connectors will enter into the Marina Village Business Park. New crossings will be striped across the narrow parking lot driving lanes behind the office buildings, and the connectors will then extend via the existing pathways between buildings to the intersections of Atlantic/Challenger Drive and Atlantic/Triumph.
ALTERNATIVES
The Council may pursue several different alternatives:
1. Adopt the resolution, as attached.
2. Modify the resolution.
3. Not adopt the resolution, and direct staff to inform Alameda CTC that the City will not continue to pursue grant funding for this project at this time.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The grant requires a minimum 25% local match for construction projects; however, higher percentages increase the scoring of the project. In the application, staff stated that the City would commit a total of $158,000, or 35% of the total project cost, in matching funds, to come from the following three sources: $23,000 in Recreation and Park staff project management time; $12,500 from Blue Rise Ventures (of Marina Village Business Park); and $122,500 in local Measures B and BB bicycle and pedestrian funds. If the grant is awarded, the $23,000 in Recreation and Park staff time and the $122,500 in Measures B and BB bicycle and pedestrian funds will be subject to future City Council appropriations approval.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
Providing connectors to key facilities, such as the Cross Alameda Trail, parks, transit, shopping and the Posey Tube are supported by multiple General Plan policies including Objective 4.3.2: “Enhance opportunities for pedestrian access and movement by developing, promoting, and maintaining pedestrian networks and environments.”
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
In 2014, the City adopted a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) evaluating the potential environmental impacts of the JSOSP Master Plan, and no further review is required pursuant to Public Resources Code section 21166 and CEQA Guidelines section 15162.
CLIMATE IMPACT
Supporting bicycling and walking will help the City meet its goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by supporting mode shift away from automobiles. The City’s 2019 Climate Action and Resiliency Plan found that transportation accounts for 70% of the City’s GHG emissions, and that moving people out of automobiles is paramount to reducing transportation-related emissions.
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt a resolution authorizing staff, retroactively, to apply for $292,000 in grant funds from the Alameda County Transportation Commission’s 2022 Comprehensive Investment Plan to construct multi-use pathway connectors to close gaps in accessing the Cross Alameda Trail in Jean Sweeney Open Space Park; and authorizing the City Manager to execute documents necessary to accept and allocate the funding, and to allocate $158,000 in matching funds, should the City be awarded the grant.
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager recommends approval to ratify the City’s ability to apply for the $292,000 in grant funds from ACTC and match with $158,000.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas, Planning, Building and Transportation Director
By,
Rochelle Wheeler, Senior Transportation Coordinator
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Annie To, Finance Director
Exhibit:
1. Project Map: Cross Alameda Trail Gap-Closing Connectors Project
cc: Eric Levitt, City Manager