During its July 7, 2022 regular meeting, the Shoreline Planning Commission received a detailed presentation from city staff on the ongoing update to the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) and Transportation Element (TE). The presentation covered draft modal plans, a project prioritization framework based on six community-driven goals, and initial results from a survey of 427 residents. Commissioners asked clarifying questions about specific project types (e.g., unimproved right-of-way), the top-ranking projects, and the upcoming financial analysis. No formal votes were taken, but staff outlined next steps including cost estimates and a financially constrained project list to be presented in September. The meeting also included brief updates on the annual planning commission retreat and the July 21 public hearing on outdoor seating development regulations.
Transportation Master Plan Update (Staff Presentation)
Annual Planning Commission Retreat
Future Meeting Agenda
On oh sorry, no, I didn't automobile pedestrians, bicycles, transit, and shared use mobility hubs. We've prepared a draft transportation project list that I'm going to go over tonight, and we ran an initial draft prior priorization analysis of that project list, which I will highlight tonight. Currently, the team is preparing the outreach series summary report as well as the preliminary draft of the transportation element updates. The project team conducted outreach series three between April 19th and May 16th to share what the city has heard from the community to date and to get feedback on the draft modal plans for walking, biking, taking transit, using shared use mobility hubs and driving in the city. The team also asked for input on the draft priorization metrics and performance measures. The team posted multilingual yard signs in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. We distributed outreach flyers. We ran advertisements in Chinese and Spanish ethnic media to encourage community members to provide their input via an online survey. Lastly, the TMP update page hosted pre-recorded presentations that explain the outreach materials and provided a link to the online survey. Overall, we heard from 427 people that took the survey to engage with underrepresented community members, the project team to play displayed pop-up outreach materials, and comment cards in following places where people could encounter them in their daily lives. We had these displays at Einstein Middle School, Ronald Commons, Richmond Beach Branch Library, the Spartan Recreation Center, the Shoreline Library, and also the Shoreline High School. And the survey asked the public their opinion on whether each plan provided too little, too much, or just the right amount of accommodation for the specified travel mode. Wow, there was a rate a wide range of opinions on the appropriate level of accommodation for each of those modes. As you can see from these barred graphs, most of the survey participants felt that the draft modal plans would provide the right amount of improvements for each mode. To gain the community's input on the priorization process, the survey asked participants how important each of the draft priorities were to them. And this figure shows the aggregated survey results of how the community values each priority. Having clearly defined goals will help the city accomplish the trans its transportation vision. The six goals are safety, equity, multimodality, connectivity, climate resiliency, and climate vibrancy. Each of these have a purpose statement, and these goals were influenced by public input received during the outreach process. On May 24th of 2021, city council agreed with the city staff's recommended TMP vision and goals. Since the city operates within a finite site, excuse me, a finite site of sets. Sorry, let me try again. Since the city needs to operate within a finite set of resources, it is important to develop a transparent, equitable and data-driven process for prioritizing the implementation of transportation projects over the next 20 years. Building on the project goals that I just highlighted in the previous slide. The team assigned a draft point system to the priorization metrics based on council goals, city policies, and public feedback. The intent is to use the priorization metrics to score a list of potential transportation projects to see if they are high, medium, or low priority. Ultimately, the team will use the priorization results to develop a draft financially constrained list of priority projects to be included in the TE and the TMP updates. Becoming an anti-racist community is a council goal that requires taking actionable steps towards equitable outcomes. Over the past several years, the city has reoriented its efforts to seek equity and social justice in Shoreline. And this emphasis is reflected in the approach to the TEE slash TMP updates. From the beginning of the process, discussions about, I mean, among city staff, the public, the planning commission, and the council has focused on equity, including how to move beyond the status quo and ensure that all people, especially those whose needs have been systemically neglected, are well served by the transportation investments identified in the TE and TMP update. This composite map of the draft equity priority areas identifies where underserved communities live in shoreline based on age, income, race, disabilities, and language. The composite map indicates locations where projects may be prioritize to promote equitable access for the people most in need. Let's now review how we developed the draft project list and where we are heading. We started by inventorying the existing street network and where there are trails, sidewalks, bicycle facilities, and transit. We also developed the vision and goals, which we just recapped. That really created a foundation for our process. And then we developed draft modal plans using a complete streets approach to define types of facilities that are needed for all travel modes. Then we identified where there are gaps between the existing network and the vision and goals to create a draft project list and ran it through the priorization process. Next, our work for the summer will be to develop high-level cost estimates of the list of projects and consider what the city can afford over the next 20 years. The team developed a draft project list needed to fulfill the draft automobile, pedestrian, bicycle transit, and shared use mobility hub plans, which were shared with the public during the outreach series three. And overall, there are 175 projects identified in that draft project list. The team grouped the draft projects into the following categories: intersections and multimodal corridors projects. Unimproved right-away, which is city right-away that oftentimes is used as neighbor informal neighborhood paths. The trail along the rail, which is a concept of developing a roughly two and a half mile trail that will parallel the light rail alignment from 145th Street up to 195th Street. Trail connections, so connections, um street connections to our existing and planned trails. One bridge connection for the planned 185th non motorized bridge, as well as shared use mobility hubs. So you'll see those um abbreviations. I believe it was attachment um attachment B of your staff report. Okay, um next the team ran each of the draft projects um on the list through a spatial analysis organized by the six goals safety, equity, multimodality, connectivity, climate resiliency, and community vibrancy.