Okay, welcome everyone to the November 20th, 2025 regular meeting of the Transportation Commission.

Would the Secretary please call roll?

Sure.

Commissioner Ash.

Late.

Commissioner Patch.

Here.

Commissioner Rees.

Here.

Student Commissioner Kirsch.

Absent.

Vice Chair Krelling.

Present.

Chair Brightman.

Present.

Okay.

Moving on to number two.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items not on the agenda.

Under the Brown Act, the Commission cannot act on items raised during public communications but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed, request clarification, or refer the item to staff.

At this time, I will open up this item for public comment.

Do we have any members of the members of the public wishing to comment on items not on the agenda?

We do not.

Okay.

All right.

Then we will move on to item number three, the consent calendar.

Next on the agenda is the adoption of the and I believe it should be July 17th, 2025 meeting minutes.

Do I have a motion for the approval of the minutes from the July 17th, 2025 Commission meeting?

So moved.

So moved if you couldn't hear me.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Okay.

Would the secretary please call roll?

So I'm going to get that moved.

Second.

Student Commissioner.

Oh, he's absent.

Commissioner Ash.

Aye.

Commissioner Patch.

Aye.

Commissioner Reese.

I don't think.

I don't think I was here.

I was.

So I'm going to abstain.

Staying.

Vice Chair Crowling?

Aye.

Chair Brightman.

I.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

We'll move on to item number four.

We have a few items of consideration tonight.

The first is the Walnut Creek BART Station Shared Mobility Hub Project.

At this time, I invite staff to make their presentation.

Hello.

Good evening, Commission members.

My name's Jay Zang, Associate Engineer with Contra Casa Transportation Authority.

Tonight we have an informational item in front of you.

We'll be walking you over of the Walnut Creek Barstation Share Mobility Hub Project.

And I'll also introduce the Innovative 680 program to you as well.

So before we get started, I just want to uh briefly describe what CCTA is.

As maybe some of you don't know what we do.

So CCTA, we plan, fund, and deliver transportation projects in Contra Casa County.

We also manage our half cent uh transportation sales tax.

So the authority also works in partnership with local jurisdictions, transit agencies, regional bodies, and private sector to address congestion, improve mobility and ensure the efficient movement of people and goods in Contra Casa County.

Next slide, please.

Can you have a clicker?

I'm sorry, there's one here.

So tonight's presentation will be uh broken into five topics.

I'll be walking, oh I'll be uh walking through the Innoway 6E program and what is the Share Mobility Hub, and then I'll introduce our consultant to come up here to walk you through the detailed design of the project and also um uh briefly mention the outreach process update that we have and also the next steps.

And so what is the innovative 680 uh program?

Uh the main goal of the program is to alleviate congestion, uh expand mobility options, and enhance travel experience on the 680 corridor.

Uh we are hoping to achieve this goal by implementing multiple uh innovative strategies that can provide uh corridor-wide corridor-wide uh benefits.

And obviously, I want to recognize that uh the program's success uh relies heavily on coordination between all of the agencies in the county, uh including Walnut Creek SAF, who's been participating in project meetings and providing value valuable feedback as well as Barstaff, who's involved in project as well.

And so here's just a brief list of all the agencies that's involved in the program.

And so there are six major strategies under the Innovate680 program.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to go into details of each strategy, but the shared mobility hub is one of the major strategies that we came up with in the county to address the congestion issue on 680.

I think the point that we're trying to make is that the program will be most effective when all of the strategies work together and integrate all the strategies into the 680 corridor.

So what is the shared mobility hub?

Simply put, a shared mobility hub is where all of the or multiple modes of transportation converge and come together.

The benefit of the hub is that it offers a seamless and reliable transfer experience for the hub users.

Additionally, the hub may have amenities that can help it integrate into the surrounding communities.

So how did the Walnut Creek mobility hub come about?

So back in 2024, CCTA conducted, sorry, back in 2023, CCTA conducted a feasibility study that looked at multiple hub location locations along the 680 corridor.

We were able to then identify eight hubs in the corridor, and from that list we narrowed down to three priority corridors that will also serve as the bus stops for the future express bus service that's running from Dublin Pleasanton to Martinez.

And so Walnut Creek Hub is one of the regional hubs because it offers connection to BART transit and other modes of transportation.

The other two hubs are the Martinez on Track Station Hub as well as the Santa Ramon Bishop Ranch Hub.

So in terms of funding for the project, earlier this year in March 2025, CCTA received a mobility hub grant from MTC to fund the design and construction of the project.

We have a very small grant of 3.4 million dollars for this project right now.

In addition, we're also allocating some of the regional measure three money to be used as local match for this project.

So I believe we have $700,000 from ARM3 money, 450,000 of it we're using for environmental, and then the remaining portion we'll be using for construction management.

So our intent original intent with the funding is we wanted to clear the project environmentally, design the project fully, and also deliver a portion of the improvements that are uh that are being proposed.

However, because of the expansion in scope and also cost increases, we're currently working with city staff to identify and prioritize some of the improvements at the site that we wanted to take it to full design and construction instead of doing the whole design.

And so that's why we're here tonight is to seek your input on what you think we should prioritize at the site.

So, yeah, I just want to mention that up front because you will see uh concept plan uh for the mobility hub, but uh we don't have enough funding to deliver every improvement that's being proposed.

And so we're actively working with CSAF to figure out a way to deliver some of the important pieces.

So, yeah, next I'll introduce uh Adam Dankberg from uh Kimblee Horn, our consulting team, who's gonna walk you through uh the concept design of the hub.

Alright, good evening.

Uh Adam Dinkberg with Kimmy Horn.

Uh thanks, Jay, for starting us off.

Um, start with just uh a little bit of background on the uh site.

I think all of you are very familiar with this uh location, but just uh some background.

Um, the latest uh ridership we had when we're putting this together was um a little over 3,000 weekday riders at the BART station.

Um the station is of course not just BART, but also a bus service as well, County Connection, Solano Express, as well as several local shuttles.

The station already has a number of bike racks and lockers.

It has the bus transfer center, the new relatively newish transfer center underneath the South Garage there.

In total, there are over 2,000 parking spaces there, and there is a public restroom available as well.

Um I'm sure many of you are familiar with the uh trans-oriented development that has happened and is happening or will happen at this station.

Uh, it was split into three phases, phases one and two are complete.

Uh they included the parking structure as well as the recent mixed-use development that has occurred on the northern portion of that site.

Phase three is not built.

Uh, that's uh there's a fence there around that portion, and the timing of that is to be determined, but it is notable, just uh as it certainly has influenced our approach to circulation on this site.

Um there's a number of priorities.

We did uh there's been a lot of planning that has happened at this site.

A few years ago, we did a feasibility study for CCTA to look at opportunities and constraints at a number of hubs, including this one, which identified some challenges and opportunities for circulation improvements, and then that has led to this identification of project priorities.

So they include safer walking and biking access to the station from a variety of different directions and portions of the community, improving connections to and from the station, uh specifically looking at taxis and ride hailing services, improved wayfinding and real-time information, both for bus and rail users, improving the public space that is there with some additional opportunities for landscaping, as well as just overall support for improving sustainability of the area.

Obviously, walking and biking access is one portion, but other elements include electric bike charging and then improving uh just in general the first mile, last mile access.

So that was our guidance.

That was uh what uh led us to identify the improvements that I'll touch on in a second.

Um do want to just emphasize all the partnership that has occurred that Jay has alluded to.

Um CCTA has done a great job of engaging the city of Wana Creek, uh BART and CCTA, well, and I mentioned CCTA.

Um and so we have uh worked uh uh quite extensively together within meetings out in the field and meetings uh throughout the way uh to review the improvements identified and address any questions and comments.

Of course, we're still very early on in the concept development process, so a lot of partnerships still to come, but it's been great collaboration with city staff so far.

Okay, so in terms of the concept, there's a lot going on, and it's kind of spread out in a bunch of different directions.

So it can't so as we're a little zoomed out, so I apologize for that, but I think that's just a good sign of all the different improvements that that are uh in all the different ways of approaching the station.

Um so I'll highlight uh several of the key aspects.

Um, one is on Riviera, the uh inclusion of striped bike lanes on Riviera that would run all the way from parkside to a connection to Hillside, basically through the station area.

There's a little short stretch with with bike lanes today, but the idea would be to extend that in both directions.

Um this does require parking loss.

We'll touch on that with some cross sections here in a second.

Um there's a multi-use path that would extend underneath 680 along hillside to connect in.

Doesn't quite go all the way to parkside, but it gets to uh and across the uh Caltrans 24 on-ramp there with an RFB rapid rectangular flashing beacon at the Caltrans On-Ramp location, and that is really to connect uh people to the communities on that side of 680.

There is a pathway that kind of weaves its way back behind there, which connects over to Buena Vista.

Um so there's a way to kind of continue on through the neighborhood there.

Um California, uh we have a class four cycle track included there.

Um that would be a raised cycle track up on the curb, and that would connect between Kringle uh Springle and Ignatio Valley and connect to the bike lanes that exist today on California south of Ignatio Valley.

As part of that improvement, there'll be significant modifications to the Ignatio Valley Road California intersection with removal of the slip lanes, extending the curb, and really slowing vehicle speeds down at that intersection for right turn movements.

And that gives us a lot of space at the corner, the BART station corner of California and YVR.

And so an opportunity to do some really nice placemaking and landscaping there.

We have a rendering I'll show in a few slides there.

There's a taxi and TNC loop in the middle.

That was something that BART has had long planned.

They did the pickup drop-off on Station Way with the recent phase two work, but this would be to provide additional space for pickup drop-off, specifically for taxis and TNCs there.

There's also bike connection there from the California cycle track into the station area.

And then the third major area for improvement is at Oakland Boulevard and the off-ramp there and Ignatio Valley Road.

And so from there, one of the key improvements is to create a new connection from the BART station to the median path that's sort of running underneath BART on Oakland Boulevard towards downtown.

So instead of having to kind of cross all the way around the street, you can go directly across the intersection in a single movement to that path.

And there's some other improvements there, including modifying the existing pork chop there to slow vehicle speeds down and make it safer for pedestrians.

And there's basically when the phase one was built, it was kind of an awkward configuration where if you're entering the parking garage, you go underneath the BART tracks.

Again, I have a rendering that'll better describe this, but basically the modification here is to provide a lot more channel there to slow vehicle speeds down, create more pedestrian space at the station.

So wide variety of improvements you can see here.

There's additional wayfinding improvements as well as additional connection from the station directly to the Ignatio Valley and California intersection, basically improving that existing walkway.

Okay, so a few cross sections.

This shows Riviera.

And so it is Riviera is tight.

It is fairly narrow, but we are able to squeeze in buffer bike lanes and portions and other portion to maintain parking on one side.

So in the top portion, Pringle to short parking would be removed on the west side.

On the Riviera from short to park side parking would be removed on the east side there.

This number three up there is what would be happening underneath the 680 overpass.

So there would be a shared use path on, I guess it'd be the north side there, connecting from the station around underneath the under underpass there.

Right now it's a very wide lane, so basically we'd be just shifting the curb to create that path.

We don't have to lose any travel lanes or anything like that.

And then the last one, this is California.

So this is the class 4 raised cycle track.

Um so you can see here there are is some parking that would be retained in the northbound direction on California, and uh the bike would be behind that.

So it would be sort of parking protected, but the bike would be elevated at curb level.

Um so here's some renderings to help uh better articulate what I tried to explain in words.

So this is the bike connection from the station.

So this is looking towards the station.

You can see the station in the background, and behind you is basically the YVR California intersection.

Um so right now you can see the image on top.

Um, there is a walkway, a covered walkway there.

There's fence on both sides.

Um, that fence area is the phase three TOD development.

So the idea would be to move the fence on one side and it and basically create a space for cyclists to use that currently unused former roadway.

There used to be bus bays there, that's why you see the sawtooth curb, and it is concrete, and so basically the bikes could just use that space instead of crammed into that really narrow area that exists today that's shared with pedestrians.

This is the California YVR intersection, it's kind of a bird's eye view, sort of YVR is kind of on the top left there.

Uh California is running on the bottom.

So up top, there's that pergola there that exists today.

The idea is that would be removed, the landscaping would be redone, and we'd have a new ramp connecting from that corner of that intersection up towards that walkway, which we just saw on the last slide.

So there'd be a new uh the staircase would generally remain, um, but there'd be this new accessible ramp uh that can be used for cyclists as well as pedestrians.

One note is that the phase three development will be coming in here, so at some point in time they may be modifying this area.

So we wanted to keep the improvements so that we weren't having a bunch of throwaway uh work there, but something that um would provide a lot of benefits in the in the interim.

And then when the phase three development comes in, you know, it may or may not modify this configuration.

Uh next one is at Oakland and Ignatio Valley.

So the parking garage, the new parking garage is what you see in the lower left there.

Um BART, we kind of hid from view, uh just because it would block everything, and that runs kind of um top left to lower right on the screen.

Um so here you can see uh significant reduction, just the amount of asphalt there, uh creating a lot more pedestrian bicycle space.

Um we're essentially maintaining the vehicle lanes, but reconfiguring them to create that bicycle and pedestrian space, and it allows us to have that direct connection across the intersection in a way with uh without significantly affecting traffic at that intersection.

Not depicted in the modifications of that pork chop.

Um it's kind of just off the screen, but we would also be modifying that port chop to slow the vehicle speeds, and that's for the turn from Hillside onto Oakland.

Um kind of think that covers that.

And then one more improvement which I haven't touched on yet is uh one of the things we're looking at is really the path of travel uh for people transferring between BART and buses, because a big part of mobility hubs is about creating those seamless connections between different modes, and so one of the challenges with the current configuration is there's a lot of things in the way.

You can't see where you're going.

Um it's it's not obvious what that path of travel is if you're not an everyday user.

Um so there's uh existing ticket vending machines, there's some kind of awkward seating in the way, and so the idea would be to clean that up, replace the seating, provide some information kiosks and and wayfinding signage there, and create that more intuitive path of travel uh between the fair gates and the bus area.

Okay, that's the quick summary of improvements.

I'll uh a couple more slides and then looking forward to your questions.

Um so we have been conducting public engagement.

Uh, we started a few weeks ago.

Um we've been out at the farmers market, a couple farmers' markets um actually uh we're going to the uh the one uh just out here uh this coming Sunday.

Um so look forward to seeing folks out there.

Um we did uh a food distribution pop-up earlier today.

Um so we have an online survey uh that is collecting feedback on these improvements.

Um the uh we have some this is just some of the collateral we have.

Uh we have almost 400 survey responses.

Maybe we pass that number uh by by the time I'm speaking here, but only a few more days left in the survey.

Um we're planning on closing the survey on November 24th, so just a few days away.

So encourage folks if you haven't taken the survey to go online and to do so.

And uh then just to close.

Uh, this is the overall uh project timeline.

Um so you can see we're um you know we've been working on this for a little while, but there's still plenty to go.

We are at just initial concept development, 10% design at this point.

Um we are uh underway on the environmental analysis and and have that expect to complete that in the next couple months.

Um we'll be incorporating the community feedback, and as Jay mentioned, sorting through the phase one uh design that we'll then advance over the course of 2026.

Um with that, I don't know if we got any final remarks, Jay.

Otherwise, uh happy to answer any questions.

Okay, thank you for that um presentation, a lot of information in short time there.

Um, do any of our commissioners have any questions for our presenters?

Looks like, yes.

Um, should we start uh with down at the end?

You make me start.

You don't have to, I can start this direction.

I just had one question.

If you could go back to the cross sections for Riviera, you said parking was on one side, I thought for your first cross section, but it looks like there isn't parking.

So I just wanted to confirm if you're removing on-street parking between Pringle and Short Street.

Total or the cross section shows there's no parking.

Yeah, so so this portion between Pringle and short shorts, this little one right here.

So this stretch right now has parking on the west side that would be removed.

There would be no parking that would remain for the portion north of short.

There's parking at both sides today.

The parking on the east side would be removed, the parking on the west side would remain.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Okay.

Commissioner Ash.

Um going back to Oakland.

Did um is there a staircase going over the intersection, or was it just intersections?

It's hard to totally see.

Yeah, uh no elevated crossing of Oakland if that's the question.

Yes.

Uh no, it would be an at grade crossing.

And then are there uh and I don't know if somebody from the city of Walnut Creek needs to answer this one, is there developer fees that are still to come in that could be up at that third phase that could be applied to making up the balance here?

Do we know not know anyone?

I always need to make some ADAR come up.

Hello, Smidar Boardman, City Engineer.

Um so for phase three, um the that project currently has like their entitlements.

They're in that planning phase.

Um whether or not they're gonna stick to those entitlements, still sort of we'll see what happens, but we don't collect those fees until um issuance of building permits.

So that's in several years.

Um so basically when it's ready for they're like seriously con they're gonna construct um the building.

Um the other piece here is that uh there's been several state laws that have passed recently around developer fees that we're able to collect.

Um any kind of just you know, as a heads up, these are traffic impact fees, and so anything that is related to affordable housing, we don't actually collect any traffic impact fees on.

So there could be a component of this project or phase three that that has that.

So, thanks.

Can I ask a follow-up?

Um, so you said they have their entitlements.

So do they have site plans and so the the pedestrian and bicycle um kind of gateway going through the middle of the site that's uh fits within their proposal, or I had heard Adam say that it might change and this might be temporary.

Yeah.

So there uh the uh site plan that they got entitlements on does not align that they move that pathway.

Um and so that was one of the ideas of let's come up with an improvement that is very low cost that provides benefit before that project moves forward.

They may I mean they may change their site plan, they may not.

So um yeah, we wanted something that would work, you know, in the interim.

But um, yeah, their current site plan realigns the pathway a little bit.

Okay, and then my next question is what are the goals of well, I'm probably asking that wrong.

I n I get what the goals are.

Um how would you can like look into the future and say five years after this is done, we've achieved X and we're thrilled in that.

What is X?

Um so as I mentioned earlier, the hub serves as a bus stop for the express bus service.

Um I think um one of the ways that we'll measure success for the site is to measure the ridership uh for the express bus, measure the congestion on 680 corridor uh when the whole program goes live.

Um so that's a couple ways that we can measure the success.

Um and the other side uh at the hub location is to do pre and post construction surveys to see uh if people are shifting out of their cars to see if there's more access from the bicycle and pedestrian side.

Uh so that's a couple ways that we can measure uh okay thanks.

All right.

Commissioner Patch.

Um I have a question about this one.

Looking at it, the people coming from the right bottom corner, which I guess is Oakland Boulevard.

How many people are making that connection?

Like is it a lot or people on the path basically using the Oakland path?

That yeah, there would be that new path that you're uh proposing.

Yeah, so the path exists today.

Uh right.

Uh, so we're just creating the new crossing.

Um, I would have to pull up the number.

Uh I don't know off the top of my head.

There definitely it does get use, but I would have to pull that.

So you know?

So I don't have the number off the top of my head, but this actually is a very popular pathway.

Um kind of boulevard way, that pocket of county.

Um we have a lot of bikers that come through there and they take Oakland Boulevard up, and then that connects to this pathway here, and then they can connect to BART.

So it's actually a very popular path for that side of town.

Thank you.

That's what I was looking for.

And then um, can you go back to the diagram that shows all of the um this might be for our staff and not you?

But on this proposed bike lane section on California Boulevard, does it end up connecting to existing bike lanes?

Because I know that there's like some in that area and then they disappear.

So is that just like connecting existing ones?

So um south of Ignatio, there are existing bike lanes.

Um they are just class two in road bike lanes, and then on the north side there, we do have some facilities on Pringle, um, some long-term improvements, they do have the bike lanes extending further north.

Okay, so people that would be taking this to get to the transit station instead of Riviera would be coming from Ignacio, you think?

So, yeah, if you're um, so I guess the question is if you're coming kind of from the south from downtown, what is your path of travel and how you okay?

Sure.

Yeah, yeah.

So we do have bike lanes on California.

So this would feed those existing bike lanes would feed into this intersection.

If they're going north towards BART, they would continue through the intersection and use that mid-block crossing that we have marked here, and then the reverse is they would kind of take that path and then continue south along California.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation.

Um, since this project is connected to the high speed bus up and down 680, this is a big picture question.

Are there any even super long range plans for rail down the corridor?

Or is that just a non-starter question?

Yeah, so the express bus, I believe it came about um from a feasibility, not uh a rail gap uh study that was conducted by the state.

So it's actually one of the solutions that was pro proposed um to fill in that rail gap.

So I don't think there's a concrete plan to to have rail in this corridor.

Okay.

Yeah, rail would be awesome there.

Um goal of this project is gonna bring, if it works, more people to this BART station and all the extra transportation modes there.

Um, are we thinking anything about having appropriate security for all the people who are gonna be using this area?

Is that get covered in this project or is that on the BART station police or where would that fit in?

Yeah, it's I mean, it's not part of this project.

I mean, BART owns the property and is responsible for the security, so um anything on site would be on them.

Okay.

Next question, um, parking costs.

So right now you've got a reasonable charge to if you drive and get on BART.

Any conversation or thinking of is if someone's gonna drive their car there to get on the bus to avoid driving 680, say to Pleasanton?

Same cost of parking and uh BART parking fee is something different.

Is there any concept around that?

Yeah, I'm not aware.

I don't think um in terms of drive access to the express bus, I don't think the if that you know they haven't gotten to that point of figuring out the pricing.

Okay, yeah.

Um, this is from vague memory of looking on Riviera Drive at a different project in the past.

Is there some there's some residential on Riviera?

Yes.

So my question then is has there been any kind of impact study with the parking reduction on Riviera, any noticeable impact to the residents that may be using that for themselves or for their guests.

Uh and the reason we actually did keep parking on the west side was because that's where the residential is.

So yeah, that was uh that was sort of intentional to maintain that parking that stretch.

So where there is the residential frontage on the west side, there is parking.

Um there is some additional residential, I believe on the east side too, but there's pretty limited spaces there.

Yeah, okay, thanks.

And then I'm almost done.

Is there any thinking about covered walkways, pathways?

And when I say covered, um, so you're protected from the rain, because probably one of the most miserable things when you're going from one mode to another, transferring say from the bus to the BART or back and forth and dealing with the rain.

Um, any thoughts about that in the plans?

Well, the the connection to the YV intersection has the canopy today, so that would remain.

Um, that's the in terms of sort of on-site pathways, that's really the modification now.

You we aren't adding any other new on-site pathways, most of the other additions are at intersections.

Um, so it's a good question, but yeah, we aren't really adding anything new there.

Last question: the new charging stations for cars and the bicycles, fee-based or free.

Um, well, there is a charge for bike parking.

Um, so I think I would assume there would be a charge for the charging as well.

Um, so note that this project includes uh bike charging.

Um there, you know, the mobility hub concept does include additional charging infrastructure for vehicles, uh, but that is BART has a special program uh for vehicle charging, so that's that's in their purview.

Okay.

Those are my questions, thanks.

All right, uh student commissioner, do you have any questions and welcome by the way?

I don't have any questions.

Okay.

Uh I have a couple.

Um in looking at this, the the top right, um, the real-time travel information signs.

I see that there are a few of those sparkled throughout.

Would you mind touching on what those are?

Yes, happy to do so.

Um so these are signs that would have information on next train arrival or next bus arrival.

Um, there's a couple different types of signs that we're envisioning.

Some would be a little larger, some would be a little smaller.

Um MTC has developed regional wayfinding guidelines, so the actually format of these is fairly well defined.

Um the idea would be, you know, figuring out where to place them.

Um, and so we've identified a few spots.

I think I would expect these to be refined as the uh design advances, but the general idea would be um, you know, close to the Fairgates in the bus area, kind of on the main access paths to show people like you know, do I have to run to that next train or the next bus or do I have some time?

And so that's the general idea.

Would kind of have a listing of all those uh transit services and when their next uh departure would be.

Okay, fantastic.

Thank you.

Um and then you had a number on one of the slides that there are 3,000 plus something riders a day coming in and out of this station as of August 2025.

Um and we're I think still trying to rebuild ridership.

Um will this uh help expand capacity?

And if so to what, or will it just accommodate maybe what we were at when we were at peak capacity before?

Well, so these improvements don't really change capacity.

I mean, the goal is to change demand, right?

To increase demand because people feel like it's easier to get to the BART station, they don't have to pay for parking because they can walk and bike, or it's easier to get dropped off there, that sort of thing.

So the goal is this is a potential tool to help BART get back to that previous ridership level by overcoming some of those barriers to access.

Um, so yeah, it's it's hopefully there's a motivator towards that, but um, you know, it's hard to say like exactly how many more people are gonna use the train because of these improvements, but it certainly will hopefully help drive additional ridership.

And uh that includes um capacity of buses will also not change.

That's right, yeah.

So we're not touching the bus area other than the wayfinding and real-time information signage.

Um, you know, the bus area is pretty new, um, and it's also in the privately operated garage, um, so there's some hurdles to modifying that.

Um, so yeah, there's no changes to the bus area.

Okay, thank you for clarifying that.

Uh, any other questions from commissioners before I move to public comment?

Okay.

All right.

Uh, this time I'll open up this item for public comment.

Uh, do we have any members of the public wishing to comment on this item?

Looks like there's one.

Um if you'll if you want to make public comment, please fill out your speaker card.

Thank you very much.

Right.

Uh you'll have two minutes to provide your public comment.

Um well, first of all, I'm thrilled to see uh improvements being proposed for the bar station to encourage ridership, uh, bicycling, walking, um, busing, that type thing.

I think I think that's great.

Um, maybe it'll correspond a little bit to the 9.2 million dollars that may be spent for the Oakland Boulevard improvement.

Um hillside um intersection with a westbound state route 24 on ramp.

I'm a little concerned about would bicyclists actually take the time to go through that intersection and is that really going to be a safety improvement?

So I hope that's looked at uh even more carefully um than the proposal.

Um the hillside cross section shows uh a bike path uh that will be added to uh multi-use bike path.

I'm wondering if that's gonna end up being used as a two-way bicycle path to get from that community over by Buena Vista that's gonna uh encourage bicycles to go two ways to get to BART at least.

So that's something that should be looked at to maybe make that um sidewalk widening even wider to accommodate people who want to do that, and that wouldn't uh require some little bit of a uh playing around with um access at the um BART property itself.

Um Riviera.

Um I'm wondering about um using station way.

Um if I remember correctly, the map showed um a sort of a bicycle facility going by the in the um where the bus station is bus stops are rather than station way.

So considering using station way instead would also get them more directly to the um the fair gates.

Um the um what is it the north downtown specific plan back um about a couple years ago now was proposing some improvements to California and further um north, and I'm wondering if that uh specific plan is is no longer in existence or if that's gonna be used to um and reflect the changes that are being proposed there.

So there's um compatibility between the two.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Um and that might be good clarification for us too.

If staff can touch on if that the Buena Vista path is going to be um a two-way path for transportation.

Uh sort of the hillside connection underneath 680 would be two-way.

Okay, thank you.

And next, thank you for being here.

You have two minutes.

Thank you.

Hi, Jan Warren from the Woodlands.

I support the project.

Um, I'm curious about two things.

One, the Oakland Boulevard new walkway and where the traffic lights are.

Seems like you stop once and you don't, there's not another light, you just get in the left lane to go down uh Oakland Boulevards.

I'm just wondering about the traffic light.

It's and um do you just make it longer or the other question has to do with bicycles?

Um, are we targeting these mostly for people who want to ride their bike and put it on BART?

I mean, are we seeing more people doing that, taking it with them?

They've got all these great neat little things that they can use and they're electrified or whatever, and and then take it off where they're going.

Or if not, um, what's the status of safe places to keep our bike so when you come back your bike is still there?

Uh the last comment is about cycle track.

Is that simply just a special term for uh some sort of pavement in which bicycles ride on uh or or are any of the new mobility bikes?

I'm just not familiar with the term.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioners, do any of you need clarification on any of what she just brought up?

Okay, I just want to make sure we're good, and if staff can follow up with her questions, that would be appreciated.

Thank you.

All right.

Um, so now we were good.

We'll go to um comments from commissioners.

Sure.

Um, can we um go to the concept plan?

Um, and I guess uh I think this is overall, I think this is a great project.

Um it's one of the difficulties with this station is that it is so challenging if you're riding a bike.

Walking's okay, but if you're riding a bike, it's really difficult to actually get into the station.

Uh it's not clear.

Um a couple things that um I think I'd like to have uh the team consider.

Um Riviera, there is a triangular uh apartment building there that's just to the I guess that would be to the south of Short Street.

I, and there's two um single family homes there.

I don't think that project has uh much on street on-site parking.

I'm not I saw it go up in construction, I didn't see a lot of parking with it, and I guess I would encourage uh CCTA to reach out to that particular building uh because that parking is used on the street, um, and they also have a loading zone uh for their for their property, and so I'd encourage that to be looked at and considered.

Um I think that the uh phase three development uh does it sounds like it's fluid a little bit, the phase three residential development, and I appreciate that uh CCTA is trying to develop something in the interim uh to get bikes up into the station, which is which is great and it's definitely needed.

Um of the things that I would consider as an alternative that you might be able to do that's a little bit more permanent, is um the uh the first the first elevation on Ignatio Valley Road.

Uh you have the sidewalk, and then there's a retaining wall, and then you have a tiered system going up.

Um that that first tier uh you have the um uh the elevations are reasonably appropriate to be able to bring a uh class one bike facility or class four bike facility, which is a basically a bike path separated from automobile traffic.

You would you would have the ability to put a bike path on that first tier.

And it lines up pretty well with the um little plaza and the pergola at YVR in California.

And it also, because it's elevated, it actually uh looks like it can be designed, especially since you're getting rid of that funky entrance to the parking garage.

Um it looks like it could be designed to actually go directly into the bicycle uh storage area.

The benefit of doing that is that it sets the um outer boundary for the residential, um, because you'd have the sidewalk, then you'd have it tiered up, and then you'd have the class four bike lane.

And that would be more likely to not then have to get relocated.

Um, one of the concerns I have with just putting in a temporary one down the middle of the site is that the developer is gonna want to move their project.

And it's it's okay to shift it a little bit for pedestrians.

You can kind of make it meandering and make it work reasonably well, but it becomes a little bit more painful if you're having a bicyclist trying to wind through uh the middle of a residential development.

And so I would encourage CCTA to look at shifting that bike lane and making it more permanent to the I guess to the south along the Ignatio Valley Road road frontage.

Um I think that would be a better use of dollars because then you wouldn't have throwaway costs.

It's a great design because the the Oakland Boulevard coming off the freeway has a really high volume of right turning traffic.

It overwhelms the intersection.

And the beauty of this design is that the bicyclists and the pedestrians in that cycle track in that in that facility that's crossing Oakland Boulevard, they would be able to cross at the same time as the right turning traffic because there's no conflict.

And the benefit of that is that one of the problems with that intersection is that everybody has to sit and wait.

Pedestrians, bicyclists cars, when that right turning traffic is going.

And it's it's super heavy and difficult to manage.

And this would allow the bikes and the pedestrians to access Oakland Boulevard at the same time as that right turn movement, which is a huge benefit.

And so out of all this part of the project, that's probably the one that is gonna have the greatest value from a comfort and delay perspective for bicyclists.

Um and I guess then I I've just reiterate that I'm super happy to see that we're we're putting in separated bikeways, class four bikeways on North California Boulevard.

We're setting the stage for what can continue north and south of the project per the specific the downtown specific plan.

Um so thank you for for doing this and look forward to see it get further developed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Ash.

Yeah, so great work on this and love the concept of the shared mobility hubs, but not just making it one location uh up and down the 680 as part of a plan.

Um if I recall correctly, in the beginning, you said uh that we would need to cut some costs just because everything can't get done.

Um so one two two small things that I would look at in here.

I love all the bike lanes.

I don't want to touch the bike lanes, I think they're important, and I and I think that will help increase bike users to the BART.

I don't think we need 20 uh if we're looking to cut cost, I don't know what a cost of an electric bike charging station is, but 20 seems like a lot because the average um electric bike is like 25 miles plus on a charge.

And I feel like within 25 miles, there's another station that might be closer to people.

Maybe if you're all the way out in Blackhawk, we're we're pushing it, but those be a station for them.

And then the real-time travel information signs.

I'm all about the wayfinding, uh, but on the real-time travel signs, I get one or two, but our smartphones are doing a good job, and I got to imagine you know, fast forward five years, that'll just increase that information too.

So it's just a simple ways, I think, where we can cut some cost.

And the other thing I will point out, and some of the city staff has heard me to do, heard me bring this up before, um, and I'll bring it up in our topic on Oakland Boulevard also, just to make my point, is when you make the left from Ignacio onto Oakland Boulevard.

Three times in the last year, I have seen a car accidentally cut that left turn short.

And that means that they end up on that raised sidewalk pedestrian bicycle lane.

And doing something in the front to make it more obvious that it's there.

That is a blind sort of corner, and you couldn't see if a pedestrian happened to be right there.

And I think that is just dangerous, and something can happen tomorrow where somebody gets killed right there.

And so I just want to emphasize that point here and please put that into this design.

Thanks.

Um, yes, thank you for this.

Glad to see it in the early stages.

Um I also will kind of be focusing on what you asked us, which is priorities, so that if you need to cut costs, you have ideas.

I think the three intersection improvements, I know you didn't go into details, but those are three intersections that are confusing.

So leaving those in the project and making them safer is going to be really important.

Um particularly the one with the weird triangle by Pringle and California.

Um, and then I agree that that left turn onto Oakland is um not great.

So safety elements to that intersection will be a huge improvement.

Um I echo that five real-time travel signs seems like a lot, uh, especially because most of the time people are gonna be there, they've already planned.

They're gonna they're just gonna be there until the bus shows up.

It's a little late at that point, or that the BART train shows up.

Um, so maybe cut a couple of those.

Um I would switch some of the electric charging for the lockers, because I think that's more helpful for people who are commuting, because they'll leave their bikes behind and get on BART stations where I don't think people really do that necessarily with the charging stations, and also most people can make it to and from their house on a single bike charge.

Um it's not like people are using it the same way that they do EV um charging stations.

I would also say if you do have to cut one of the bike lanes, which I hope you don't in terms of cost, that the changes on Oakland Boulevard in California are more important than the Riviera um class two bike lane, just from a standpoint of how many people are using them and the vehicle traffic that bikers have to contend with.

Thanks.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Thank you.

Um I think my fellow commissioners did a great job on helping you with priorities.

Um so I'm gonna hit two different points where based upon your answers to my questions, you're not directly responsible or it's not in the in the project, but you still have influence.

Um, so just really asking you to be influential with the other parties as much as possible.

Um again is just security.

And we talked a little bit earlier about you know, trying to get BART ridership up and you know, security issues, whether real or only perceived, partially contributes to BART ridership being down or people wanting to use mass transit or go to a large place like a large um shared mobility hub.

Um and then the other thing is I talked about parking for trying to attract automobiles to come to the station to then get on the express bus.

Because I think you're gonna get with this plan, you're gonna get a certain number of people, a certain increase of people getting on their bicycles to come.

Like people who are gonna walk there live awfully close to the BART station.

I don't know that we'll get more people walking from further away.

Bicycles and e-bikes who get people from further away.

But if I try to think about the larger strategic imperative that this project fits into, which includes that, you know, rapid transit bus up and down the 680 corridor, the more cars you can get to drive to this BART station and park and hop on that bus and keep them off of 680, is a big impact in terms of, you know, less pollution, less traffic, less people on the roads, etc.

So those are my comments.

Thanks.

All right.

Uh, student commissioner, did you have any comments?

Um, yeah, so I agree with everything that's been said, and I'm excited to see this project um become a reality.

That's it.

Thank you.

Um, I'll just say thank you for the presentation.

This is a big project, a big undertaking.

Um, I agree with most of what my commissioners have uh fellow commissioners have shared so far.

Um, I will be an outlier and say I like the travel information signs.

I mean, train times change, and to have it in my face rather than having to look at my phone, I think is really helpful.

Um, and I'm I feel like I'm constantly running for trains, and if there's one in two minutes and I can run and not have to wait for a long headway, I'm gonna run for it.

So I I like those.

Um I I also agree on um public safety um uh concerns.

Um we talk a lot about placemaking on the Transportation Commission as well with a lot of our projects, and I think that's something uh important to take into consideration.

And I know you have that to a certain extent with landscaping and stuff like that, um, but maybe there are revenue generating opportunities such as bringing in vendors or doing um evening um or morning um mini farmers markets or something like that, um, or they can be revenue generating as well to help with the costs.

But um that's all I have to say.

Thank you for this.

All right, I'll move on.

Anything else?

Okay.

All right, we're gonna move on to item B.

Um, this is an item for consideration the downtown curbside management plan.

Um, I look forward to hearing where we've ended up on this.

We've heard about this a lot at our commission meetings, and I now invite staff to make their presentation.

Yeah, so good evening.

Um, my name is Brianna Byrne.

I'm an associate traffic engineer at the city, and with me tonight to present our final curbside management plan is Terrence Jow with Fair and Pears.

So for tonight's um discussion, it's gonna be a very, very quick overview of what's in this plan, what are the plan chapters, and how each one of these chapters ties back to those previous presentations we had.

We're not looking to do a deep dive into those, so if any viewers are curious about those chapters specifically, I'd recommend going back to those um transportation commission meetings.

So very, very high overview of the data findings, our plan goals, the recommendations, and then these next two are kind of the changes that have been done since we last presented and got feedback from Transportation Commission as well as feedback from council.

So what is this plan?

Uh, when we started it, the goal was to set data driven standards to optimize our curb space, um, by balancing the sometimes competing needs of parking, loading, pedestrian facilities, bike facilities, infrastructure, placemaking, accessibility, safety, and accessibility for all.

So this QR code, um, it'll take you to the plan, but the chapters we have laid out, and then again where you can find information and the TC presentations.

So we have background and introduction, parking inventory, occupancy and duration data.

Both of those were in our March 2025 meeting.

Chapters three and four, they cover kind of the existing city parking policies as well as MTC's Metropolitan Transportation Commission's transit oriented communities policy compliance.

So those are two kind of just chapters that cover what we have going on policy-wise for the city and the area.

Chapter five, community and stakeholder engagement.

That was our May TC meeting.

We have since done more community engagement.

So there is some additional information in there, like our survey findings.

And then chapter six is the recommendations, and so we presented that to TC July 17th, and then we had a study session at City Council on September 2nd.

So the data takeaways, um, the photo on the right, this is the larger study area where the color red, where you see red, this is where the block face uh we had parking occupancies over our stated goal.

So this is where it can be challenging to find an available parking space.

Green, yale, you're not gonna have any problem.

We also included some parking garages, and those are the solid squares within the study area, and that was to get an understanding of what was happening both on street and off street.

So based on this data collection, the finding was we have plenty of space downtown, it's in our garages, it's not on our streets.

There is some available capacity outside of the core downtown, but within that shaded area, there's a lot of demand, and it makes sense.

This is where all the land uses are.

So looking at plan goals.

So as we started kind of engaging with our stakeholders and putting together solutions, we wanted to make sure they they all fell in line with what we wanted for the plan.

So starting from left to right, we first have the bike and pet safety.

So we want to ensure that pets and bikes could get to from and around downtown safely and comfortably, sustainability, advanced sustainability through mode shift, and reduce that vehicle miles traveled, placemaking, it's the purple with kind of the family and the fountain.

So use placemaking to enhance downtown's walkability and charm, and then the fairness and accessibility, consider users of all ages, physical abilities, and economic standing to ensure downtown is conveniently accessible.

Then we have manage commercial loading, so where we have the red there and the dolly.

So manage commercial loading to make freight and deliveries more orderly, efficient, and produce less conflict, and then enhance downtown's economic vitality as a top retail destination for the region, and then lastly, kind of just because this is a curbside management plan, manage parking demand, reduce the demand for street parking, and the difficulty that finding street parking and yeah, and reduce the difficulty finding the parking and improve arrival experience.

So we're gonna go over the recommendations very very briefly.

Again, we covered this in a previous presentation, but we have recommendations that go over curbside loading and pickup, and if there's any questions about these, we can always toggle back, and then we had a recommendation to address merchant parking specifically for the vehicles.

We heard a lot about how our downtown businesses or no place for our their employees to park.

Transit and pedestrian spaces, traffic safety.

So again, this is in line with our local roadway safety plan and our vision zero policy, and then uh the bicycle facilities, and then for the street parking, wayfinding, and branding.

Um, I will read what we are proposing as part of this, so improve instructions on the meters and signage.

Um, just within the last couple months, we've already done some of this.

Um, we have a single head meter at a lot of our spaces, so there's a left and a right.

Um, we've since done an update where the screen for the entire process will tell you you're paying for the left one or the right one.

So if by any chance you accidentally click the wrong one, you're now gonna know before you get to that payment stage.

Install and enhance wayfinding to direct visitors to the garages on the perimeter of downtown, and then enhance the city garage atmosphere.

So, what has changed?

So, based on the feedback that we got from city council as well as transportation commission, the recommendation to raise the meter rates in that core downtown area as well as extending the meter hours, that's been removed from the recommendation.

The plan does have like just a follow-up investigation.

So we we and I'll get to it, but we have a kind of an action plan.

So it's as we roll this out, just ongoing monitoring.

Is this working, and go from there.

So, and then based on the feedback as well, we remove the recommendation for a staffed bicycle repair station, and then there's a lot of um we hear a lot of feedback kind of about um scooter usage and and e-bikes, true e-bikes, and so we just added some clarification within the report, kind of just there's a current demand downtown for these type of devices.

So let's make sure our facilities can accommodate them, and then expanding the implementation strategy.

So as we went through each one of these recommendations, we got a lot of this is great, but how are we gonna move forward?

What are the next steps?

And so we kind of broke the recommendations into two categories: the five-year action plan, and then kind of the infrastructure policy opportunistic chances.

So underneath that five-year action plan, this is stuff that staff can do in-house or funding.

We think funding can be available and we can get done.

So loading, curbside pickup, that merchant parking program, transit um improvements and downtown activation for the curb, think um, placemaking and outdoor dining, programmatic and opportunistic safety improvements.

So if like a CIP or development project is coming in, where possible we can tie in safety improvements, bicycle parking, and funded new bikeways.

We have several funded bikeways coming through downtown, so we can we can get those done in the five years, and then that parking way finding branding on the policy side.

So this you know, additional bikeways outside of what's already been done, larger capital bus stop improvements and pedestrian infrastructure, and then again opportunistic, continue to implement vision zero where possible, and then at the bottom, the as needed, like there is just going to be an ongoing evaluation to make sure this is working and we're moving in the kind of direction that we want to be moving.

So now moving to our plan.

So, this is an example of one of our recommendations.

So, using the example of improving wayfinding, right below that, we have some high-level details going to the right side here.

There are sub-recommendations, and each one of these are numbered.

So while the overall recommendation is to improve wayfinding, there are two sub-recommendations.

So, you know, place additional specific signage at major arterials and explore coordination with mapping providers to route visitors to garages.

So those are kind of just like the action items.

So it's improved wayfinding, how here's here's one and here's two.

And then for each one of our recommendations, we have that same plan goals graphic, but where this recommendation would meet those plan goals, those colors pop.

So the idea is it really emphasizes how this recommendation ties back to those plan goals.

And then as we get into kind of that action plan, we list all of the recommendations at the table at the end with those sub-recommendation numberings, and again, those high-level details are laid out and kind of just the summary of the summary project timeline.

So we started the data collection in the fall of 24.

Um, this is our fourth presentation to you all, and so the next step and the recommended action for tonight is recommend the city council the adoption of the City of Walnut Creek's curbside management plan, and we're looking to if if that recommendation or if the action is taken, taking this to council next month, and then lastly, before opening up for questions, um, the acknowledgements for this, this was a huge effort, and all of it was through a grant from MTC Metropolitan Transportation Commission and our consultant team.

As you can see, a lot of a lot of work went into this.

Um, so Fair and Piers prepared the plan.

We had incredible support from Winter who did our outreach, and then all of that incredible data collection was done with Dixon Resources Unlimited.

With that, I will take questions.

Okay.

Any questions from commissioners?

Commissioner Reese?

Um I think just uh one question.

You mentioned the recommendation is the per merchant parking program.

Is that um the idea of trying to restructure how the permits are uh we we talked about at one of the previous meetings about how some of the outer areas are really underutilized and that might be a good opportunity to increase permits.

So is the merchant parking program is that part of that?

So it's something it's it's reevaluating, so it's nothing we've you know taken off um the plate.

It's just one caveat to that is um there are a lot of private garages that we kind of have our eye on that space-wise, capacity-wise, there's more space in these garages than say even on street in those areas.

So it's like we want to get people there.

Is it the employees?

Do we want the employees in the garages?

It's all kind of just part of that big, like where are we trying to move the desired population?

So you're gonna study it.

Yeah, so the the kind of the two steps that we're looking at doing.

So talking about those private garages, um, the city act as a conduit between those those private private garages, and then we have a lot of connections with the downtown businesses.

Figure out which one of these garages are open to creating kind of that shared parking agreement and then connecting them with the businesses.

Um as a user type, the employees, it's always nice, it's nicer if they know exactly where to go.

Right.

So it's like that it's kind of that match made in heaven.

So that's kind of the direction we would take first.

Yeah, and that takes some time.

So I understand that.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I had.

Commissioner Ash.

Just questions now?

Questions right now, yeah.

I'm getting okay.

Commissioner Patch, nothing.

Vice Chair Quilling.

I was just gonna say I have no questions because you did such a great job on the prior presentation.

So thank you.

Same.

And student commissioner Kirsch, do you have any questions?

You're good.

Okay, no questions?

All right.

Um, then moving on, um, we'll open this item up for public comment.

Do we have any members of the public who wish to comment on this item?

Looks like we have one.

Thank you.

You have two minutes.

Yes.

Um yeah, I think it's a great project with all the uh recommendations made.

I'd like to focus on recommendation nine on page 24 that talks about improving the bicycle network.

It mentioned recommending some uh um high stress quarters that could become low stress quarters, for example, the east-west streets of Civic Drive.

Um, that's something that has been in the plan, bicycle master plan for probably 30 years, and nothing's been done.

It would require most likely uh eliminating some on-street parking.

So I know that would be a challenge in the this year's consideration, but it I think it should be at least considered if the city wants to be serious about improvements like that.

Also sort of getting back to the uh again east-west connection, but to the uh the BART plan that was just discussed, um trying to improve access to BART for bicycles.

One way to do that that um is a favorite of mine is to have a uh two-way bike path going from the iron horse trail to the BART station and have that all occur on the north side of Ignacio Valley, similar to what's already there on Cal between California and Main Street.

The beauty of that is that if that's something that the city would ever consider uh in dealing with the um the property developers at the time, uh but then that would require an improvements to the intersection uh that are being considered at Ignatio in California to sort of jive with those.

So um I hope something like that can be considered if not for civic, then Ignition Valley Road.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Seeing no other comments, um, we'll open it up to comments from commissioners.

Commissioner Reese, comments?

Yeah.

So I I like the fact that you have a lot of recommendations and it you're well, I guess I should should first say thank you for the presentation.

Um you have a lot of recommendations, and uh you've bucketed bucketed them nicely, which is great.

Um, and I think that when those are done, you're gonna have a lot of you're gonna have a lot of cleanup in downtown, it's gonna things are gonna work a little more smoothly and that sort of thing.

But um in looking at the recommendations, I think it's gonna be difficult to um drive uh some of the complaints that we hear about there's not available parking on the street, uh I can't find a parking space um on the street.

It's that's the focus.

And I think that without um without doing some adjustments to parking rates, you're gonna always be challenged with that uh situation, uh, because people are looking for convenient parking, and um if the price is just at a at an average level, they're gonna always focus on the convenience, and you really need to consider parking pricing as a way to incentivize people to say, well, my convenience to park right in front is not that important.

I'm gonna park in the parking garage.

And so at some point, um, I think the city's gonna have to deal with that issue.

I understand that there's the opposite from uh from the public's perspective of well, parking costs are too high, and so I'm just not gonna come to downtown.

Um, but I would say that we've heard that since parking was almost free in downtown, and we still have an abundance of people coming to downtown even though pricing has increased over the years.

Um the other is that uh, and this is uh a little bit we heard in one of the previous presentations somebody or there were some issues with people coming to dinner at you know five or six o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock, and they are unable to find a parking space.

And um what we learned is that part of the reason for that was that the parking meters end at 8 p.m.

And so once you hit that 6 p.m.

I'm now an employee, I'm gonna be here till 10 o'clock at night.

I can start to move my car potentially, um, in order to um take advantage of what ends up being essentially free parking for them.

And I think that extending the hours uh in further into the evening would ensure that that parking is available for late time diners, uh people that come to downtown around 7 or 7 30 or even 8 o'clock for dinner.

And so I think that's another area that if we want to encourage um and support people that eat dinner later, that extending the parking uh hours would really be helpful uh for that.

I recognize that it also has ramifications for people that want to be able to not worry about paying for parking if they show up at 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock, but it is a um it is an area that would I think both of those increasing the meter rates and on street and extending the hours would actually people would find uh beneficial once we got over the hump of making those decisions.

Um but I recognize that's not gonna happen now, but it's something for the city to really consider uh going forward.

Um I mean, with that it's it'll be great these changes uh for now, but I think long term we still have to deal with those fundamental issues.

Commissioner Ash.

Thanks.

Um I agree with um one of the comments of my uh fellow commissioner here in terms of the hours of the meters for the core downtown.

Um I do think it it needs to get extended for the reasons you talked about.

Um worried that it is affecting the economics of downtown and people coming and the availability of spaces.

I don't think it needs to be outside of that core area, because it seems like you have some better numbers and there's the advantages of the purple meters, and we should keep that, those could say like at their timing.

And and I'm I will disagree where I'm okay with the current pricing because it actually is a decent price, and it is one thing I hear from Danville a lot is hey, we're free parking, or the veranda is free parking, come here, and that's some of the people who our restaurants are competing with.

So if we go too high, we have to be cognizant of that.

But I don't think the extra hours has that same impact.

It I think it'll help with curb management, which is our goal.

Um overall, I really want to like staff, great job.

Like this was a very comprehensive project.

It took a long time.

You came to us, you said this is the fifth time, four times.

Like you've gone to council, you've gone out to the public.

Like, and I think a lot of my questions previously were about future proofing, right?

Like, how do you account for things that we know are sort of coming in terms of autonomous vehicles or sensors or new technology that that isn't even here yet, but I think this plan really does a good job of of getting as close as you can to future proofing something and having just that mindset.

So I just really want to congratulate staff on on a job well done, and hopefully council will, you know, adopt it.

Thanks.

All right, Commissioner Patch.

Uh echo that really great job staff.

Um, I know this has been a long process for all of you, and I appreciate everything you've put into it.

Um I'm pretty excited by the recommendations that did make it in.

I think those are great for a five-year plan, basically.

Um, I agree that there's some additional research and findings that we can do around parking um and parking meters specifically for future iterations.

I have one design comment, um, which I'm sure won't surprise anybody that I'm making this.

Uh, you have a couple of graphs where you're relying on colors um that aren't necessarily shaded enough that it's clear.

Um, and those are mostly the column graphs for help.

Um, so if you could just go in and take a look at those before this is official official.

Um I loved the graphics for the like priorities and those are colored and labeled.

Those are fantastic.

So thank you for that.

All right, vice chair.

Thank you.

So I think Commissioner Ash was inquiring if you actually wanted to come back to us one more time.

Going to city council.

So first I want to echo, I actually wrote a note.

I actually really like the uh the goal graphics as well.

I thought they were cute and well done, and they communicate um the information well.

Um I used to like this plan 95%.

Now I like it 100%.

And being the contrarian, it's because, as you know from prior comments, I am against raising meter rates or extending hours.

And I think about the parking fees and the hours is sort of like an additional tax on shopping in our downtown, and at a certain point you have to it just like taxes.

I always ask the question, you know, when do we stop?

How much of the consumer's dollars do we take?

And if you think of the state of the consumer in today's world, they're already paying exorbitant money to eat out.

That's gone up dramatically.

And I fear if we make it more expensive, we just may lose people.

It may not be to Danville, it may not be to Alamo or the veranda, it might be to just cooking at home, and that wouldn't help our downtown thrive.

Um, and I and I will say, I think I've said this before as a walnut creek resident and as a commissioner.

I do sometimes go to downtown Danville to dine.

And part of the lure and to shop and a part of the lure is the fact that the parking is free and plentiful.

Now I know their downtown is not as robust as ours, as dense as ours, so that the availability parking makes sense, but the free parking.

It's kind of appealing.

So I move to 100% on this plan when you put there in writing, we are not considering raising rates or extending hours.

And so I very much support that and the overall plan.

Thank you.

All right.

Student Commissioner Kirsch, do you have any comments?

Um yeah, I just want to say that I agree about like the hours and the meter rates.

I don't think that we should be increasing prices because I think that that's just gonna drive people away.

And I mean, I don't think it should be completely off the table, but for now, I don't um it's something that we should be really uh careful of.

And yeah, overall, I think it's um it's a really detailed plan.

And I think that once it goes into effect, um, we should have a way of assessing how effective it is, and maybe having some um like regular, like maybe I'm not sure what the timeline is.

I think it's around five years, uh, but having some way of um measuring your progress towards your goals and and if you're meeting them or not.

Great, thank you.

Um any other comments before I okay.

Um, great work.

Thank you, thank you.

Um looking at the plan um online in its totality, it's it was like a trip down memory lane of all the educational work you've done with us, all the exploratory conversations you had with us, and you did a great job of incorporating a lot of our feedback.

So um great work and thank you.

And with that, I think you need something from us.

Is there a motion to recommend to the city council adoption of the City of Walnut Creek's curbside management plan?

I'll make a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right, either way, their arm wrestling for the second.

Yeah, no.

All right, Commissioner Ash.

And if you'll please call roll.

Student Commissioner Kirsch.

Aye.

Commissioner Ash.

What was the question?

No, sorry, I.

You motioned.

Commissioner Patch?

Yes, Commissioner Reese, I.

Chair Brightman.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right, thank you very much.

And moving on to our uh last order of business under this, um, item C.

Uh, this is an item for commission consideration, the Oakland Boulevard Multimodal Improvements Project.

At this time, I invite staff to make their presentation.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Henry Roode, transportation planner for the public works department.

Tonight I'm going to be discussing the Oakland Boulevard Multimodal Improvements Project.

Uh, this is in the very early stages, and we are in the process of securing the funding.

Uh so just as a quick overview, we're gonna be going over the purpose and existing conditions of Oakland Boulevard.

This is primarily the stretch between uh Trinity and Mount Diablo, although the official project scope does go all the way up to Ignacio Valley Road.

I'm gonna be talking about the funding and the process, and then we'll be opening it up for discussion.

So to begin with, Oakland Boulevard uh has a lot of potential uh in terms of its access to BART and on the south end to downtown amenities, but it's lacking continuous sidewalks, bicycle facilities, uh, and modern robust drainage infrastructure.

Uh so this project aims to address that with improved pedestrian facilities, continuous sidewalk, bicycles, improved ADA accessibility, better stormwater management through uh low impact design, bioretention, and of course, traffic safety.

So, as an overview, and this is very early conceptual work.

Uh, this divides the project stretch into five different street segments, each of which will have their own section design.

So I have an example section here uh between Mount Diablo and Almond Avenue.

Um, where the cross slope that is uh from side to side across the street is the steepest.

Uh, this will actually split the travel lanes.

This allows us to separate the bikeways more cleanly, uh include bioretention in the center, and ensure that basically each of the travel ways for cars and for pedestrians and for cyclists is flat and safe and accessible.

And this will include class four grade separated bikeways up the entirety of the project area, in addition to the low impact design bioretention basins.

So here's just a kind of an overview of the project area.

Each separate color has a different street section.

I do have each of these concept sections as reference slides at the end if you'd like to see them later.

But I do want to note that this is very early.

Uh, the design phase of this project has not officially begun.

Uh, we just produce these concept plans to secure our grant funding.

And here's another section you can see that in other areas where the cross slope is not as steep, you get a more conventional roadway section, but the bikeways are still separated uh at a different grade from the car travel lanes.

So as far as the funding cycle, the ultimate source of these funds is from the state, the state transportation improvement program, state of California.

Um, it through that process, it first went through CCTA, um, and then it now we're kind of going through MTC.

So to be clear, the competitive phase of this project is complete.

Uh City Council has appropriated 400,000 as a local match, which is 4% of the total project budget.

Um, and this local match also allows staff to begin working on the early right of way and design phases before the STIP funds are actually distributed.

Um, with the state funds and the local match, the total project budget is $9,600,000.

And this does include the contingencies.

Uh so just kind of to give you a timeline.

Uh the Contra Costa Transit Authority, CCTA, uh compiled the recommendation list and their board approved it.

So this was then recommended, kind of pushed on to MTC, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and they had a few additional requirements.

The first of which was a resolution of local support, and that the city council appropriated the funds.

So this was passed on October 7th.

Another requirement is that the local bike and pedestrian advisory committee, which is all of you commissioners, provide comments.

Uh, this is going to be forwarded to MTC as part of our complete streets checklist.

I've looked at the form and it's a pretty small summary, but they may be looking at this meeting as well.

I'll be giving them the date of that.

Um so just know that your comments tonight will be summarized and forwarded to MTC as part of this process.

Um, and then from there, we'll proceed on to the California Transportation Commission.

Um, in March, they're going to officially adopt this program, and then the actual funds will be dispersed much later in fiscal year 2029.

So, with that, I'm going to open it up for discussion and questions.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um we will start with questions from commissioners.

Any questions?

No questions.

No questions.

I guess going back to my other comment, as you go through this.

How can you help fix that left turn so the cars don't accidentally cut it too short and get on the multimodal?

This is the left turn from Ignacio onto Oakland we were discussing here.

Yeah.

So this project is very much intended to integrate with the shared mobility hubs that we discussed earlier tonight.

Uh so that intersection is more under the scope of that project than this one.

But the idea is that they'll complement each other, that we can get good continuous infrastructure for safe and accessible transportation all the way from Mount Diablo to BART.

Any other questions?

Vice Chair?

Would you mind putting up you have that big diagram?

Yes.

I mean.

Actually, it's right here.

Is there any.

Any lane narrowing, narrowing, or any impacts to car traffic, such as that anticipated?

Uh so the travel lanes are narrower in some places.

I'm just going to run you through all of our concept sections.

Um these, as I mentioned, are far from finalized design, and in fact the design phase has not even begun.

Okay.

Um so we want, yes, we do want to ensure that you know travel is not too deleteriously impacted.

Uh, you know, we've mapped out the sections to allow vehicle travel while still providing these other pedestrian and bicycle amenities.

Yeah, I think that was it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh student uh commissioner Kirsch, do you have any questions?

Oh no, I don't.

Okay.

Um my only question is this project borders non-walnut creek communities unincorporated, correct?

And uh maybe it doesn't.

You mean like at the freeway?

Uh towards the south in Mount Diablo.

Um it doesn't quite hit it benefits them.

Let's put it that way.

Sure.

Okay.

Um so I'm curious if there are um efforts by the county or um any other jurisdiction this might benefit to also do projects that would connect to this.

Uh yes, so the uh CCTA project list uh was looking at how best to you know benefit the county when they were selecting which projects went on their final approval list, um and Jay was actually involved with that uh just by coincidence.

So if you'd like uh he might be able to speak more about uh what other projects the county is looking at for this, uh but that approved finalized list does uh detail all of them.

Yeah, sure.

If you have if you could quickly summarize um what else might be connecting to this to make it of regional interest, that that would be interesting.

Um yeah, so the process is a countywide process, and uh we did receive uh I believe this cycle we recently uh eight or nine applications.

Um so the two selective projects are this one, the Water Creek Oakland Blow Art uh improvement project and the other one is um a BART access improvement in the city of Lafayette.

Um so unfortunately there isn't any project that uh connects um at the south end of the project, but like Henry alluded to, it does connect to uh our immobility hub project and making it a continuous corridor.

I think that's the main benefit um that we considered when we uh look at the project.

Yeah, cool.

Okay.

Are are you asking because on the other side of like 680 in Mount Diablo here?

There was a there was a county bike program that we learned about to help clean that up so it flows.

Is that what you're asking?

Yeah, I was curious if it was connected to any larger projects that would benefit from this project coming to fruition.

Um, either that I guess exist or have just happened or or that might be in the future.

No.

Yeah, I'm not aware of that project, yeah.

All right, thank you.

I'll mention that I think this project would put more weight to improve that connection over to Boulevard Way because we we do see cyclists use this kind of wiggle route from Boulevard Way under the bridge and then onto Oakland Boulevard here.

Um we do have Caltrans right-of-way under the bridge, so there would be some constraints there.

Um, but then there is a lot of right-away on Boulevard way with two lanes in each direction, and so um I think we can encourage the county to consider uh possible facilities along there.

Okay, thank you.

I can add one more comment to your question.

So I recently went to a design review commission and on the Mount Diablo side of this chart, just one partial down is a pretty large high-density um apartment going in.

Actually designed a really nice building, by the way.

Uh, and I think there's some other high density housing going right on the other side of Mount Diablo up in that area.

So I think it provides better travel for people not using cars to get from those developments to BART.

Yeah, that development that you mentioned about TRC, that's a half mile from BART, and so they they are encouraged to um use alternative modes, and so this is a great connection for that reason.

Okay.

Any other questions before I move to public comment?

All right.

At this time I'll open up uh this item to public comment.

Is there anyone wishing to comment?

One more time.

Come on up.

Um I wonder if there are any bicycle counts that I could get a hold of or maybe talk to Henry about.

So I'm curious about that.

How it compares to other um how it compares to other roadways in the city of Walnut Creek.

There is a huge gap that people have identified already at the south end by Mount Diablo Boulevard and and um Oakland Boulevard where they intersect.

I mean, there's it's such a uh unfriendly high stress area for bicycles.

It'll be great for the high density residential that's being proposed along Mount Diablo with some of the zoning changes and things like that, but at the moment, any other connection going um uh to the other areas there, I think it's non-existent, and there's a huge huge gap.

Um I'm not sure why the recent striping and curb tide parking removal was done.

Um I know this is a long term project, but still I I don't really understand why money was spent doing that because the roadway pavement itself was not improved at all.

Um, Oakland Boulevard, it's it's not on the city's bike master plan as a high priority at all.

Um I know the bike, I don't think the bike master plan has been updated for probably 30 20 years or so.

Um the last one dated 2000 um I think eleven.

Um, I just feel it'd be better to spend um 9.2 million dollars on some other project in in the city rather than here.

It's just um I would take BART to work every day when I've worked for the city of Berkeley walking down Oakland, and you know, not very many bicycles compared to some of the other other streets.

I just I just don't think it's um at least currently if the city has a great plan for residential density improvements along the area or uh Monteblo, maybe that'll work, but I don't I don't think it's a it's a good um priority use of funds.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Any other public comment?

All right.

Uh we'll open it up to Commissioner Comments.

Thanks.

Um thank you for uh putting this project forward.

Uh I have a slightly different perspective of it.

Um I I used to live in this neighborhood, and one of the frustrating pieces about trying to go out for an evening walk was that um the neighborhood is really disconnected unless you walk along Oakland Boulevard, and it was probably the most uncomfortable part of an evening walk is trying to maneuver around Oakland Boulevard, and I lived in this neighborhood for um probably six or seven years.

And so I looked from back in the eighties uh when I when I lived here, I looked at this corridor and it just seemed like such a natural corridor.

It doesn't quite get us to the Saranap neighborhood and community, um, but the roadways going into that community uh from uh from the Mount Diablo 24 interchange are extremely wide, and there's lots of opportunity to uh provide good bicycling and pedestrian connections there, um, which would sort of go nowhere, they'd end at Mount Diablo.

But now with this project, uh you can get all the way to BART.

And so I really see this as being an important um I don't know if I'd call it regional in that it's it's but it is covering uh Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County.

Um it's going to provide uh great circulation for people walking and biking in the neighborhood.

There's a lot of high density um housing in the area.

Um s some of the there's there's both a market rate and affordable housing, so it's a mix of housing.

Uh and they would all benefit uh from this project, and it introduces a great opportunity to connect this neighborhood to the BART station.

Um and I look at it as an extension of the mobility hub, the work it at the BART station and YVR and um and Oakland connecting it all the way through to Mount Diablo.

I just um I really hope that uh the the uh grant reviewers can understand the importance of the connection and that it really does benefit um people that are both living in affordable as well as market rate housing um and in effects a lar benefits a large neighborhood and potentially um the Surinap neighborhood as well.

So um I would encourage the city to use every opportunity they can to get the money and uh promote the the benefits of this project.

Thank you.

Yeah, I I like it.

I get the bigger picture where this is going.

This by itself um is questionable, but it's like it's not by itself.

It's connecting multiple neighborhoods.

Um you can't really see, but the overlook neighborhood, right?

That comes down that um Oakville Road Lane.

Uh you know, those there's a couple of apartment buildings there on Mount Diablo um and some crazy traffic there and like my colleague said, like the whole Saranap area there.

And it connects to BART, it connects to the other side um and gets people, you know, maybe off of California and and away from Main Street on bikes and and just makes everything more friendly.

So I just love it.

It's a good connection in multiple ways that we're not seeing.

It's part of a bigger picture.

It's getting more people to transit.

Um fits the transit hub.

So just overall, this is really good.

I would encourage uh city staff to check with county staff for the unincorporated areas on the other side.

I for some reason I recall that there may be plans for bike lanes, or maybe we should just have a conversation and encourage them, say, hey, can you pick this up?

But it goes back to the master plan, right?

Today we're working on this piece of this puzzle, and I think this really helps with that.

So thank you guys for your time.

And I will make my one comment again though about that intersection turning left from Ignacio.

What's the issue?

That uh I just feel like that's a place that somebody's gonna get hit, a pedestrian when a car goes on the the race bike lane, it's just not marked.

So if I don't make it enough tonight, I have the opportunity we're talking about that intersection.

Thank you.

All right.

Commissioner Patch.

Um I'm excited that this is moving forward that um it's a great location.

Uh you know, often when I'm asked about why bike lanes are important, people are like, Oh, well, you can just use the Iron Horse Trail, but this is a really good example of why a bike lane is needed because the Iron Horse Trail is quite far from these people.

They're not gonna go out of their way to go take the trail to get to BART.

Um and so creating this is really important.

Um especially as we know that there's gonna be more multifamily complexes going within this area, um since it's so close to BART.

Uh what it also what I'm kind of excited about is there are services along this route like the Trinity Center or Planned Parenthood or you know, a couple others that people who use transit are more likely to use and so this connects them in a safe way, which I think is fantastic.

Um one thought that I had is as you're going into the design phase, maybe like think of ways to have little parklets or you know, some shaded structure or something if people want to take a break along the way um just to make it feel a little bit more like a neighborhood and not just here is a bike lane.

I don't know, here's a bike lane.

I I'm just gonna second all the my fellow commissioners' comments.

Um Commissioner Reese did a great job thinking about the future bigger picture and articulating it.

Um I'll third Commissioner Ashes.

Can you fix that left turn lane?

And uh those are my comments.

Is it's it's I think it's a good idea.

It makes sense to me.

I see the vision, so thanks.

Uh student Commissioner Kirsch, do you have any comments?

Um yeah, I so I agree with the other commissioners.

I think it's a good project.

Um the only thing I would say is that I noticed that the price is 9.6 million, and this is still in the early stages of the project, so um there could be even could be even more expensive later on.

Um so I don't know, I think it's it would be maybe worth um trying to cut down on some of the cost or seeing where you could maybe um save some money.

Uh if I could just address this uh briefly, uh that 9.6 million built in an additional percentage that's called contingency that's kind of to get ahead of potential cost overruns because we are aware that these projects don't always go exactly as planned.

Uh so that kind of yeah, exactly.

So um that is uh kind of baked into the price essentially.

So we did consider that when we were budgeting out the whole project.

Okay.

Did you also have something to do?

Yeah, so I just want to address the um intersection at uh YVR and uh Oakland.

Um so we did show uh um a mock-up of the intersection improvement.

I don't know if you still recall.

Um so there are a couple of changes at the intersection that might address your concern.

So with the closure of that right turn lane at Oakland into the bar station, we were actually able to uh move up the intersection westbound on Ignacio Valley.

So now the turning radius is much smaller than before.

So it's now you you in addition to that when we improve the crossing, we'll build uh a little bit of protection island that that proche into the street.

So now the petitions are a little more uh visible.

Um so now, you know, with a combination of those improvements, uh, we hope that could address that left turn uh radius issue that you were uh concerned about.

So, yeah.

All right, thank you.

I think he can rest a little bit better now, so can we?

Um I I don't have much other than what my colleagues have already said.

Um I think this is an important project regionally and for this neighborhood and um frankly I think it'll connect folks in both directions, which is important.

So um thank you for your work on it.

And with that, if there are no other comments, we are going to move on to item number five.

Um at this time I would like to invite commissioners and staff to provide their reports on activities and or announcements.

Does anyone have any announcements?

Vice Chair.

I have activities, so I just wanted first thank staff for sending to the commission emails of upcoming events.

So last week I came down here for the new old Broadway corridor improvements uh public session.

And then I also on I think it was Wednesday, I joined the virtual woodlands um traffic mitigation project uh public forum, which I saw Commissioner Ash on as well.

So that's it, thanks.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Commissioner Ash?

I just wanna echo that to staff, particularly Matt, who did a good job presenting um on that Woodlands forum, and I know some of the comments um prior, at least were not so nice.

Um, but I really appreciate you guys really dove into the community.

You took input, you listened, and you altered your plans based on that community feedback, and that's just something no whether it's that project or other projects, I really appreciate I've seen a change in the last couple of years of staff really engaging the community a lot better.

And so um thank you.

All right.

Any other comments from commissioners?

Anything to share?

Okay, staff, Matt.

Yeah, just to add on to the new outreach event.

We held it held at City Hall on the third floor.

Um, and we had uh a decent turnout, a handful of people, but they were engaged, um, and we were also at the farmers market getting the word out about that project at Newell and Broadway with the crossing.

Um and then I'll say we uh we launched a newsletter.

I'll sign you all up.

It's uh it's part of the Safe Travelers program, which we rebranded the Pace Car Pledge to the Safe Travelers Pledge, and it includes uh subscribing to the newsletter and getting um updates on safety, traffic safety, and uh various other project updates as well, um, including advertising for transportation commission.

Uh and then we had a in late October, we had a Vision Zero working group with one of the commissioners here.

Um, and then earlier today, uh Henry Brianna uh helped prepare a grant for the sustainabilities grant uh for um studying civic drive to help understand that corridor as a um public comment mentioned tonight about civic drive to to understand what can be done there.

So we submitted a grant for that uh to study it, and um it'd basically be like the curb management plan uh for civic drive in terms of outreach and effort and and kind of uh analyzing different uh concepts.

So we'll see what happens with that one.

That's all.

That's great.

Thank you.

Um okay, so we're on to item number six, and that's adjournment.

I hereby adjourn the November 20th, 2025 regular meeting of the Transportation Commission.

Our next regular meeting is January 15th, 2026.

Happy holidays.