All right.

Welcome to the Thursday, March 19th, uh, 2026, regular meeting of the Walnut Creek Transportation Commission.

Will the Secretary please take a roll call?

Uh Student Commissioner Kirsch.

Absent.

Commissioner Ash.

Here.

Commissioner Guerrero.

Present.

Commissioner McMahon.

McMahon here.

Commissioner Patch.

Vice Chair Crowling.

Present.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next item is public communications.

And this is for items that are not on the agenda.

And so I'll just read a little bit of official verbiage.

The 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 for questions posed, requested clarifications, or refer the item to our esteemed staff.

So I'm opening up.

Is there anyone in the room who would like to address the Transportation Commission?

We have no members of the public waiting to provide comments.

Now how did you know everyone here was not in the public?

I didn't know that.

I know them.

They're all awesome people.

That's why.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

All right.

We will uh close public communications then.

All right.

Consent calendar.

The only consent item we have is approving the minutes of the January 15th meeting.

Before we do that, does anybody on the commission or the audience wish to pull the meetings off of consent as a discussion item?

Seeing none.

Does anybody on the commission have any edits or corrections to the minutes?

Commissioner Ash.

I am good.

Thanks.

Okay.

Motion to approve.

Don't want to hear if the rest of the commissioners have any edits or corrections.

I'm good with my motion.

I'd like to ask to delay the motion.

I'd like to ask Commissioner Patch if she has any corrections or edits to the meeting minutes.

I do not.

Okay.

Would you like to make your motion again?

I lost track.

Yes, I'd like to move to approve the minutes.

We have a second.

All right.

Motion made and seconded.

You can do a roll call vote, please.

Sure.

Commissioner Ash.

Aye.

Commissioner Guerrero.

Aye.

Commissioner McMahon.

Aye.

Vice Chair.

Commissioner Patch.

Aye.

You stole my microphone.

Commissioner Crowling.

Aye.

All right.

Consent items are approved and accepted, including the minutes of the January 15th meeting.

Thank you very much.

All right.

On to business considerations.

Election of the chair and vice chair.

So do we have any nominations for chair?

I would like to nominate Charles for Chair.

And can I make the motion for both, Matt, or do I make them separate?

You can do both.

And um Laura Patch for Vice Chair.

You okay with that?

Okay.

Uh we have a motion made.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Would Secretary take a roll call vote, please?

Commissioner Ash.

Hi.

Commissioner Guerrero.

Aye.

Commissioner McMahon.

I uh Vice Chair Patch.

I Chair Crowing.

Aye.

You could have said not yet twice.

Opportunity missed.

Okay.

All right.

So we have duly accepted our duties.

Woohoo.

Okay.

So moving on to item B.

Or are we doing where is the I know we have a committee appointment?

That's at the end.

Thank you.

So many colors on this.

All right.

So transportation capital project update.

Discussion of several transportation related projects in the Capital Improvement Program and Walnut Creek.

So does staff have a report?

Or distinguished guests have a report.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name's Alex Wong.

I'm the senior engineer with the Capital Improvement Program.

I'm here with five of our CIP engineers, and I'll let them introduce themselves when they come out.

Tonight we're here to provide the commission an update to the capital budget, capital related, no transportation related capital improvement projects.

All right.

So just an outline of tonight's presentation.

First, I'm going to review the transportation projects that are moving toward construction.

We'll stop there and take questions and comments.

And then we'll move to reviewing the transportation projects data in the design development stage, and we'll take questions and comments there.

And I'll move to you.

Hello, commissioners.

My name is Rashad Culver.

I'm an social engineer with the CIP program.

And the first project we have for update is the Ignacio Valley Road rehabilitation project.

And this project is set to repave YVR from Oak Grove to the city limits with safety improvements at the intersection of Ignatio and Oak Grove Road.

This is a federally funded project, funded through federal earmark grant.

And our safety improvements include speed feedback signs, edge, and longitudinal rumble strips, optical speed bars, reduced travel lane widths, and slip lane modifications with speed humps just before the crossings.

And uh all this is in efforts to slow folks down uh driving in the corridor.

And currently we are awaiting federal approval.

However, we're scheduled for construction spring of 2027.

Next, I have two projects to present here.

Uh both the unsignalized pedestrian crossing improvements as well as the trail crossing improvements project.

And the project scope includes the addition of rapid flashing beacons at the pedestrian crossings as well as passive detection at the trail crossings.

And improvements, uh pedestrian improvements are at roughly 13 crossings, uh, including Civic Drive, Tice Valley Boulevard, Bancroft Road, North Main Street, and Mount Diablo as well.

And trail crossings include the Contra Costa Canal Trail at Jones Road, as well as the Briones to Mount Diablo Trail at Lark Crossings at Larkey, Buena Vista, and San Luis Road.

And this is in efforts to increase visibility of pedestrians and troll users at crossings and lower vehicular vehicular speeds.

And we are currently in construction for this project.

Thank you.

Oh, wrong way.

Today I'll be going over the project that I'm managing this year, which is the 2026 Slurry Project.

This is funded through Measure J and the gas tax.

Uh this year we'll be uh slurry sealing approximately 43 streets in the Tampico, Diablo Shadows, and the Valavista area.

As part of this project, we are uh enhancing bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

A good example of that is on Montego Road.

Uh, if you can look at the um illustration at the at the bottom there, uh that is ranging from Montego from Ignacio Valley Road to Tampico.

Um we'll be changing right now is existing as bike lanes and two travel lanes.

So we'll be changing that to uh two travel lanes and a center turn lane, and also narrowing down those lanes to reduce speed, as well as adding a buffer lane uh between the travel lane and the bike lane.

Additionally, another improvement we're making is adding flashing stop signs on at the on Oak Grove at intersections at Deer Park and Vela Vista.

And uh on the image on the right bottom right, you'll see what the stop sign would look like.

Uh and this is scheduled for construction in uh the spring and summer of this year or summer of this year.

Good evening, commissioners.

Uh my name is Andrew McDade.

I'm also an engineer with the CIP division.

Um the project I'm managing, which actually uh was just awarded for contract this past Tuesday night, uh, is the Walker Avenue Pedestrian Improvement Project.

Um this will um install sidewalk extensions uh just east of the um Iron Horse Trail Crossing on Mount Diablo across uh Walker Avenue.

Um we'll also uh reconstruct the curb cuts here, improve the landing, um uh as well as ADA accessibility.

Um this will improve pedestrian visibility, uh it'll recruit crossing distance, obviously.

Um also at this one, we will raise the crosswalk a bit uh to create you know an undulation that will slow motorists down, uh especially coming uh around Walker from the east around that curve there.

Um in addition to these improvements, we're also installing some um reflective curb paint and upgrading the striping and signage as well as installing an additional streetlight at this location.

Um this is funded in large part by uh Measure J, uh Transportation for Libble Livable Communities Grant.

And this is expected to start in a few months, uh late spring, early summer.

Thank you.

Uh good evening, commissioners.

My name is Austin Potto.

I am also uh an engineer for the CIP division.

Uh the project that I'll be presenting on today is actually split up into four different locations.

Uh the first three locations I'll talk about right now, the fourth location I'll talk about when we get to the next section.

Um so this project is the Safe Russell School project, it's going to be on Walnut Boulevard, uh Cedro Lane and Parkside Drive, where we are going to be increasing pedestrian and bicycle uh safety for students walking or biking to school.

And so by doing this, uh we'll mainly be closing uh sidewalk gaps, so about approximately uh 1,500 uh foot gap on Wall and Boulevard, 200 foot gap on Cedro Lane, and a 170 foot gap on Parkside Drive.

We'll also be installing all three of these locations uh bull outs to uh increase the service area of our sidewalk as well as reduce the crossing distances at each intersection.

Um we'll also be installing on Walnut Boulevard specifically, a street light at Bellows Court to increase visibility as well as a rectacular a rectangular rapid flashing beacon on the Fraser Drive intersection to again increase visibility for students walking.

Uh this project is funded through the one Bay Area Grant.

We're currently in the process of going through Caltrans federal approval, and we are awaiting that set approval to begin construction anticipated uh in summer of 2027.

And so with that, uh we kind of talked about our projects that are near construction, and we have a little map here to kind of show the various locations.

Um, you know, I'll open up any questions or comments before we move on to the next section.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

So we will open up for questions from the commissioners.

And I know Commissioner Ash is dying to ask some questions.

I actually don't have that many.

You guys did did great.

Um bulb outs that you're talking concrete like raised sort of sidewalk islands, correct?

Yeah, so like look at the the bottom picture.

Uh that's all concrete right there.

Okay.

So it's hard improvements that are physically reducing the lanes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um and then on the Ignacio intersection, the per that was like the first slide.

Just curious.

Do we have updated counts of how many vehicles and pedestrians are going through that?

Our counts are not very updated.

I think maybe 2019.

Oh, yeah.

Well, the world has changed a lot since then.

What do we have to do to get updated counts at least at a couple of any of these intersections, the major ones in the city?

Uh that's something we can consider.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean it we have to hire a count company.

And so it's just, you know, operating budget that we have to use to get some data.

Okay.

Um we we also have other means to look into this sort of thing with um big data, you know, so we have platforms like streetlight, yeah, where we can get estimates on the general number of vehicles there and uh even cyclists, but when the volume's low, not in this case, but when the streets are low, like residential streets, uh the data is not as accurate.

Right, intersection.

Yeah, we could we could approximate it with the street light data.

Yeah, that would be great.

And if not, I recommend Charles to go and count with a little pad of paper and hash marks.

Um you will be joining me, of course.

Yes.

Um okay, so that was helpful.

And then um just in general, I kind of wanted to hear from you guys.

Um maybe this goes into the next part, but like in an ideal world, what do you feel like is missing right now that would that like if we promote it can help you do your jobs a little better?

It's like something that we don't see in these flashy slides or something.

I don't know who if anybody wants to be brave enough to answer that in front of a microphone, but I I'm just kind of curious in an ideal world.

Is there a technology you've seen?

Is there something that we could look at?

Is there another intersection that we're not tackling because we haven't done it?

And I just kind of want you guys to speak freely and and I'm just kind of curious to get people's thoughts.

Well, um, speaking freely, uh, I feel we we receive feedback from the community and we address things as well as we can.

Uh not only do we take in feedback, we take in feedback from the community as well as our maintenance crew.

Uh we are out in the field observing things on a day-to-day basis.

Um speaking for my colleagues, if you guys have anything to add, please.

We feel supported.

Okay.

Great.

Awesome.

Usually somebody asked answers that with a billion dollar check, but okay.

Thanks.

Commissioner McMahon.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

Uh these all look really good.

Um I did have a question about this first one.

Um you said there's some speed uh bumps, right?

Um I was wondering why'd you go with the speed bump or speed humps instead of like a raised crosswalk potentially there to get to the little pedestrian islands?

Or is there like pros and cons between between those two?

Yeah, there are pros and cons.

Um one being drainage.

Uh the speed humps may be a they may facilitate drainage a little better than say a speed table or a race crosswalk may.

Um and given the placement of the inlets at this location, uh, we feel that the speed humps may be the best solution.

Okay, great.

Thank you for that.

I can add to that a little bit.

I think that's a great point about the drainage.

You know, those are some real world constraints that we have to deal with.

But then I think here what we're trying to do is is place the bump in advance of the crosswalk.

Because we don't want people slowing down at the point of the crosswalk.

We want them slowing down approaching the crosswalk.

And so that's what we're trying to do at this location is slow those speeds.

Yeah, I like that.

And then so how far in front of the crosswalk will the speed humps be?

Uh roughly 15 to 20 feet.

Okay.

Perfect.

Um, and then uh go to the next slide.

Um, I think one more after that.

Let's see.

There was one on Civic Drive.

Um you said you're gonna add some like flashing lights and stuff.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um I was wondering, are the flashing lights going to be on the road as well, or is it just gonna be the flashing lights on the signs?

Uh just the flashing lights on the signs.

Uh currently we do not have in-ground uh flashing crossings.

Okay, city.

Has that been like considered, or is that like an option at all?

Yeah, and I think we used to uh maybe 10 10 years ago.

And uh we um we root them out due to maintenance issues, and we found that compliance and yielding rates um are just as good with just the signs.

Okay, cool.

There's there was also electricity problems, right?

Going across, like if a line gets cut or right?

I know yeah, they're all wired up down in the ground.

So the light's solid and that can be run over by cars, but then there's a wires between each of the lights on the ground um when the signs are bright enough and can provide that uh visibility.

Okay.

I'll just add about the in-ground lights as a pilot.

The only thing I miss about the ones we had is I used to say to my wife, hey, let's turn on the taxiway lights.

Yeah, I just I cry I used to cross Civic a lot.

I used to live over there, so it was just I feel like coming like down that hill, it was kind of hard to see some of those lights sometimes, especially like at night with the car is coming the other way.

So I was like, maybe there could be a little bit more visibility with in in road lights, but um sounds like those aren't perfect either.

Um and then the last slide.

If you go to that one, um let's see.

Is there gonna be a raised crosswalk here as well?

Uh no, there's there's not gonna be any raised crosswalks here.

Okay.

Is that like an option?

Uh we considered a raised crosswalk for Crunabano.

Um, but you know, that's you would have to raise that entire crosswalk, which again, like Rashawn mentioned, has some drainage concerns and as well as its price concerns, right?

We're limited to the budget we get from the grant on this, and we're spreading it between four different locations.

So we considered it for this intersection, but ultimately due to drainage and cost, we went with a more you know, bulbing out and constraining it that way.

Okay, that makes sense.

Um and sorry, I got one more question.

Sure.

Go one more back to the San Miguel one.

So I actually just moved over here, so I'm very familiar with this area.

Um this left-hand turn coming like on San Miguel, like turning left basically, is really difficult in a car.

Um is there anything that we can do about that?

Um not a whole lot, although uh we are removing the tree on the corner.

It's just it's causing the um in the upper left picture.

Uh is there a pointer?

Okay.

Thank you, Matt.

Um, there we go.

Oh, okay.

This is cool.

There's some lag.

Um this tree right here will be removed.

So that should improve visibility coming from the east.

I um I feel like coming from the other direction, it's not quite as bad.

Um, although there it's I don't think there's much we could do to open it up.

That's given the constraints of the the bridge and stuff there, but we will be taking out uh one tree which should improve things um a little bit.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, the um the the cars coming from the other direction will be will be slowed down so you'll have a better chance to you know to react, not pull out in front of them.

But um traffic will be slower through the this intersection, so it'll make maneuvering easier.

Okay.

Is there any way you could consider like a roundabout there or anything like that?

Or is that like is there not enough space?

Well, these these are already in construction, like you said, the just one too.

But the next set of plans are going into design, and so I think input alike that consideration would be good.

And yeah, I mean we we try to consider those roundabouts or other options, but we are limited on budget and the right-of-way, the the space we have that's public.

Um and so this was our our best design we came up with.

Well, thank you so much.

Sorry for all the questions.

Thank you.

Love all the questions.

Commissioner Guerrero.

Uh yeah, so in this one right here for the Walker Avenue.

Um somebody said that one of the crosswalks is gonna be raised.

Is it the one we're looking at that comes from that tree that's gonna be taken out?

Um that's gonna be a table.

Yeah, my apologies if that's not totally clear.

It's um crossing walker right here.

Copy.

So is the one that actually um crosses the iron horse?

Is that also gonna be tabled?

Um no, there we don't have um any plans for that right now.

Um the only thing that we'll just be painting some yellow reflective curve on the the median right there.

Um that's um more for nighttime driving than you know, really any any pedestrian benefit.

Um but I think visibility is is pretty pretty good here.

It's pretty, you know, we have the ball bouts, but no, we don't have plans for uh for raising that.

Okay.

Um if we could leave this this picture up going back to the um the lighted signs is how how does what's the without a long time of questions, but what's the process of choosing the street and deciding that one of those signs with the lights is gonna go in if was that which project are you referring to?

So like the iron horse trail crossing, right?

It doesn't have a lighted sign right now, like what I'm looking at right now in the screen.

Correct?

Uh that one does.

The iron horse one does?

That one does, yeah.

Okay.

And these lights when they get put in, um it takes is it is it a meeting?

And you guys just how how is it chosen?

How are the areas chosen uh for those lights to go in?

Uh for the most recent trail crossing improvements.

Uh our traffic division has done outreach uh with local uh bicycle advocates uh out into the community, they've received feedback and sites were selected based on that.

And in terms of the pedestrian crossing, uh we have a number of unsignalized crossings throughout the city, uh pedestrian crossings that aren't at um a traffic signal.

And through that, we receive recommend the CIP department receives recommendation from traffic on locations they feel need them the most.

Um and from there we generate projects based on the budget available.

Got it.

And then previously you uh alluded to uh feedback from from the citizens.

Um how's that feedback received?

How do they get it to you?

Is it phone calls?

Is it emails?

Is it social media?

How do you how do you take that feedback in?

Uh we received all of those.

Um also uh if Matt, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we actually were at the trails receiving feedback from cyclists.

Uh we've had um community members do outreach to get feedback and just to hear what bikers are feeling out there.

Yeah, to expand on Rashad, I mean we we take in requests typically through uh email is most common, although um phone calls or voicemails is also popular.

Um then you know to narrow down the various pedestrian crossings for improvements, we're really trying to take a data-driven approach.

So we look at speeds of roadways and length of crosswalk.

So a roadway with five lanes, two lanes in each direction, plus a center turn lane, that's a really long crossing.

And so that's gonna be prioritized over uh you know a smaller two-lane road with slower speeds.

And so it's from that it filters itself in terms of where should we be applying these?

And so now as we we've done these projects multiple years in a row, thanks to Rashad's work on this.

Um and so now we're we're going down that list and finding shorter and shorter crosswalks to improve, or going back to some of these locations and adding these flashing lights.

Okay.

I think that's uh that's all the questions I had.

Thank you.

Very informative.

Great, thank you.

Vice Chair Patch.

Uh couple of questions.

Um we can start on this slide.

I know some of this work are things that we've piloted or tried out in different locations.

Are there any in this particular project that it was like a temporary measure that we're now making permanent uh in this in this project specifically?

Uh we took a two-phase approach uh where the first phase we introduced a striping in the photo here we have the Mount Diablo and oh it looks like Alpine.

That's Mount Diablo and Bont crossing there.

Uh previously we installed the lane buffer treatment.

Uh that's what we were able to do with the funds we had at the moment, and now we're actually in construction now to come back with the flashing signs.

So not necessarily a pilot program, but we are phasing um installs.

Great.

I just wanted to hear if any of like what you had actually been learning by doing it was getting implemented.

So and then my second question is two of these projects say they're waiting on federal approval.

Um I'm assuming that's because the funds are from federal grants.

Uh what's the likelihood that they don't get approved?

Uh we have approval already.

Uh Alex, would you like to speak to the Yeah?

We were um City was awarded those those grants, and we're just waiting for each of the steps to come through.

Um there's been a lot of uh federal changes and guidelines, and I think it's really slowing down the Caltrans local assistance with approving the projects and moving them forward.

Um these projects, the uh O bag, won it, and then Elso Ignatio were scheduled for this summer, and they haven't responded to us for months.

So that pretty much puts us out of construction season, moving the projects to next year.

Okay.

Um that kind of makes me have a second question of a lot of these are listed as spring summer of this year.

Are is there a priority list?

Like, or are they all just gonna happen concurrently?

Um these projects are they're they're in like they're um they're been awarded by council and moving toward construction.

I think like this one's in construction.

Um, the semigale walker, that's just what was awarded, so it's probably start construction in about two or three months.

Um they're just slowly rolling in, and it's it's as that map shows, these projects are spread out throughout the city, so they don't really impact each other.

It's just you know, and we have this one different project managers that manage each one of them.

So you know, we we handle the load you know year after year.

So it's great.

Thanks.

All right, thank you.

Would you mind going back to the first slide?

See, we all want to go through all the slides with you.

Okay, so one question I had what is what is an optical speed bar?

I know I I get to ask the dumb questions.

So uh optical speed bar, uh it's a set of pavement markings that uh go over a span, say maybe 600 or so feet, and as you progress through the sequence, the spacing decreases between the pavement markings.

So it gives the driver the feel of increasing speed, even if they are maintaining the same speed.

So this is to address driver behavior if a driver is feeling in theory.

If a driver is feeling they're going too fast, uh maybe before a turn, uh the optical speed bars are set to just to get them to slow down a little bit.

And that would be inside the lane itself or to the side of the lane.

Um they're detailed as say one foot on the outer edge of each lane.

So um from the outside of the travel lane going inward towards the driver, a distance of one feet on both sides.

Okay.

We just they're not depicted on here on this photo, right?

Oh, no, not on this photo.

Okay.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And then we already had a question on the distance of the speed humps before the crosswalks.

By the way, this is this is home turf for me.

I've been a pedestrian and a driver for a long time on this intersection.

So I know why we're trying to do all this stuff.

Um how harsh will the speed bumps be?

And I'll just as a scale to reference.

So the the plastic temporary bumps on um homestead and walnut are like probably, you know, I give that a 10 for how harsh it is versus maybe the speed bumps that are kind of near uh Arbol Auto Park, they're pretty gentle.

You can kind of go 25 miles an hour over those.

What's the thinking of what you want to do here?

Because you're really trying to keep someone from going in that pedestrian lane.

Yeah.

Um I would say at an appropriate speed, uh no speed hump is harsh.

Yes.

Yeah, go ahead.

Sorry, that may go ahead.

That made me think of a question.

Yeah.

Um are they going to be permanent or like the temporary ones that we've put on homestead?

Uh we are considering asphalt speed humps for this project.

Thanks.

Yes.

Yeah.

Because I look at the, you know, we have the temporary ones, you know, on homestead as an example.

And just from driving over myself, I mean, I literally have to slow down to about three, four miles an hour.

I can't do anywhere near 25 miles an hour.

So I cannot do an appropriate speed on that.

Because I'm sure I I would imagine you wouldn't be saying to us that like three miles an hour on homestead is appropriate.

But like anything faster than that, my teeth are gonna come out.

Sure, sure.

Uh but I think the pavement ones are are really good.

Okay.

Um we can go to the next slide, please.

So can I ask a follow-up question on what you were just asking on that first slide?

Sorry.

Please how's the um coming down Ignacio towards Oak Grove from Concord and up Lime Ridge?

You guys have added all the um the white reflective stuff to separate out the right turn lane.

I'm wondering if you've got if you've seen some results or how that's gone.

PD loves them.

Okay.

As part of the if you want to explain the pork chop and extending it.

Um so one thing we're gonna be doing is um extending the concrete.

Is that yeah, extending the concrete of the pork chop so into that those existing white delineators?

We're gonna be extending concrete a little bit further so that we don't have as many delineators, and then still continue the delineators.

Um they are hard to maintain given the speeds out there, but um generally the the feedback from um PD and the safety implications, um, they're well worth it.

Great.

Thanks.

I think you've actually answered my question as why I don't see the two traffic officers on the motorbikes there anymore.

Those are that's probably making a big difference.

Um okay, so back to the next slide.

So I love the flashing lights.

Um my wife and I were driving yesterday somewhere downtown, and she was like, These flashing lights are great.

It makes it very easy to not miss a pedestrian.

I just sort of have a related question.

How do we determine the lag time that it stays flashing?

Because the one thing I've noticed is the pedestrians cross and it seems like it still flashes forever.

Not that people don't just drive through them when there's no pedestrians there, but is there some formula to like how long we have them flash after someone pushes a button?

Great question.

Uh I don't know.

I think they may configure that when they set them up based on the length of the crosswalk.

I know for traffic signals we do time the lights uh for a pedestrian speed of 3.5 seconds, where I imagine a typical walker would be closer to four or four point five feet per second.

So they are timed a little bit longer, and I think they'd probably use similar timing for those flashing lights.

Okay, thank you.

Uh let's see.

Next slide.

I think we're on the set the slurry.

Okay.

Um so very familiar with the oak grove intersections, Deer Park, Valley Vista.

I can see why you'd want to put flashing stop signs.

My question is, and I was kind of thinking about a criteria I heard earlier, like if we have more lanes or craziness, we that might get the intersection in the loop for that treatment.

I'm wondering why we didn't also add Oak Grove and Diablo Shadow, which is like a demolition derby, especially during school traffic.

That in fact it's very unsafe even for pedestrians.

I was thinking that flashing lights there would also be fantastic.

But I I'm assuming these projects are already baked in.

But if you had a little extra money, that'd be a great intersection.

Do you want to take that map?

Uh yeah, I think it is baked in.

Um, but we can we can take a look and see.

Great.

Thank you.

Um, and then one more question on the safe routes one.

No.

I was just curious.

Um, like if we look at the lower right hand um ball out, are we are we losing trees there?

No.

Or any of these it's just an optical illusion.

Uh no, so we're we're not we're not we're basically building out.

So there's an existing curve, because there's no sidewalk there, it's just it's it's a striped bull concrete bulb out.

If you look out there, it's kind of funky.

But so we're not removing any trees, we're just building out from the existing infrastructure.

Great, thank you.

You're welcome.

All right.

And Laura, this is another location where we have existing striped bull belt, as Austin mentioned.

But um, we're gonna be coming back with concrete, so it's kind of like that interim and then coming back with that final design.

All right, I have a process question for the secretary.

So normally, if this was the end of the presentation, right?

We had the presentation, we had questions from commissioners, we do public comment, we do comments from commissioners, but we've bifurcated this one.

Should we would you recommend we just do the public comment and commissioner comments after we get the second presentation, or should we do that twice?

Yeah, let's save the comments till the end.

Okay.

That's okay.

All right.

Then uh we can move on to part two of the presentation.

All right.

Thank you for all those questions and comments.

I'm here to talk about the fourth location of the OBAG3 safe routes to school project.

Um this location is on the intersection of Newell Avenue and South Broadway.

Um we have uh a rendering at the top picture that kind of shows uh sort of the improvements that we want to do.

We bait we want to uh again do concrete bulb outs building out the existing infrastructure um to reduce the crossing uh distance right now.

I think it's around 100, 110 feet per cross.

So if you're a pedestrian or bicyclist, you're crossing a long distance here.

Um and so I want to reduce that crossing distance.

We also want to uh treat the Iron Horse Trail that runs parallel or that runs diagonally through this intersection, which will also serve the students using that trail to get to Los Lomas High School south of it, as well as people who are further normal commute or going to Broadway Plaza.

Um so to do that, we are implementing a uh additional signal phasing called the pedestrian scramble, which would allow people on that northeast corner where they're coming out or or or coming out of the Iron Horse Trail to basically cross diagonally through the intersection so they can cross in one go without any cars being anywhere near them, um, and vice versa.

Um, and so that's what we're doing there.

Um, then we're also going to be extending bicycle infrastructure going west of the intersection down Newell Avenue all the way down to California.

We are doing a hard uh raised bike lane uh from Capwell all the way to Newell Avenue that will connect to the Iron Horse Trail on the south side of the street.

We're uh you know, in front of uh um Whole Foods, and then beyond that, we're just gonna we're going to be doing uh striping improvements uh for bicycle infrastructure all the way to California, and that we're currently waiting to hear back from the TDA grant, which was I believe presented to you guys a couple months ago.

Um, and so this project is uh so that TDA work is going back to um Commissioner Patch's kind of comment as far as temporary and then going back.

So we're actually planning to go back for a phase two in this project when we see funding to do hard concrete improvements all the way down in front of Kaiser and all the way down that street.

So and then again, this is part of the one-bay area grant, so it's in the same federal funding group.

Uh so waiting on that, and then anticipated construction uh is spring summer of 2028.

All right, so here we have the uh highway safety improvement project, which is federally funded through the highway safety improvement program.

Um here uh this intersection is uh at Ignacia Valley Road and Walnut Boulevard.

Um we will be doing essentially the same thing at Wimbledon Road and Wiggett Lane and Villamonte intersections, and we will be installing protect the left turn phasing at all four intersections.

The current existing condition is uh permissive left turns, um as you can see in the picture.

Uh we will also be upgrading curb ramps to be ADA compliant on Ignacio Valley Road and Webbland Road, and the estimated construction for this is summer or fall of 2027.

Uh the next project is the Ignacio Valley Road Intersection Safety Project.

This is uh funded through the Glenn Development.

And due to limited funding, uh, we had to develop uh our primary goals and objectives for this project.

And so we uh I listed them in order right here.

So our primary goal is to construct a roundabout on Marchbanks Drive and Kinross, as you can see to your picture on the upper left.

That red circle illustrates what that roundabout would look like.

Uh following that uh again, as funding permits, our goals are to uh install protected left turns at three intersections, uh being Ignacio Valley Road and Marchbanks Drive, uh San Carl and Ignacio Valley Road and San Carlos Drive, and then La Casa Villa and Ignacia Valley Road.

And again, due to limited funding, we are prioritizing in order as they are listed, and we are expecting to have this be constructed in the summer or fall of 2027.

All right.

Uh next up, we have the San Miguel Drive Pedestrian Path Project.

Uh this is a joint project between the City of Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County, uh, that's currently in design.

This is a county-led project.

They're leading the design.

However, we are responsible for improvements within our jurisdiction.

And this is funded through traffic impact fees.

And the intent of this project is to close the sidewalk gap, close the sidewalk gap between San Miguel and Newell, up to San Miguel and Norris Road.

Just providing better downtown access to the residents in this area.

And shown we have the intersection of San Miguel Drive and Drea.

And on the right, as you can see, are in the folder, we have sidewalk on one side of the road.

However, we plan to come back and install a five-foot sidewalk, eight feet wide parking, and uh 10-foot travel lanes where there is none now.

And we anticipate a summer 2027 construction.

Next, we have North Broadway improvements.

And this is funded through the Affordable Housing and Sustainability Grant.

And it's a redesign of North Broadway from Civic to Central.

And we're aiming to right size the corridor to better serve today's demand.

Right now there are areas that do not have sidewalks along this corridor.

And we plan to install sidewalks throughout, uh ball boats at the intersections, class four bikeways at sidewalk elevation, and uh reduce the travel lane width for cars.

And we anticipate uh spring summer 2028 construction for this project.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Neil Mock.

I'm also with the Capital Improvement Team.

Um first, I'd like to talk to you about the South Main Bridge Replacement Project.

Um, this is going to replace the existing structure over Los Trompas Creek at South Main Street.

It's going to be a two-phase project.

The first phase, we estimate a construction of spring of 27, and it's going to build a pedestrian bridge, which will also act as a utility bridge on the eastern side of the roadway.

Um the construction will have intermittent traffic impacts, but the road will be able to remain open.

Um phase two of the project will be the following summer, summer of 2028 is the estimated construction date, and that will remove the road, the structure completely, and be replaced with a new bridge structure.

Um this is all under the Caltrans um highway bridge program, so it is funded through federal funding.

Um that's the first project.

Uh and then the second project I'd like to talk about is the bus stop improvement and shelter project.

This is adding bus amenities to existing bus stop facilities and ADA access improvement at those sites.

Um this is funded through the Contra Costa Measure J Transportation and Livable Communities Grant, as well as the AHSC Affordable Housing and Sustainability Community Grant.

We're going to replace um or install shelters at five existing bus uh bus stops.

These locations are at Ignacio Valley Road and Marchbanks, Civic and Ignacio Valley Road, Locust Street at Mount Diablo, South Main and Lilac, and then the last one's gonna be a North Main at Civic, right outside at City Hall.

Um the last sixth location that we're gonna be working on is just a mini plaza and ADA improvements at North Main and Bonanza that services our free trolley.

Um one additional aspect on these projects is gonna be real-time signage so that the bus stop signage will tell us when the next shuttle or bus will be arriving.

So that will be installed on all six of the sites, and our estimated construction is spring of 27.

Thank you all right.

Was that uh all the projects or you have more?

No, I got two more.

All right.

All right.

So this is the uh Parkside Drive multimodal improvements.

Um so the goal of this project is to provide improved multimodal access from the Iron Horse Trail to the Bart station.

So this really provides a uh east-west connection from the Iron Horse Trail to the Bart station.

That's a connection I've been looking for for a long time.

Um but really the the challenge of this project is to balance the different modes of transportation.

Um Parkside Drive, I can see here from uh North Main to Civic Drive.

There's really a four-lane um through lane street, and really one of the lanes has to be converted into a multimodal use lane for this to work.

So it's really a balancing what what the impacts are gonna be and and seeing what's the best way to move this toward um construction.

Um again, this is another affordable housing and sustainable community funded along with uh uh TIFF uh traffic impact fee funded project.

And we're looking at this project for beyond 2028.

Last project here is the uh Oakland Boulevard multi-nodal improvements.

Um this project was added to the capital budget in 2025.

And uh goal of this project is to improve the multimodal access from west downtown connecting to transit.

Um you can see on the top uh illustration there of Oakland Boulevard, it starts at Mount Diablo, going through the um Almond Shuey neighborhood through Trinity and then connecting back to Oakland Boulevard to the Bart station.

Um the big challenges of this project is the grade uh difference on parts of uh Oakland Boulevard where you have um the west side is a lot or the east side's higher than the west side, so there's needs to be an engineering solution to make that work out.

Um so this project is uh gonna be funded by state transportation improvement program funds.

This uh to be approved by the uh CTC.

Uh we're looking at this project for beyond 2028 also.

And it's going back, so we had the projects that's moving toward construction and then the design development, so you can see that where projects are spread out through the city.

And we're here to take questions and comments.

So before we go through the commission, I just had one quick technical definition question on the last slide.

What's a joint pole?

Joint pole?

Yeah.

Um like joint pole, like the utility pole that has all the different okay um different uh utility poll.

Utility polls, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Joint volume utility.

All right, just uh not always pick on Commissioner Ash.

How about we start with Commissioner McMahon?

All right, let's do it.

Thank you so much for all this information.

Um it's awesome seeing all these projects coming up.

So it's really exciting.

Um for the always stop on Newell and is a Broadway.

Um what's the timing look like on that?

Like how does that how long like does it stay on for people to cross?

Do you have to push the button?

I saw in one before it said like there's like some passive um like uh signals or whatever.

So it's like do you, you know, like do you have to go push the button once you push it, how long does it stay on for?

How long is it always stop?

Pass that one to traffic.

So this one's you're talking about Newell and Broadway, the diagonal crossing with the Iron Horse Trail.

So we do have certain limits that we have to meet in the California Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices or the M U T C D.

So that's the 3.5 feet per second.

So we have to provide a minimum duration uh once it's on.

Um I think Austin, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we are trying to look at passive detection so that we can see pedestrians in that landing area that we'll just place a call because what's usually hard about that at typical intersections is figuring out which direction they want to go.

Where here we just give a pedestrian phase, and so we don't care which way they go.

So if we just detect people at one of the corners, we can just give them.

Are we including that or is it still too early?

It's a consideration as we go through the design.

I mean, obviously there's a cost component to that, but um that's something we'll be looking at.

Yeah, I think that'd be great, especially for all the bikers on Iron Horse Trail.

Like sometimes when you're on a bike, it's hard to hit that button, like turn around and get to the right position.

So I think that'd be a great um thing to look into.

Um and then the roundabout one, I think it was slide three.

I was kind of just curious what will the roundabout look like.

Is there gonna be like flowers, trees?

Uh what's uh what's the design component of that?

Um I can I can take it.

Yeah, I think it's um it's gonna be pretty pretty plain.

It's gonna be a raised curb, but I think it's mostly gonna be uh just pavers or something in the middle.

Um I think there was one that we were looking at in Berkeley, some I forgot what the street was, but it's um it's there's no landscape.

Okay, it's planned.

It's not an exciting one.

I mean, roundabouts are exciting in general, but um and then let's see.

Oh, I was also curious about for the bus stop improvements.

What will the digital sign look like?

I saw like a little digital sign on the slide.

Yeah, but I was just curious like how that would look.

The screen itself is essentially like a Kindle where it's a very high efficient battery operated screen.

Um the looks because of its county connection specs, they like them actually taller than this photo.

So it's gonna be seven, eight feet high in the air, and they're larger than that photo.

This was just a stock photo that was taken from the internet.

Okay, and then it'll just always show like when the next bus is.

It will show the next bus and then whatever bus is on the line, how much what's the wait time for each route?

Okay, and then we'll get linked into county connections systems, so then they'll update it with their system.

Cool, and they'll actually take ownership of it once we install them.

Okay, that's awesome.

I love that.

I uh I definitely get confused on the bus stuff, so I always appreciate a sign.

Um and then the last one, the parkside drive.

Um yeah, I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about this one.

Um so basically it's gonna be like a bike lane to BART is kind of the idea from Iron Horse to BART.

Yeah, we're looking to provide um uh bicycle access um from Iron Horse all the way to uh Riviera, which connects to uh Bart.

Um in order to do that, we really need to have like a separated bike lane of some kind.

There's consider there's a couple of different options that we're looking at.

Um either a separate bike lanes on both sides, um, it's like a cycle track on the north side or the south side, but there's like different impacts on each foot each option.

So we're looking through those.

So you just need to kind of study it.

Are you gonna take you know comment from the public or anything?

Or how does that work?

I think I'll leave that too on the engineer now.

Yeah, so I want to say so.

If you notice a theme between this and that the newal and the parkside projects, these are providing the east-west connections.

You know, we have the beautiful iron horse trail going north-south, but again, uh the city lacks that east-west connection.

So parkside and newall are trying to fill that gap.

Um and so for this, yeah, we are doing the analysis right now.

We don't have the results about which side or how these facilities would be on parkside.

Um absolutely there needs to be a uh outreach component, um, which will go as once we kind of uh learn a little bit more about options.

Okay, sounds good.

Thank you so much.

All right, Commissioner Guerrero.

Thank you.

So we'll I want to stay on this one real quick.

So we're talking about the Iron Horse Trail that's down below Civic in the far right of the screen.

Yes.

And we want to bring that access to be able to cross over to BART at some point.

Um yes, it'll be a um it'll be um a bike lane.

So it's through parkside um onto uh Riviera.

There would be a connection piece on uh Civic to get from you know like Brio, some probably somewhere over there to uh to to this point, but that's a that's an easier stretch to deal with than than this stretch through Parkside.

Sure.

Okay.

Um parkside in North Main is a pretty heavy-duty intersection to bring okay.

Um and then the only other question I had was uh if we can go to the San Miguel one.

Um we're gonna put the sidewalks in on both sides, I think.

So since I don't know my first time understanding this, what about the citizens?

I mean, obviously I know they'd probably enjoy sidewalks uh on their side of the property.

Um but as far as do we can do we take in consideration the hydrants that are along here, like what what happens to the hydrants and where the sidewalks gonna begin and uh the bike lane is gonna exist and the narrowing of the lanes.

Um East May Mutt typically requires us to move those hydrants toward the face of uh closer toward the face of curb for access.

Okay.

Cool.

Yeah.

That answers it.

Thank you.

Right.

Vice Chair Patch.

Okay.

Um the Newell and South Broadway, is the landscaping baked in already?

Like it the picture that you have is plants and stuff.

Yeah.

So yeah, this uh this is a rendering.

Um I think a lot of it depends on the um the available budget for this project.

I think first is to uh get the heartscape in.

Um there's um you know there's there's looking at possibly adding in green infrastructure, but that you know that not all that costs a lot of money.

So we're we're seeing where where it fits in and how much money we have because the O-bag funds is is for the four different projects, and we'll see how much money um will be those those other three are going before this one.

So um okay, and then for the YVR left turns, which I think is the next slide.

No.

Yeah, these two?

This yes, this one.

Um have so I know timing on Y VR is a headache for all of you.

Um have you looked at how having a protected left turn in these three intersections will impact traffic and slowing the through traffic because they'll have to stop more often, right?

Or longer rather.

Um yes and no.

I mean, I think it depends exactly where.

Yes, we're adding another phase, and that could be additional delay.

Um let's not forget the goal of separating out the pedestrians crossing from left turn vehicles as we have now.

But let's look at what uh ignatio valley road in San Carlos.

Right now, the the north side will go by itself and then the south side will go.

Where when we change it, the left turns will go, the through will go, the then the left turns from the other direction will go, and then the through is for will go.

But the throughs can go at the same time as the left turns.

So we still essentially have two concurrent phases that we have to get through before we can go back to Ignacio Valley Road.

And then if there's no cars taking a through, we could even have a quicker return to Ignatio.

So it does depend.

And that analysis will be looked at for all these intersections that are being modified as we go into design.

So we'll have an early estimate about what's going to be going on, so see if we can tweak anything as we're designing it.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh South Main Bridge.

And I am mostly checking myself on this one.

This was closed like last year or the year before.

Am I we like did something in that area where we closed the road for a bit?

You might be talking about the bridge south of Macy's, that's uh kind of a smaller access road um that was closed due to a fire.

No, that's not what I was doing.

Not that one?

Oh.

All right.

Well, then I'm just making things up.

So we'll take my question on that.

Um, and then um can you bring up the Oakland Road one?

Okay.

So I I'm I'm just double checking the diagram on this.

Is it gonna be road, sidewalk, bike lane on each side?

Because right now you have road, bike lane, sidewalk with a bike in the sidewalk on the right side of this diagram, and I just try and figure that out there.

Sidewalk on the right side.

Like it says bike lane.

Oh, I get it.

Okay.

I'm reading this wrong again.

No, it's okay.

These are these sections.

Um there's a lot of detail there.

I think that label could be shifted over.

I think it's just pointed.

But you know, this is one example of a cross section, and if you look at the colors, it changes throughout the corridor.

Yeah.

So at one point, you know, you're looking at this cross section shown, but at other sections it will change.

Okay.

I know this isn't comment time, but just for public, I think updating this diagram would be useful.

I'm done now.

Commissioner Ash.

Don't forget our um our tennis player here.

Uh so can you go back to the first slide?

I just wrote my notes in order, and I just gotta thanks.

That one, right?

Okay.

So great job on this because I know this has been an intersection that we've all talked about before that needs to be improved, particularly on the pedestrian bike crossings.

I was just curious on the slip lane on the right bottom there on on South Broadway turning to Newell.

What is the impact of that on the traffic?

Does it slow how how does that impact like the backup to the words of the garage and everything?

Um so this this intersection on the bottom right there, that would be down Broadway.

Um but generally this um intersection would see some additional delays.

The analysis showed about you know 25 seconds additional delays.

And again, you know, modifying to a full pedestrian phase, you're gonna see that, right?

There's a trade-off here.

Um I can't tell you uh offhand if you know what the length of the queue is.

Um but you know, as you change the roadway uh vehicles change their mind and adjust accordingly.

So it may not be as a desirable location to drive through.

Okay, cool.

Thank you.

That was good info.

Okay.

Um we can go towards the um towards the bridge one, actually.

Um on this, and I know we've I I think we've talked about this bridge in the past.

I think this has come because you guys have been working on this for a while.

I know bridge replacement is what is a lot.

I would really make sure as we get closer to this and what has to happen that you go door to door to those businesses because they will be impacted.

And uh you don't have to go door to door in every location, right?

But here you're talking a significant closure.

And I would work with downtown Walnut Creek and make sure we're just really proactively communicating.

I guess that wasn't a question, sorry, that was more of a comment, Chair.

Um, but yeah.

Um then just on the so I guess that was a comment on that, but please make sure you reach out to those businesses.

And then on Parkside Drive, I think that was just great.

I know you guys have been looking to improve that bikeway um Alex for a number of years.

And so I just really want to commend you guys.

I know that's been an issue, getting people from like the iron horse towards the BART and filling in all those gaps.

And so I just appreciate how hard this must have been to plan and everything.

So I guess damn it, I screwed up on the questions again.

Sorry, Chair.

We may forgive you.

Uh how about student commissioner Kirsch?

Yeah, uh, thank you for the presentation.

Uh sorry I missed the first part.

Um I think most of my questions have already been answered.

Um I was also wondering about how removing the ride turn lane would affect traffic.

Uh, but it seems like it won't have much of an impact.

Um I guess my only I have two questions.

Uh one, um, I think for the funding, why do you have different sources of funding for each project?

And how did you determine which one was like federal and which one was local?

Um these these um particular question.

Um these um uh grant funds that become available and and the city up applies for them.

Um and um dude, there's different pots of um grant funding available that that fits certain criteria for certain projects, and and that's just where they they fit in.

Okay.

Um and then my second question was for the bus improvement project.

Um do you have like what specific improvements are you going to make?

And um also like do you have data on how many people actually use these bus stops and ride the bus?

The improvements are gonna be mostly the real-time digital signs, the shelters in the five locations, and then the associated um sidewalk work to bring everything up to ADA compliance.

Okay.

Um and then we do have real-time ridership data from the last um couple years, and that was used to help determine these sites.

Okay, thank you.

All right, thanks.

My turn, I guess.

Um can you just go back to the beginning of the slides, please?

So on the new project, I know we've the commission has seen this one before, so I have a repeat question, which is did we consider a two-way scramble?

So crisscrossing both ways, like you see in the city and some of our other scrambles.

Is there a reason we're not doing that on this one?

Yeah, absolutely we did.

I think given the Iron Horse Trail goes from that uh southwest side to northeast side, that's going to be the main connection we're trying to provide.

Um it's a pedestrian only phase, so whether it's shown or not shown, you can still do that movement, but just given the volumes of the iron horse trail, we're trying to really uh time for and provide for that connection.

Okay, so that's a great point you made.

Would we be able I I mean in this rendering we have some fancy looks like bricks or pavers?

Could we maybe add some little painted stripes or something so to so pedestrians would know, yeah, I can go this way if it's okay.

I mean, yeah, this is still uh in early state like beginning design, and so you know that's something we can look at and make sure it's uh usable for pedestrians.

Great, thank you.

Uh next slide.

I think is the the left turn.

So okay, this does have wiggett.

So I have a question.

So I think on the west side of the intersection where Wiggit is crossing Ignatio, there actually is no pedestrian crossing there.

I believe there's some metal bars and a sign that says, you know, don't cross.

Are we gonna open that up and put a crosswalk there and then have protected left turn for that one?

On some of these intersection improvements, we are trying to do that, especially on the the next set of projects, but on Wiggit, um I don't believe we are no.

Okay, because what it you know, um as a frequent user of that intersection, it because we have the school over there now on the other side, um the traffic has become pretty intense, both it at the normal school times and the when you're crossing um south to north or from the residential side to the shadowland side, it's really dangerous because you have a bunch of people barreling through the strait to go back to the residential as an example from the school and the medical offices.

But you can't really see them coming because the the way YVR crowns, probably for drainage.

The the oncoming traffic that's turning about to turn left to go up towards Oak Grove, it really blocks the traffic that's coming straight through, and I'm surprised we haven't had more accidents there.

So what I'm suggesting is even if there's not a crosswalk there, that that would be right for a left turn only light to go to westbound ignatio, so that the people turning left going that direction won't ever hope hopefully have to worry about getting hit head on by the people coming straight from shadows to the residential side.

Yeah, that's what we're doing.

Oh, you are doing that.

Yeah, so we will have left turns that are dedicated just left turns.

Oh, okay.

And then you'll have through movements.

Okay, so even even if there's not a pedestrian crosswalk to protect, you're still gonna do the left turn.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Um South Main Street Bridge, phase two, how long do we think that'll be a can't go through here zone?

Because that's a big job, right?

Probably 18 to 24 months.

Okay.

But the mic?

Uh the tentative schedule is 18 to 24 months, but it's still at 65 percent design, so that's gonna be refined.

It's uh it's a seasonal construction, so that Los Trump is Greek, it's um it's you can only work like certain months of the year.

So we need to establish the how to you know autopiles and everything and uh abutments, and then after that, then we can start working at deck and great.

Yeah.

So I'm gonna turn what would have been a comment to a question.

Um we looked at the cumulative overall traffic impacts to vehicle traffic of all the lane removals, lane narrowings, bulbing out, et cetera.

And have we analyzed would there be any potential negative economic impacts to our downtown by cumulative traffic impacts?

No, that hasn't been done.

But I think to Jared's point, the outreach for this project particularly it needs to go far and wide.

And we will.

I think we have contacts at Broadway Plaza, and we also have the Wanna Creek Downtown Association.

So there's a lot of existing contacts that we can utilize to spread the word about this and mitigate those impacts.

Great.

Thank you.

Any other questions from Commissioners?

I just have a follow-up question.

Alex, you mentioned a couple times seasonal construction.

Since we don't have snow and that's not a problem, what can you define what you mean by that for me?

Oh it's um it's just a Las Trampas Creek.

It's um it's active creek, so I think between like October and May, that's um like we can't be down there.

I think there's there's like storms coming to some surge of uh surge of uh rain flow.

Yeah, got it.

Thanks.

That's helpful.

All right.

Then even though I know there's no public sitting out here for the record.

Is there anyone here who wishes to make public comment?

No one from the public.

Great.

Then we'll close public comment and then we can move to Commissioner Comments.

How about uh Commissioner Guerrero?

Well, I like the projects, they all look really good.

Um I guess I'm very new, so I'm just would like to see a lot of these in other places.

So I guess I'm gonna take my time and to understand how that process works.

But um I think it's gonna make the the city better.

Um I do concur with the chair that there will be a huge economic impact, I think, to the downtown stuff.

And so I don't I don't have an answer, but I'm hoping that the ones that can find it will find it.

Thank you.

Great.

Uh how about Commissioner Ash.

I love the rotation.

I'm sorry, I made one mistake.

I I should have went with student commissioner Kirsch first, so if you don't mind.

Um yeah, I I also like all the projects.

Um I think like if you had to pick one to be a priority, I think the San Miguel Drive sidewalk uh improvement project is a big one.

Uh because I go in that area like pretty much every day, and um I think it's much needed uh because you have cars like coming at you really quickly, and um it would be nice to have that um like additional sidewalk and safety improvement.

Yeah.

Great, thank you.

Commissioner Ash, sorry.

That's all right.

Uh first, like you guys are awesome.

This is a lot of projects, and I know you're doing good, and I even though I sit here, I get to see what a lot of other and public works and engineering teams are doing around the county through CCTA and other purposes, and you guys are a well-run city.

Um your team is great, so I just want to say that.

And in terms of grant funds, I want to illustrate for people a lot of other cities are jealous.

Walnut Creek does really well at getting these funds.

So that's why there's a lot of mix of funds, and so congrats for for that.

Um other comments.

Um Oakland Drive, yeah, you guys know where I'm going.

If you could pull up that picture.

Um I know this is a couple of years out, but if you turn left from Ignacio today to Oakland there, you have that raised trail.

I have literally seen in the last year three cars make the left short and go up on the raised trail.

I am terrified that I'm gonna witness somebody there at that moment and the car not be able to stop in time.

I don't care if it's a yellow bright neon strip or something, if there's anything we can do today, instead of waiting until 2027 or 2028 for this project to come, please like do something simple because that is like my nightmare of all the traffic here in the city for some reason because I've seen that happen and it's gotten close.

Um so I just really want to emphasize that.

Um, just anything particular with Ignacio Valley Road.

Um, love all those crosswalk improvements, how you guys are thinking about that.

More than any road, that's a road that we have to pay attention to, like timing impacts uh on things.

Um and so just to be able to know what you have before Matt and what you have, you know, tomorrow after you improve them.

I think just something to consider to be aware, because signal timing goes all the way, you know, down.

It's not we're not changing one light, we have to change 12.

Um on that.

So I want to indicate that, and then I feel like there was one other thing I wanted to say.

Okay, I'll shut up.

Thank you.

You can come back.

If you were a member, just let us know.

Commissioner McMahon.

All right.

Well, yeah, thank you everybody for just sharing with us this information.

I think this is really exciting, all these cool projects coming up, and I think it really is gonna benefit a lot of the walkers and pedestrians and bikers, especially.

Um it's just gonna make them feel safer.

And then also I think it's gonna make the people in the cars feel safer too.

Because, like, you know, for example, to always stop, you know, like when you have the right turn on red, you got someone honking behind you, you got somebody cross in front of you.

Like it's kind of tough when you're in the car too.

So hopefully it makes everyone feel safer um across the board.

Um I think in terms of like the downtown, you know, if there is like a traffic analysis, I think it would be great to see that too.

But I think when you are downtown, like you're gonna have to drive slower.

It's a busy downtown, there's lots to do.

There's just lots of people down there.

So and I think with some of these safety measures, it could potentially offset you know the impacts to traffic because there'll be less accidents, less you know, close calls with uh with people and bikes and stuff like that too.

So I think you know, hopefully there's a net gain with all these um coming up, and and I believe there will be um based on the information.

Um and then the last thing is yeah, I think we should just um definitely keep looking into the passive uh signals as much as possible because I just love coming across those personally, and I think it just makes it easier for everybody.

So anywhere we can put those in, I think is uh is is definitely what we want to do.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Vice Chair Patch.

Thank you, everybody.

This was a very thorough uh report and excited by a lot of it.

Um couple of directed comments.

Um for this slurry projects, uh I can you just like give the construction crew a little warning to do cleanup when they're done.

Um I've been on a couple of roads that were done recently and there weren't great jobs.

You know, some of like the reflectors got bumped and they are just now in the middle of the road causing issues for people who are on bikes and scooters.

Um not speaking from personal experience, not at all.

Uh um for the Newell and Broadway, I hear you about the funding, um, but would love to see if the landscaping could include some trees.

Um that's a very hot intersection already.

And um, if you're pushing people even further away from the existing landscape, which is limited, it would be nice to provide shade coverage, especially for people that are walking or biking on the iron horse trail.

Um trees are good, especially in the downtown area where there's already a lot of pavement, and so the temperature is increased by that.

Um second Jared on the YVR timing.

Um Matt, it sounds like you have obviously you know what you're doing, but yes, it would be great to like hear just how it's affecting um that thoroughfare and whatnot.

Um I'm going back to the South Main Bridge because I feel like there was something a couple of years ago where we closed an area of the road in that general vicinity.

Um, not for like an extended period, but maybe for a day or two.

Um and I would just curious.

Um Broadway Plaza Street is closed through them all.

It's not that this was I I distinctly remember somebody from staff coming in here and reporting how they were gonna work on a section of that.

And it's I think we did talk about this project.

Maybe that's what it was.

We said it's coming, and we the timing was you know, still far out, and we didn't realize how far out.

Okay, maybe that's really what it was.

And I just talked about this project at least twice more going back to when Steve was deputy director, and yeah.

Okay.

I'm glad I'm not going crazy.

Well, I'm just a little crazy.

Um just to add on that.

I think we did have to like do a couple of like lane closures to um to do um potholing for utilities, and also we had to do cultural resources study out there because it's federally required for because it's next to the creek and everything.

So it's it's came up that we had to like dig for perfect.

Because what I was gonna say is like make sure that whatever we we learned from that on the traffic impact or you know um how the businesses responded.

Um you've already committed to reaching out to them, but I'm sure there's learnings from when we had to do work in that area previously to apply to this project.

Is did um East Bay Mud, didn't they close a street downtown like in the last year or so?

It wasn't you guys, it was them.

Yeah, they did some night work out there for um for their main, they did they replaced the main and then they had to close it.

I think it was.

That was on Ignatio.

They they did they did hair too.

Yeah.

That might be what also, thank you.

Um the bus stops.

I know that you're a little bit um trapped trapped as the wrong word, but um you have to uh comply with what County Connection wants to do.

Um I would just encourage you not to have benches that have arms in them, and one of the pictures did.

I don't know if that's what you're planning on doing, but benches that have dividers in them are um not accessible uh for various reasons um because they make the seat smaller.

So if we can make sure that when we're building up those places and putting benches, that they don't have any barriers to them.

Um I'm really excited about the parkside section and that that's gonna be addressed, and I look forward to hearing what the details are on that uh as you move forward.

I'm good.

Uh Commissioner Ash, did you remember what you wanted to add?

Yeah, thanks.

Then the next time you guys come with the slides to us or maybe even council, I would just ask to add two pieces of information.

One, um, the total cost of each of the projects, if that could be in a little box, because I think that would be helpful.

Um just for our educational purposes mostly, and then um some data too.

If you could pull like the street light data, which I know you know, that would be great to have per each of these intersections and and see that way we just get a better picture of everything, which I know you guys see that all that stuff.

So thanks.

Go ahead.

Sorry, one more thing on the park side.

Um the Broadway portion that comes into parkside.

Um that already has the bikes that the bike lane that's not the safe bike lane, uh the class class two.

Thank you, Matt.

Um and so what I really love about that project is that you get on that road and then it just abruptly ends, and you have nowhere to go safely on a bike.

And so this will be connecting that in a safe way.

So thank you.

Great.

Did I miss anybody or did everybody go?

Okay, great.

Um really just a couple comments.

But first off, as the rest of the commission has said, you know, this is great work you're all working on.

You should all be proud of all the work that you're doing and all the projects you're putting in place.

So my one comment is it'll be repetitive, but I I do highly encourage you guys to do a cumulative holistic traffic input impact analysis of all the projects together, you know, you know, pretending they've been built as designed.

Because we just want to be careful.

We we don't want to end up with like the best pedestrian bicycle multimodal situation of all the cities around us, but at the same time we chase away enough folks frustrated with the traffic that they choose to shop in surrounding neighborhoods or dine dying in surrounding neighborhoods.

So, you know, there's I think there's a real probably a real delicate balance to strike, and I think looking at it holistically would be valuable.

The other comment I have uh going through this exercise looking at these projects, and it's it's based in something I learned on design review commission.

So we the time the design review commission had projects in front of us, the plans were baked.

The the the applicants had spent serious money on their architecture and landscaping and other design work.

So you know it was almost almost too late for us to make any recommendations.

When you listen to the collective body of commissioners here, you can see there's a lot of great ideas.

Hey, that was a great idea that they had that's all I had.

Any any last minute other comments any commissioners want to make?

All right, then we will close this topic.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, guys.

All right, moving on to item C commission committee appointments.

It's an annual agenda item.

I don't know if you have something you can put up, Matt on the screen.

Okay, so we have the the CCTA.

Um I know the other piece of paper it talked about who goes to the mayor's quarterly breakfast meeting, which is the chair and vice chair.

But I also encourage all the commissioners.

When I have not been chair or vice chair of a commission, I went anyway, just as a member of the public because those quarterly meetings, you get really a great download from the mayor and the city manager.

So they're totally worth going to, and you get free breakfast.

Um so I think the only committee we have because we disbanded the I think the shared mobility, or did we turn that into something else?

We can get into the Yeah.

So you have the CCTA one, and then we have the um it's like a vision zero working group, which I believe Commissioner Patch, Vice Chair Patch is on.

And then we lost we lost a and we lost one, so we have an open slot there.

So okay, so let's go back to the CCTA um advisory body.

Uh so I know uh commissioner ash has been on this for how many years.

I lost track.

Um maybe five, six.

Uh yeah, just to share a little bit of information for whoever wants to do it.

Uh I'm gonna step down from that.

It's been six years, I think five or six years, and I had the opportunity to chair it several terms um longer than I expected to chair it.

Uh but we really up the level of the body of engagement here, and so I'm really just proud of that.

Um, Matt, I know you heard me talk about that during my reappointment interview process, but that committee five or six years ago was considered kind of a joke and um something that none of the staff at CCTA wanted to do, and now it is the committee in the next couple of years that will lead the um as CCTA moves for another transportation measure that will be the lead committee on that.

And I think that's because we've upped the level of caliber people and the questions that we've asked um in it.

Your only official duty, even though I know that measure will be coming there for input on projects and stuff, is you get to oversee um some of that measure J return to source funds.

And um one of the the key things that we got to do is to um not let cities take it as a sort of like we're just here and you just have to share a little bit.

Like I think they've hopefully all learned that they have to come prepared because we are gonna ask you tough questions, and we had voted people down, and so um if you didn't fill out your form correctly, sorry, like that's your job, right?

Uh that's the one actual responsibility.

So I just thought I'd share those things.

Um, it's from people all over the county, but we are fortunate because it is right here near the Pleasant Hill Bart station, and actually, I think that is Walnut Creek.

There you are certain you're you've made a decision to step down from that.

They have asked me to stay, but I am okay taking the night.

Uh they meet 10 times a year, so I'm okay taking the night back, but I appreciate that.

Okay, because I came in with an assumption that you might have wanted to stay.

I I will say on Commissioner Ash's behalf that, and I think it was at the commission interviews, uh, the city council vote spoke very highly of what you have done to help elevate the significance of that committee.

They were very complimentary.

Um I know it pass me last year.

I offered up to give it a try.

I talked about sometimes it's nice to rotate things.

I know you wanted to finish out your prior term on there.

Um but if you you know, if you really want to continue on it, you should you know tell us.

I I really want to continue on it.

Um thinking to do that.

Um sorry, I wasn't thinking to do that.

Um so I appreciate that.

Uh Matt, is there a way we can do it?

Maybe and we'd maybe I have to talk to CCTA.

Is there a way we could do it and we can have an alternate where if I can't make it, maybe that takes some pressure off with my family that somebody else can participate, or does that get complicated?

I don't know.

I don't know if that committee allows for an alternate.

Yeah, I don't think we've done that before, but that doesn't mean I know the rules on that.

So I think it really depends on big picture where your heart is on what you want to do.

I um well, I appreciate that.

Okay, so yes, I will um as we're talking about it.

Okay, I will stick with it, but if I can't um if I find that it's just too conflicting at home, um I will step down mid-term.

We won't have to wait a whole term as I'm not in the the dais or immediate dais anymore.

Is that the right word?

Dais.

Well, chair, I don't know.

So yes, thank you.

Yes, I appreciate that.

Charles and I will I will uh nominate Jared Ash to take another year on the CCTA.

I second that.

So we have a motion made and seconded.

Can we take a roll call vote, please?

Um Student Commissioner Kirsch.

Aye, Commissioner Ash.

Commissioner Guerrero.

Hey.

Commissioner McMahon.

I Vice Chair Patch.

I Chair Crowling.

I Congratulations.

Thank you.

Yeah, you if you find that I'm I'm willing to step up as backup if you find you're like, I can't do it.

Yeah.

Just trying to find that balance of volunteering and family.

Yeah.

Life.

What's the fourth wins?

Mics, mics, please.

Sorry.

It's the it's the fourth Wednesday of the month, and they skip August and November, December get squished together.

Although I would advocate now that they have to move August to July because that keeps up with the school calendar.

But yeah.

Great.

Well, congratulations.

Thanks.

And um then we I don't we don't have to really assign anybody for the uh quarterly mayor's breakfast meetings.

I'll I'll look forward to sitting there with Vice Chair Patch.

And so now we have the uh, I guess it's the Vision Zero working group.

Yeah.

And and who was the former commissioner that was on that.

It was Commissioner Reese as long as as well as with Commissioner Patch.

And um this this group is is evolving.

Um we've had two meetings in 2025, and I think we're still trying to find a footing that provide that allows for commissioner input as well as um them to learn about the uh safety approaches that we're taking um through various projects uh in the city.

Um so it's uh it's a bit evolving and the commitment I think is is still pretty low.

I don't plan for more than two meetings in 2026.

Um and those would be typically during the workday, we can be a little flexible.

Usually I think we did four o'clock to five o'clock last time.

Um but uh yeah, curious if anyone's interested in volunteering on that.

What is the goal of that?

Yeah, the goal is it's kind of two part one to kind of learn about our proactive measures for safety in the city and how we're addressing various things, learning about recent um collisions and events that occurred and how we're being proactive to address those in the future.

Um and then the second thing is you know, your community input, you know, you obviously are members of your own communities within Walnut Creek and having that perspective, and I think that's something that we need to to grow on and work on from the commissioners so that we can hear your input and what you're seeing so that we can you know take that in and and provide, you know, whether it's pursuing different grants based on that input or making other modifications to the road.

So I guess first we need to understand if uh Vice Chair Patch is interested in continuing.

Uh I yes, I am interested in continuing.

I've found it very informative about some of the more details, but I agree um it would be helpful to figure out a way for more of my input.

Mostly I just sat there and listened.

Um so maybe it's like input on the agenda ahead of time or like a section where um the commissioners on the team can give comments.

Um for example, one of the things we talked about potentially addressing in that uh committee that we didn't talk about last year was parking garage safety.

Um that's like could be a I I don't know how you do a presentation on that without first hearing about concerns from the community.

So yes, I think it's great commission.

Good good entry point too for our new commissioners.

Yeah, do we have any uh passionate volunteers that can feed into a motion?

I'm interested.

Yeah.

And uh are you interested, Commissioner Grawer?

Uh I'm interested behind my commissioner here.

If he's so you want two or three people, do we I think we just have two?

Oh, right, because you can't have quarter, right?

Correct.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Then I'll make a motion that uh Vice Chair Patch and Commissioner McMahon are on the vision zero working group.

Second.

All right, we have a motion made and seconded.

Can we take a roll call vote, Mr.

Secretary?

You want to attend if you could attend those?

Are you interested?

So when are the meetings taking place?

They're ad hoc, so we would schedule them and I work with your schedule to make sure we could make it.

Okay.

Um I still don't know my plans for next year yet because I'm graduating high school.

So I would have to uh to get back to you on that because I'm not sure yet.

Well, congratulations.

Thank you.

All right, so roll.

Um so student commissioner Kirsch?

I uh Commissioner Ash?

I Commissioner Guerrero, aye, Commissioner McMahon?

Aye, uh Vice Chair Patch?

I uh Chair Crowling.

I okay.

So I think we have completed commission committee appointments.

All right, closing that item.

Moving on to item five, commissioners' announcements and brief reports on activities.

So we'll start with the commissioners.

Um I'll just go in visual order here.

So student commissioner Kirsch, do you have any activities or announcements?

Uh no, I don't.

Commissioner Ash.

I'm good.

Commissioner McMahon.

All good.

Commissioner Guerrero.

None.

Vice Chair Patch.

None.

And the chair has none.

How about any announcements or reports from staff?

Yeah, I have a few.

Um so as Jared knows, uh, the Measure J compliance checklist was passed uh by the CCTA board.

Uh Henry Rood brought that to them, and uh we were successful in completing that.

That's uh, as you saw tonight, that's a popular uh funding source for some of our projects.

Um I wanted to share a lot of the input that we get uh about different improvements that we can make in the city uh come from resident request.

In 2025, um we received 281 uh various emails and calls for various things, and we completed about the same number.

Um that that tracks 2024 as well, actually.

They're both about 280.

Um so that's that's one aspect um of our work uh that that provides valuable insight into our community.

Um the bus route four, that's the trolley that circulates downtown.

That's gonna be rerouted um the between Saturday and Sunday.

So Saturday will run its current route, and then on Sunday it will run a streamline route that's a little simpler uh through downtown.

Um and so we're working on some signage to to modify that.

Um county connection is is leading that change um to simplify the route um and uh improve ridership.

Uh for the commission, uh the general plan update has kicked off officially, and uh as the commissioners um you will see this.

So look for that on future agenda items.

I'm told um possibly in the next or the following, there could be an item.

Um and then bike to where every day.

So typically we run a station um and then present to you that night.

Uh this time the way it aligns with the calendar is we'll have bike to wherever day um and then the following week we have the commission meeting.

But we have a few so since we don't have a commission meeting that night, we have a few activities planned, including a tabling event at Newell and Broadway again, down there at the south end of um Broadway Plaza.

Um, and then we have a bike rodeo at Civic Park, partnering with PD for that.

Um, and uh I think a bike ride um later in the day.

So with that, that's all I have.

Matt, what's the date on that?

Sorry, bike to wear every day.

It's it's like middle of the month, I think it's the second Thursday of May.

Because we're the third Thursday.

So I think it'd be the second Thursday.

All right.

With that, we will adjourn the meeting at 7 47.

Thank you.