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Art3_Highland_FY15_BikePed_Connector_SummaryHighland/Redlands Regional Connector Summary of Project History Executive Summary: The Highland/Redlands Regional Connector project (Project) is a regionally significant active transportation project that proposes to construct a collection of bike lanes with the primary focus on constructing a Class I bike lane that crosses over the Santa Ana River to connect the two cities via Orange Street. Currently, there is no safe alternative for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Santa Ana River despite the fact that Citrus Valley High School is located in the City of Redlands on the south side of the River, yet the district serving the school includes residents on the north side of the River in the City of Highland. The lack of a safe pedestrian passage between the two cities in this vicinity discourages those who have transportation mode options from choosing to walk/bike and creates a serious predicament for residents whose only form of travel is via non-motorized means. Due to the importance of rectifying this problem, along with the Project’s consistency with the State’s vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals, the Project gained significant public support and scored highly when applying for competitive grant funding. The Project was awarded approximately $3.6 million from the California Transportation Commission’s Cycle 2 Active Transportation Program (ATP) and a total of approximately $860,000 from San Bernardino County Transportation Authority’s (SBCTA) Transportation Development Act (TDA) Article 3 program. Unfortunately, the roughly $4.5 million Project came to a halt during the design phase when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) mandated mitigation costs of about $6.4 million due to potential kangaroo rat and wooly star impacts. Unable to come up with additional funding that amounted to more than the cost of the project itself within the ATP timeline constraints, and with no recourse for challenging the ruling, the City of Highland was forced to forfeit the ATP funding and go back to the drawing board. In an attempt to ensure the Project gets completed, SBCTA staff worked with Highland and Redlands staff to propose a plan that would split the Project into three separate projects. This would allow the cities to move forward with sections of the project that do not have environmental impacts while SBCTA staff focuses on finding a solution for the key section with environmental impacts that crosses over the Santa Ana River. Project Description (see map at end): This Project was originally a 4.7-mile collection of Class I, II, and IV bike lanes that connected the two cities and nearby areas along Orange Street. However, as a result of work completed during the design phase, the Project has since been modified with the cumulative effect being the addition of .55 miles of bike lanes to the project scope. In Redlands, the City opted to construct a Class I on Domestic Road instead of Pioneer Avenue. In Highland, a Class III will be constructed instead of a Class I path connecting Orange Street to Glenheather Drive as the City is unable to construct a Class I originally planned her due to right-of-way issues. Additional modifications include changing the section on Orange Street between the future Pole Line Trail north to Greenspot Road from Class II to Class I and adding a Class II bike path running parallel to the proposed Class I along Orange Street between the future Pole Line Trail and the Highland/Redlands City boundary. Project Benefits: Safety: According to UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System, there were eight (8) collisions involving bicyclists and/or pedestrians that resulted in injury or death along the Project routes between 2016 and 2021. Sadly, two (2) of these collisions resulted in pedestrian fatalities. One victim was an 11-year-old girl and a 31-year-old man. While the addition of these bike lanes cannot guarantee the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians, they will at least provide some space between them and vehicles where Class I, II, and IV lanes are proposed. Connectivity: The Project will provide non-motorized access for Citrus Valley High School students both living nearby who will be able to access the school via a Class I route along Domestic Road and students who live on the north side of the River in the City of Highland. The Project will also provide a connection to Omnitrans Bus Route 15 and several other trails located within Redlands and Highland, including the Santa Ana River Trail. In doing so, the Project will provide a broad connective matrix of sidewalks, trails, and bike lanes with public transportation, thereby providing a more sustainable, healthier alternative choice of transportation for commuters in Redlands and Highland. Environment: This project fully supports and is consistent with local and State’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses (GHG) and vehicle miles (VMT) traveled by increasing efforts to create viable alternative modes of transportation. Below are few examples initiatives that this Project is in alliance with: Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure (CAPTI) was adopted by the California state Transportation Agency (CalSTA) in 2021. According to the CalSTA website, “The plan details how the State recommends investing billions of discretionary transportation dollars annually to aggressively combat and adapt to climate change while supporting public health, safety and equity. CAPTI builds on executive orders signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 and 2020 targeted at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in transportation, which account for more than 40 percent of all emissions, to reach the state's ambitious climate goals.” It explicitly states in the opening message from David S. Kim, the Agency Secretary, that “These actions include ongoing initiatives as well as new efforts to modernize transportation planning, programming, and mitigation to achieve the state’s climate goals. This includes promoting walking, biking, transit, and other modes of active transportation that improve the health of Californians and reduce our dependence on driving and the overall number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT)”. Senate Bill (SB) 743: was signed into law in 2013 with the intent to getter align California Environmental Quality act (CEQA) practices with statewide sustainability goals related to efficient land use, greater multimodal choices, and GHG reduction. Starting in July 2020, SB 743 eliminated the Level of Service metric for identifying transportation impacts and replaced it with VMT reductions. Active transportation is the first measure identified in the California Transportation Department’s SB 743 Program Mitigation Playbook (draft 2022) that can be developed because it satisfies CEQA requirements.