RECEIVE update on the Monterey County Active Transportation Plan outreach campaign. 

The 2017 Monterey County Active Transportation Plan is an update of the 2011 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. The focus of the 2017 Plan is to meet the State Active Transportation Program guidelines, incorporate innovative bicycle facility designs and promote high priority projects. Staff will present an update on the public outreach campaign. 

The Plan is being developed in-house, and will position high priority projects to be more competitive for grant funding, such as the State's Active Transportation Program that had $240 million available on a competitive basis in the last funding cycle. 

In addition to creating an Active Transportation Plan that will meet the State's guidelines, and identifying high priority bicycle and pedestrian projects, this effort will also focus on analyzing key gaps in the existing and proposed bicycle and pedestrian networks, identifying opportunity sites for innovative bicycle facility design, and designating areas for enhanced regional and local connectivity. 

In May 2016, committee members from the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee and the Technical Advisory Committee participated in a mapping activity to identify bicycle and pedestrian improvements throughout Monterey County. In August 2016, Committee members provided input on the list of projects identified in the May mapping exercise. From September to December 2016, TAMC staff set up an online mapping public input tool. Members of the public were able to provide feedback on: barriers to bicycling/walking, routes that they currently walk/bike, and routes that they would like to bike/walk if improvements were made. Approximately 300 people submitted 430 comments via the Wikimapping tool. Staff collaborated with the Monterey County Health Department to gather input from their Greenfield Leadership and Civic Engagement group. Staff also collaborated with the City of Gonzales to host a South County public workshop for the Plan. The attachment summarizes the comments received throughout the public outreach period, and includes the comments submitted by the Committees and the public.

In the next few months, TAMC staff will be meeting with local city staff to review Plan comments, and refine the list of projects to be included in the Plan. Staff will rank projects, and will bring the ranked list to the Committees for input. Once high priority projects have been identified, TAMC will hire a consultant to develop preliminary designs and refined project costs. The goal is to have these high priority projects move farther along in their development so that they can be more competitive for State and Federal grant funds. This list will also assist cities and the County in identifying projects to be implemented with Measure X funds. 

The Plan will be finalized over the summer, and adopted by the TAMC Board in fall 2017. By completing the Plan this year, bike and pedestrian projects will be ready for the next round of grant funds.