Caltrans Planning Grant Applications

1. AUTHORIZE staff retroactively to submit two Caltrans planning grant applications:  a Sustainable Communities Transportation Planning Grant to prepare a Carmel Area Highway 1 Corridor Study and an Adaptation Planning Grant to develop a Monterey County Regional Conservation Investment Strategy;
2. APPROVE the local grant match of $71,800 from the Agency's future Rural Planning Assistance funding and Measure X funds; and,
3. AUTHORIZE the Executive Director to accept grant funds, if awarded.

Applications for the fiscal year 2018-19 Caltrans Transportation Planning grants program were due February 23, 2018.  Transportation Agency staff is seeking retroactive Board authorization to pursue grants for these two regionally important planning studies.

A total of $29.5 million is available statewide for fiscal year 2018/19 Caltrans Sustainable Communities planning grants.  Individual grant applications can request a minimum of $100,000 and up to a maximum of $1,000,000.  Staff estimates the budget for the Carmel Area Highway 1 Corridor Study is $265,700. This grant program requires a local match of 11.47%, or $30,476 for this grant.

A total of $7 million is available statewide for climate change adaptation planning grants for fiscal year 2018/19. Individual grant requests can range from $100,000 to $1,0000,000.  The estimated budget for the Monterey County Regional Conservation Investment Strategy is $474,000. Adaptation planning grants require a 11.47% local match, or $41,324 for this grant.

The Transportation Agency has utilized Caltrans planning grants for several corridor studies to assist in developing action plans with broad-based community support, such as the Marina - Salinas Multimodal Corridor plan, and the Pacific Grove - Highway 68 Corridor Study. These plans help set the stage for future transportation improvements in key regional corridors.

Grant guidelines and a call for projects for a new round of the Caltrans planning grant program was released on January 5, 2018.  This round of Caltrans planning grants included three categories. Strategic Partnerships grants fund planning studies for multimodal improvements to the State highway system. Sustainable Communities grants fund multimodal transportation planning studies that have statewide, interregional, regional or local significance. Adaptation Planning Grants support planning actions at local and regional levels that advance climate change efforts on the transportation system.

The recommended action authorizes Agency staff to pursue and accept Caltrans Sustainable Communities grant funding to complete a State Route 1 Carmel Corridor Study and Adaptation Planning Grant funding to develop a Monterey County Regional Conservation Investment Strategy.

The State Route 1 Carmel Corridor Study would evaluate sustainable operational improvements such as roundabouts on Hwy 1 between State Route 68 (Holman Highway) and Carmel Valley Rd to mitigate for impacts to the transportation system due to increased interregional tourism and visitor traffic and conduct a Safe Route to School planning effort to identify projects and programs that increase safe access to Carmel High School and Carmel Middle School. This study will provide the data, analysis, and public deliberation necessary to make informed decisions to identify capacity, operational, sustainable, and affordable projects that can be implemented along the Highway 1 corridor in Carmel.

The Monterey County Regional Conservation Investment Strategy will advance climate change adaptation efforts in Monterey County by identifying species and habitat vulnerable to climate change; developing a set of conservation strategies to improve their climate resiliency; and providing a framework to mitigate the impacts from regional transportation improvements by implementing those conservation actions as compensatory mitigation. This is a transformative project that will facilitate the construction of regional transportation improvements while at the same time protecting climate-vulnerable species and habitat throughout Monterey County.

Funding for the Caltrans Planning grant programs are available on a statewide, competitive basis. Grant applications had to be submitted to Caltrans by February 23, 2018.  Due to the short timeframe to submit grant applications, Transportation Agency staff is requesting retroactive authorization from the Transportation Agency Board for the two applications that were submitted on February 23.