REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL February 13, 2020 FROM: SCOTT L. MOZIER, PE, Director Public Works Department THROUGH: RANDALL W. MORRISON, PE, Assistant Director Public Works Department, Engineering Division BY: VIRIDIANA LLANOS, EIT, Engineer II Public Works Department SUBJECT ..Title RESOLUTION - Accepting and Adopting the Fresno Trail Network Expansion Feasibility Plan and the Corridor Recommendations Contained Therein ..Body RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that City Council accept and adopt the Fresno Trail Network Expansion Feasibility Plan (Feasibility Plan) and the recommendations contained therein for prioritizing segments of the City's adopted Active Transportation Plan (ATP). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Feasibility Plan builds upon the City's efforts to develop the Class I bikeway (multi-purpose trails) network proposed in the adopted 2017 ATP by recommending priority trail segments to be funded as funding becomes available. The Feasibility Plan analyzes all planned but currently unfunded trails and selects five corridors, roughly totaling five miles in length as funding priorities based upon criteria adopted by Council in conjunction with the 2017 ATP. Once funding is available, the City will move forward with each of the prioritized segments, which will include the design, acquisition of required public easements, and construction. These priority trail corridors contained in the Feasibility Plan are in addition to currently funded projects such as the Midtown Trail. The recommended priority listing of corridors for future funding are as follows: * Corridor A: Herndon Canal from Hughes Avenue to Fruit Avenue * Corridor B: Kearney Boulevard from West Avenue to Fresno Street * Corridor C: Merced Street from Thorne Avenue to B Street, Thorne avenue from Merced Street to California Avenue * Corridor D: California/Walnut to Hinton Park * Corridor E: Church and Jensen from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Elm Avenue BACKGROUND On March 2, 2017, the City Council adopted the Fresno Active Transportation Plan as a comprehensive guide for the City's vision for active transportation within its limits. The ATP identifies over 166 miles of Class I trails as part of a planned active transportation network intended to serve human-powered travel, including walking, biking, and wheelchair use. At the time the ATP was adopted, the Council also adopted the Active Transportation Prioritization Tool (Prioritization Tool) to assist in evaluating and prioritizing individual trail corridors and/or segments when funding became available. The Prioritization Tool uses a broad range of inputs to objectively rank trails segments, including access, equity/benefits to disadvantaged communities, connectivity, safety, user comfort, and potential mode shift/reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Following adoption of the ATP, the City, using funding from the Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant Program and Measure "C" Trails funding, engaged a consultant to assist in evaluating the highest priority segments of the corridors identified as future trails in the ATP. The result of the study is the Fresno Trail Network Expansion Feasibility Plan. The Feasibility Plan uses the Prioritization Tool adopted by Council to prioritize trail segments to build out as funding becomes available. Pursuant to the Feasibility Plan the following five segments of potential ATP trails should be prioritized by the City as funding becomes available: * Corridor A: Herndon Canal from Hughes Avenue to Fruit Avenue * Corridor B: Kearney Boulevard from West Avenue to Fresno Street * Corridor C: Merced Street from Thorne Avenue to B Street, Thorne avenue from Merced Street to California Avenue * Corridor D: California/Walnut to Hinton Park * Corridor E: Church and Jensen from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Elm Avenue The above segments represent roughly 5 miles of the 166 miles of trails included in the ATP. Outreach A Stakeholders Advisory Committee was formed to build upon previous engagement efforts and to provide high-level input on the Feasibility Plan. Stakeholder Advisory Committee meetings were held on April 10, 2019, and July 25, 2019. City of Fresno staff and the City's consultant hired to assist with the Feasibility Plan also held a series of public workshops on June 5, 6, and 13 and July 9, 10, and 11; with a total of 64 people attending. The purpose of the workshops were to provide an overview of the project and schedule, summarize the prioritization process, provide information on various conditions for Class I trails, solicit input on barriers to walking and biking, identify preferred walking and biking routes, identify how the community uses trails and how they would like to use trails, and solicit input on preferred trail design features and amenities. In addition to translating the meeting promotion flyers, the City provided Spanish and Hmong translation at the first three workshops, and Spanish only at the last three workshops. All meeting materials were reviewed by the City's ADA coordinator to ensure visual accessibility. All comments were received and reviewed during the development of the five selected corridors. Public Notice In addition to all of the outreach noted above, a Public Draft of the Feasibility Plan was made available for a 21-day public comment period beginning October 23, 2019. Notice was provided by the following methods pursuant to Fresno Municipal Code 15-5007- F. 1. A hard copy was available with the Public Works Administrative Reception on October 23, 2019. 2. The Public Draft of the Fresno Trail Network Feasibility Plan was posted on the City's website on the Public Works page. ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS By the definition provided in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378, this item is not a project for the purposes of CEQA LOCAL PREFERENCE Local preference is not applicable as this item does not involve a bid or award of a contract. FISCAL IMPACT Approval of this item will not impact the General Fund. Acceptance and adoption of the Feasibility Plan will provide a path forward on ATP trail segments prioritization, when funding becomes available. Any future awards of funding will be brought to Council for consideration. Attachments: Fresno Trail Network Expansion Feasibility Plan Vicinity Map PowerPoint Presentation Resolution