 All right, good evening and welcome to this community meeting update on the Santa Rosa Highway 101 bicycle pedestrian over crossing project. I'm Grant Bailey supervising engineer with the city of Santa Rosa Transportation Public Works department and project manager for this project. And I want to thank you for joining us tonight. The interpretation can be heard on the Spanish channel, you can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon that resembles a globe in the zoom toolbar on your screen. Before we begin the presentation, our host Lauren Wiley with the city of Santa Rosa and our interpreters Pablo, Rotas and Charles, I will explain how the meeting will work. I want to thank you for joining us tonight. You can hear the interpretation live on the Spanish channel and you can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon that resembles a globe in the zoom toolbar on your screen. Okay, thank you Pablo. As community members joined the meeting, you will be participating as an attendee. Your microphone and camera will be muted. Only today's panelists will be viewed during the meeting. Please know the city of Santa Rosa is committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment free from disruption. We will not tolerate any hateful speech or actions and will monitor that everyone is participating respectfully or they will be removed. If necessary, we will also immediately end the meeting. This meeting is being recorded and will be placed on the city's website following the meeting. At the end of the presentation grant will open up the meeting for public questions and comment. Thank you Lauren. Once again, I want to thank all of you for joining us tonight. The intent of this meeting is to give us give a status update to the community on the highway 101 bike and pedestrian over crossing project, provide a forum to ask questions and give input on the project. This meeting will focus primarily on the over crossing landings on Edwards and Elliot avenues and meeting to discuss the overall structure that crosses highway 101 will be held in the fall this year. Your participation and input is important to us as we proceed through the project. Next slide please. We'll start tonight's meeting with an overview of the agenda and the topics we plan to cover in the presentation. We'll start with a project overview and description of the project. Then we'll move on to some milestones that have been completed to date, and then we'll move on to the next steps for the projects, which the team anticipates coming in the next months and years. We'll then hand the presentation over to the project architect Steven Grover to discuss some design considerations, and I'd like to note that the topic Steven will cover in the design considerations were topics Caltrans in the city received frequent comments on during the environmental phase common period. But if you have other concerns related to the approaches outside of these topics, I encourage you to bring them up during the question and answer portion of the meeting. Which takes us to the last part of our meeting, which will be a community question and answer session. And again, the intent of this meeting is to provide a forum for the community to ask questions and give their input on the project. So, participation at this participation is encouraged at this point to ensure we have maximum excuse me to ensure we maximize the available time to get your input. And then we'll cover topics at a high level with more visuals available for when topics come up during the discussion and question and question and answer session immediately following the presentation. I would also like to restate this meeting will only cover the two approaches on Edwards and Elliott avenues and the structure spanning the freeway will be presented to visit city design review board in approximately October this year. Next slide please. So we'll talk about a quick project description. The highway one on one bike and pedestrian over crossing poses to construct a 14 and a half foot wide bike and pedestrian bridge that will cross us highway one on one and connect East and West Santa Rosa, increasing access to academic residential commercial and recreational areas, as well as transit hubs. In the final environmental phase of this project to build alternatives were considered alternative one was the Edwards Avenue and Elliott Avenue alignment, shown in foreground this, this photo on the slide. And alternative to was the range Avenue and bear cub way alignment. In 2021, the project development team, in conjunction with Caltrans as the lead environmental agency, certified the project environmental document and approved the Edwards Elliott alignment bill alternative. Next slide please. Right now we'll talk a little bit about the milestones completed to date where this project kind of started back in 2007. Our feasibility study was initiated for this project. And the feasibility study assessed the need for and feasibility of constructing a bicycle and pedestrian bridge over highway one on one near the Santa Rosa junior college campus in Santa Rosa. Ultimately, the study found there is a need to improve bike and pedestrian access across highway one on one adjacent to the JC, and the freeway overpass structure would substantially address this need. Completing the, we finalized the feasibility study phase in November 2010, which took us into the project initiation. The document phase, and during the space of the project, a document document was developed and approved by Caltrans that identified the project to be programmed for funding and construction on the state highway system. That phase was completed in October of 2016, which then initiated the environmental phase and the environmental phase. The document team with Caltrans performed a robust analysis of environmental considerations and also consider different build alternatives. Completed in March 2021, March of this year, with the selection of the Edwards Avenue build alternative to the Edwards Avenue and Elliott Avenue build alternative and Caltrans also approved the project in June of this year. The $12 million in federal funding was awarded through the active transportation program by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and this funding was strictly programmed for construction, so that was a very big step forward for the funding of to construct this project. And then following the environmental clearance phase, the city also awarded a design contract to BKF engineers, and we began the detailed design phase of this project in June last month of this year. Next slide please. So some of the, some of the plan next steps in October of 2021, following this meeting. And after we collect comments from an input from the community, we plan to bring the over crossing project. And then we'll go to the Santa Rosa Design Review Board, where we'll present the overall structure that crosses the freeway, as well as the approaches and plan that plan that it will be discussed in detail. I'd like to also remind everyone on this call that that meeting is also a public meeting. And if you'd like to give us comments or just comments questions, or just generally be involved in the process. You're encouraged to attend that meeting. Following the design review board meeting, the city, the city and our sub consultants will hold another community meeting to report out on the direction given by the design review board, and then also collect additional input from the community. And that will occur in November of this year. Following that community meeting. The city plans to work to develop the final plans for the over crossing project, which will take us into May 2023 when we anticipate design completion. At that point, we'll be ready to issue an advertisement for construction bids and are anticipating beginning construction in October 2023. We also expect that the project will take two years to construct and anticipate completion of construction in fall 2025. Next slide please. I would now like to introduce Steven Grover of Steven Grover Associates, who has been the project architect on the one on one bike and pedestrian over crossing project since his inception in 2007. Steven will provide a detailed discussion of the design considerations based on community feedback received during the environmental phase. Steven. Thank you Grant and thank you everybody for spending your time with us tonight. Before talking about your project. I'd like to share some reflections on how the design of over crossings is evolving in general. Next slide please. Most freeway over crossings in use today were designed during the second half of the 20th century. They were designed with a single design goal in mind to make walking across the freeway possible. Over crossings were, but they are, as you see in all of the images above typically not very inviting. And for example, in the two lower images, often rather difficult to ride a bicycle on. Sometimes, as you see in the upper left, it's even hard to find the entrance. Next slide please. Architectural spaces created in these older over crossings commonly suffer from poor sight lines. So they can feel confined and users may feel isolated. This detracts from the safety and security of these over crossings. Excuse me next slide please. Beginning in the 1990s. These communities and municipalities in the United States started to expand the design goals for over crossings beyond just making walking across possible. Broadly speaking, the goal for over crossing design is increasingly understood as encouraging biking and walking. Many new best design practices for the various aspects of over crossing design have emerged. We intend to apply all of these latest best practices to your project. Here for example is my design for the approach to an over crossing that endeavors to achieve a more positive user and viewer experience. Specifically, we introduced greater widths, clearer sight lines, gentler curves and slopes and a more eye catching structure than was norm at the time. Next please. New over crossing designs. Also increasingly include attractive landscaping. They highlight the entry points and are treated as welcome architectural contributions to our streetscapes. Next, in general, the design vocabulary for newer over crossings has become more about linking positive streetscape experiences, rather than imposing a freeway aesthetic on neighborhoods. As a result, over crossings increasingly employ alternatives to chain link fencing, for example, to provide for a more open feeling, such as with, as you see her on the left, woven wire mesh, or on the right cable mesh. Next. Over crossings are increasingly seen as structures that celebrate our, our alternatives to driving, rather than just utilitarian infrastructure to be tucked away. Thus, we also see greater attention to aesthetics such as elegant flowing lines that can please the eye. And as you also see more attention to the aesthetics of lighting, lighting that is more safely configured to avoid glare spots, and to just illuminate the traveled surface. Next, finally, current best practices for over crossing design. Trend, trend towards an emphasis on how both commuting cyclists and slow moving pedestrians can safely share a common pathway. Next, now for your project. I'd like to now show you some of our early iterations of the design details that we've developed with these best practices, these newer best practices in mind. We will be looking tonight only at the Edwards Avenue and Elliott Avenue streetscape portions of your project. During the feasibility project initiation and environmental phases of this project, we have heard from you about a number of ideas and concerns. As Grant mentioned, most of your comments fall into the following categories. Safety, security, parking. The bus stops on Edwards. And how the project can be a successful part of your neighborhood streetscape. After this presentation, we very much look forward to hearing more of your thoughts. Next slide. Just a little bit of housekeeping here. The solar panels and student housing shown here on the right in the red circles are new or currently under construction, and thus, they were not shown in the environmental documents for this project. One other note is that on all the slides where we're looking down from the top, we we've tried to keep north up. So you don't get confused. Next slide. One safety concern we have heard about since 2007 is how to avoid conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians. The solution shown here. A two way bike path and a separate sidewalk goes back to the 2010 feasibility study for this project. Next slide. Quickly. People have expressed concerns about the safety at the West touchdown adjacent to the Dix loading dock driveway here shown is the design from 2016. It clearly designates the mixing area at the bottom of the ramp, but it also allowed for straight ahead travel as well as for entering the drive aisle of the parking lot as shown by the red arrows. Some of the concerns that allowing this through travel, could introduce some safety concerns in response to your comments we refined the design as shown above to restrict these travel paths more. We also added a few other safety features which I'd be happy to discuss more during the discussion period. Next slide. One topic that touches on both safety and security is lighting. We want to work with you to achieve the right balance between a project that is well lit for safety and security. Yet is pleasant and comfortable and not harshly over lit like a gas station. Next slide. Here's another view of that same area. We just saw from a bird's eye point of view, seen now from the ground level on the east side of the project. The ramp will connect to Elliott Avenue near the new Santa Rosa junior college student housing that is currently under construction. Now some people at the SR JC have noted the increasing interest on campus in walking and biking. And they asked us to study how to avoid conflicts at this east touchdown area where multiple travel paths converge. Here's a diagram of cyclists paths shown in solid lines and pedestrians in dashed lines. And here's a view of the same public place that's created by this project at its east touchdown. This view is looking west along Elliott Avenue. Next. And here's another view from across the street with regard to safety and security I'd like to also note that the SR JC police station is immediately adjacent to project on the east side, and that the Santa Rosa police department has made a commitment to monitor the project on an ongoing basis. Moreover, the active retail on the west side, directly adjacent to project should also help to activate the streetscape. And as we know the more eyes on a street the safer it is. Next slide. We can also use plants and landscape treatments like the ones shown here. So it's nice to look at but not so nice to touch or lie down in as deterrence to repose or encampment. And we really look forward to your detailed comments and input on landscaping. We understand there are existing parking concerns along Edwards Avenue, the number of parking spots along Edwards will remain unchanged by this project. We also understand that there are concerns that this project will people wanting to visit the SR JC may choose to park on the west side. Now I know that the city staff has some ideas about how to address these concerns, and that they look forward to getting your input on their ideas during the Q&A period. There is currently no street parking along Elliott Avenue, and the project will not impact the street in any way. I'd like to mention, however, that we did do some design coordination with the team that is designing the new SR JC student housing. And we were by working together, able to increase the number of parking lot spaces originally proposed for this housing. We heard a lot about during the environmental phase was the bus stop on Edwards, and how it disrupts the neighborhood impedes car traffic, cars turning from Cleveland and attracts litter from people waiting for the bus. The good news is that it's official now the bus stop on Edwards will actually be removed. The bus stop has opened up an opportunity for us to consider an alternate to a straight sidewalk along Edwards Avenue. As you see here in the bottom. We have the option now to create a slightly meandering sidewalk. Here's a view from the ground level of the new overhead structure, the landscaping underneath with the straight sidewalk alternative. And here's the same view with the meandering sidewalk. I personally think this alternative works better. It creates perhaps a less regimented feeling with the supports that it intertwines with. It also increases the width of the landscaped buffer between the sidewalk and the street. And here's the meandering sidewalk alternative as seen from one of the buildings across Edwards Avenue. In response to your comments, we are also working to minimize large flat surfaces that could attract graffiti, or to treat them in a way that deters graffiti. Another idea we are considering is vines, but vines that require climbing structures so that the extent of their growth is off limiting, and thus low maintenance. Here's a view of that same area we were just looking at, but at night. We've also started to consider the plant palette for the landscaping for the project here shown is a palette based on shrubs and flowers. This palette is predominantly about grasses. And here are a few other plants, colors and textures that we are considering and would love to hear from you about. And I should mention now that Maura Baldwin, our project landscape architect is with us tonight, and she will be very happy to discuss the landscaping further during our discussion period. One design goals for this and basically every project is to retain trees wherever possible. Trees provide shade and many environmental benefits. As seen here marked in green, nearly all the major trees along the south side of Elliott Avenue. And the east side of Armory Drive will be retained. A few minor trees and landscaping in this area will be replaced. Next slide. Along Edwards Avenue. There will be losses of the new trees along the north side of Edwards Avenue, the landscaping areas between Dix parking lot and the street. All of these trees will be replaced as part of the new landscaping for the over crossing project. Finally, we look forward to your thoughts on who will use this new over crossing our analysis suggests the users will include the following. Your neighbors who are jogging walking or cycling for fitness. People from adjacent residential areas who want to run an errand or shop on the other side of the freeway and prefer not to drive. Using the smart pathway for north south travel and then use this project to make an east west connection. Also, people who are using the smart train to commute. And finally people who are accessing transit schools and other services or commuting to work on a bicycle. And with that, I would like to turn the meeting back over to grant. Thank you, Stephen. Next slide please. At this time, we'd like to hear from you, our community to receive your input. So we will now move to the question and answer portion of this meeting. However, before we begin, I'll ask Lauren to review how you can participate by asking live questions and comments. Grant, once Grant calls for public questions or comments, our co host Steve Brown will announce for anyone wishing to ask a question or comment to raise their hand and zoom. For individuals participating in the meeting by telephone, you can dial star nine to raise your hand. We'll then call in the public one by one who have their zoom hand raised. Steve will unmute your microphones you may ask your question. Once you've raised your hand and asked your question or shared your input, your hand will be lowered and your microphone muted so our panelists may respond to your question. Thanks Lauren. Steve are we ready for the first meeting attendee to ask their question or provide a comment. Yes, we are. Thank you, Grant. So I want to remind you that anyone wishing to ask a question. You should raise your hand and zoom. If you're calling in please down nine to raise your hand. If you are a caller for privacy sake I have changed your, I've changed your name to the citizen and the last four digits of your phone number. And that's how I will refer to you when I call on you. So to begin the first person in the queue is Derek Wayne. I'm going to enable your permissions to speak your microphone Derek has been unmuted. You may state your name for the record if you choose and go ahead and ask your question and make your comment. Hello, thank you. This is Derek Robertson. I would like to say I am so excited for this project. Thank you to everyone involved. Building alternatives to automobile transport is of course a huge part of meeting our climate change challenge. And I'm really excited about how this is going to allow me to travel up and down the smart corridor and get East West. I just had one comment. I'd like to suggest that the crosswalks at the touchdowns be raised to the level of the sidewalk grade because that's really nice and feels really safe. Thanks Derek, really appreciate your comments and enthusiasm for the project. Thank you. Right Steve. Is there another question or comments in the queue. Thank you Grant. The next person in the queue is David Harris. David I'm going to enable your permissions to speak your microphone has been unmuted. And you may state your name for the record if you choose and then ask your question or make a comment. Thank you for the record David Harris and I've been watching this project for a long time as Steven Grover knows, and I am very happy to see the progress it's been made. You remember we looked at Elliott many years ago and there were obstructions and the progress and JC planning has opened the way over there to in many ways and other than having a parking for that corner value in Armory. We've got room for a good landing there. And I'm also very happy to see the progress you've been able to make in alternatives for the Edwards landing. I guess I have a question of how much you've considered zero fitting plants. I put that question in the comments. Also, that would be a question that I've recently been down to Monterey and observe a lot of specific plants down there that you know succulents that can survive. Not much, you know, not much attention and not getting much water so that's one question comment. The other thing I'd like to bring up is I think about the possibilities that we might think farther about how to integrate this with the smart North Station, the multi use path, and the fact that there is an existing path along pollen Creek, going east toward the freeway it doesn't quite get to the freeway and then on the east side of freeway there's a long pollen Creek path on the south side of the county center. And ideally we could get those things all tied together. We'll take another over crossing, I think it pollen Creek, but I will stop at that I'm very happy to see the progress that's been made, and I look forward to the fall meeting. Thank you David really appreciate your comments and questions and I think I'm just going to clarify real quick. I can't quite, I don't think I can restate the words you're using to describe the plants but I believe you're referring to succulents I think there was a question out there that I saw pop up. And I think succulent type plants and maybe cacti are what you're referring to. Those plant types. And then you also referred to kind of future planning and what the city had any plans for connecting multi use paths and bike paths to this to do the over crossing once it's completed. And I'm going to actually ask Nancy Adams or the city of Santa Rosa's transportation planner to maybe just give a brief overview of what the future plans are to connect for multi use path and and bike network to this project. Nancy. Thanks, Nancy Adams, and I'm also on the transportation and public works department. And, you know, we're always looking for for those connections without their identified in our bike and pet master plan. And actually I hadn't thought about the pollen Creek one. So thank you for for bringing that one up David. Certainly, you know, making every effort to make a seamless connection to, you know, the obvious class one path along the smart rail corridor. So we can certainly, you know, reach out to our city water department who really has more, you know, more connection to the crease along our path and, and see what kind of status that pollen Creek has but yeah I think those are all the comments and, and the whole goal this is to keep the seamless connections for our bikes and pedestrians. So thank you. Thanks Nancy. And again, thank you David really appreciate your comments and questions. Grant, could we have more say, if check in with her and see if she has anything to say about succulents. Absolutely yes thanks even appreciate that. I'm glad you're there this is more bald and I'm the landscape architect on the project and I'm so happy to be part of this team and working with the community to create this beautiful space. So I think the entire plant pallet will absolutely be low water use whether, and I'm sure there are ways to incorporate sucklet succulents into that. And it'll be so we low water use tough and very, you know, very, and attractive at the same time. So drought tolerant plants are actually part of the state mandated water efficient landscape ordinance so I'm essentially sort of mandated to provide landscapes that are low water use. Thank you. Thanks a lot Mara appreciate the input. All right Steve, do we have another question or comment in the queue. And we sure do grant the next person in our queue is joy Wakefield joy I'm going to enable your permissions to speak your microphone has been unmuted, you can state your name for the record if you choose and then ask your question or make your comment. Yeah, hi. And I'm totally for this plan I just want to start off that way. Unfortunately, I live on raccoon lane, which is directly across from Dix loading zone. And I've lived here 20 years in the course Dix fairly no. And we've had lots of problems with Dix about that loading the way it's designed. You have like 55 and 60 foot trucks coming in and backing into that. A lot of these drivers don't do very well. So, I'm sure you're familiar with the entrance to raccoon lane. And we've had to put up posts to limit them. And Dix won't do anything about it so I guess my question is, is that going to remain as they're loading entrance. Because also, it looks on your pictures and stuff that nobody ever parks in that parking place on that side. It's packed all the time. I don't know where people come from to park there, but they use it constantly. And Dix is, you know, using and loading. And it's not only the huge trucks, they've always got FedEx and, you know, all the different companies. So, as you can see, we are probably about 40, 50 feet from the entrance to your new, your new entrance to your overpass. So, tell me what's going to be happening with Dix and are you still, are they still going to be loading there? Yes, that's that's a good question, Joy. Thanks for bringing that up. So, at this time, we did consider the, in the environmental document consider Dix loading access and as part of the project plans to make no alterations to that loading for Dix at this point. May I chime in on that, Grant? Of course you, please. Joy, it's really a joy, if you don't mind me saying so, to hear how the mystery of how the trucks get in and out of their result. Now I hear that they back in. And I can imagine that it's quite difficult for them. So, if you would like to take your, I've made careful notes, we really like to take your comments under advisement and, and look more closely at that. We'll also update our images to show that portion of the parking lot, fully occupied to give a little bit better representation of what you say is actually happening there. Thanks, Stephen. Yeah, there's another. Sorry, Steve. Comment your question in the queue. There sure are there are a few more. So the next person in our queue is Christine Culver. Christine I'm going to enable your permissions and your microphone is unmuted. You can state your name for the record if you choose and then ask your question or make a comment. Thank you very much and hopefully you can hear me. Yes. My name is Christine Culver and I am joining you today representing Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Corsi. And he wanted to just let you know that he is a longtime supporter of this project and very excited to see it moving forward. So I wanted to state that. And then as a community member and a SRJC neighbor myself. I'm very excited about this having been very involved in this for over 20 years. I'm so pleased to see it move forward to this to this point. I do have some suggestions that I'd like to make. I would like to see that the sidewalk across the over crossing be raised. I couldn't tell if it was or not in the drawings, but I would suggest that that would help delineate where the pedestrian should be and where the bike rider should be. And I think that would help with some conflicts there. And, and I also want to say that I think Stephen Grover has done a fantastic job on this. I wanted to put my appreciation there. And I do want to speak to the meandering sidewalk. And I strongly encourage you not to go with meandering sidewalks. While I think that they are pleasing to look at. They're not very efficient for the person who is using them for transportation. And I think we need to stop building our facilities for the drivers for their views that also need to be very cognizant that this is a facility for pedestrians and bike riders and pedestrians don't want to be wandering the sidewalks back and forth when they're carrying a bunch of groceries or they're hauling up kids. So, please take that into consideration. And thank you again for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Christine, and very happy to hear, you know, representative from one of our supervisors joined the meeting tonight and happy to hear some support from supervisor Corsi. So, Stephen, well, sorry, Christine to go back to I think your first comment was on the uplifted sidewalk on the deck of the over crossing itself. Stephen, do you want to just take a moment, we can look at slide 48. And I think gives a little bit better view of what we're planning to do here. If I understood the question correctly. Yes, and Christine, thank you for those comments. Well, one of the things that I just made a note of is we'll look at the total travel distance comparing the meandering to the straight sidewalk and make sure we get back with that information, just as a data point. The raised sidewalk. Yes, this has been part of the project for many years, and it's a future that has worked well on a couple of other bicycle and pedestrian projects that I've designed in the Bay Area. And here it consists of a sidewalk, and a very, very, very slight angled curb so that it's safe for both wheelchairs and cyclists if they run into it, but also delineates the sidewalk and separates it psychologically from the faster moving traffic of the two way bike path. So both the meandering side of sidewalk and the raised sidewalk on the over crossing Stephen. Steve, do we have another question or comments in the queue. Yes, we do. The first person and our, and our queue is airs weaver. And I'm going to enable your permissions errors and your microphone has now been unmuted. You can state your name for the record if you choose and then ask your question, or make your comment would help if I unmuted first wouldn't it. Thank you for the Executive Director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, and we have been watching this project with great interest for, oh gosh, over 10 years now. So very so happy that it's progressing along because our East West Alternatives College and Steel Lane are so ugly. I don't mean that just visually but safety wise and experientially to bicycle on and we still need that that connector across the freeway. A couple of questions and I have. I'm hearing someone else speak I don't know what's going on with you technically it sounds like it might be the interpreter is is I want a second. I've been director Harris you mentioned the being sure that everything connects well with other paths that's something that happens. So many places where things get built, you know, in separate pieces and then the connection between them doesn't always mesh very well and that that's very frustrating when one is trying to get from point a to point B I know the city's already got some improvements on armory and you know I like some of the other streets and so I'm I'm hoping just that all those other connections continue to be made as seamlessly as possible connected with that. So the whole the area on the Elliott Avenue side, since I've been in the past both the student and a faculty member out the JC. I'm not as familiar with the area, the touchdown by dicks on Edwards, and what, what what the natural user, you know pathway would be for folks coming back over. And I'm wondering if there might be some need for any small amount of way finding to direct cyclists coming from the JC side to down and over. You know, the best route to get wherever they're going there on that I can't be more specific than that as I said I don't. I don't shop there and so I don't really have as much of a physical sense of what that looks like but hearing folks talk about trucks and all of that stuff. It does does make me worry a little bit. I will add my voice to the others. Putting the kibosh on the wandering sidewalk I live in. I've spent most of my time in some county living in Cotate and runner park where there are numerous very windy sidewalks that I never see anybody actually walking on and when I myself do have to walk on those areas they they do they add. And to your amount of distance you're walking and I think you could measure it, and it's, it's not just that it adds literal distance, it, it, I think the psychological experience of the distance that it adds might be greater than actual distance depending on how long and how it is. But if I'm walking somewhere across the freeway I'm going somewhere to do a particular task and it's not like a path for somebody to be taking a stroll on right they're trying to go to school or the store or go home or something so as much as it looks nice in the picture for the person who's actually walking I don't think the wandering sidewalk is particularly useful. Okay, I think that's it thank you very much for putting all of this together. I really appreciate those comments. And, you know, I'm going to just go ahead and circle back to comments you made about the Edwards side of the touchdown area and, you know, I'll make a I guess a comment that the city is currently looking at additional or excuse me, an independent project that will make, you know, some some improvements to update bike facilities and make, you know, potential other improvements along that. The Edwards, Edwards Avenue. We're currently looking at scoping that and looking for funding as well. And then you made a comment about wayfinding. And we've, we've heard from a number of community members, and that is something that will be included as part of this project will probably be a number of different wayfinding wayfinding locations in which a wayfinder will will direct you to signage, etc. So, thank you. Okay. We have looks like one more hand up. We have Jack, swear engine. Jack, I'm going to enable your permissions, your microphone has been unmuted. So, go ahead and state your name for the record if you choose, and then ask your question or make a comment. Hi, I'm Jack, swear engine. I chair friends of smart and my interest and involvement in this project goes back as far as several of these folk, including Gary Helfrich, who was the chair of Sonoma kind of bike coalition. And David Harris and others. So I'm, I'm listening to some of my colleagues from this pursuit for many years. My angle as chair of friends of smart has always been access between the smart station on going to a road or what did you call the steel lane. And, or the GC, and getting people to use the train to get to and from the GC has always been my interest. Except that. began, I started cycling because I couldn't do the exercise routines that I'd done before and since that time I've now biked 3,000 miles and so I learned many of the bike paths and the bike access points and difficult places and I really support this not just from the commuter point of view but also now from the bicyclist point of view. So that puts me in the camp with some of the others. I think that when we started, was it seven, ten years ago, Dix was opposed to the idea at least they feared they were concerned about losing visibility from Highway 101. However, this design in my view is so inviting that I think Dix should be delighted. It will attract eyes on and people who are just using the over crossing to get to and from will say, hey, I'm right at Dix. I should stop in there. I think it's a great attraction and therefore it's great and that's my closing comment. Thank you. Thank you, Jack. Really appreciate your comments. All right. Are there any other questions or comments, Steve? There are, Grant. I spoke too soon. We've got a few more that have popped in. The next person in our queue is David Harris. David, I'm going to enable your permissions. Your microphone has been unmuted. You can state your name for the record if you so choose and then ask your question or make a comment. Thank you. Yes, I'm speaking for a second time, but this presentation and the questions and the whole topic of wayfinding has caused me to think a bit more about the situation there. Indirecting people back toward the front side of Dix, I think, is an appropriate thing to do because that then gives you access into Cottingtown on the east side, into the stores to the north and northwest there more directly than getting people further down Edwards before they go north into Cottingtown parking lot. So I would think that would be a positive from Dix standpoint, but I think from everybody's standpoint in reality. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you for that comment, David. And I do believe that is the direction of where we plan on taking is to, you know, other than if I guess it would be directing pedestrian traffic that is headed back towards Cottingtown more towards Cleveland and from from that entrance to the Cottingtown area or north of there. But the I believe the most direct access to the smart station would be down Elliot to I can't think. I'm sorry, I've lost the cross street down there. I want to say it's Jennings, but I don't think it's Jennings. Anyway, the cross street west that takes you to Kernville. Okay, we will move on to our next person in our queue. It looks like it's Frank Hague. Frank, I'm going to enable your permissions and your microphone has been unmuted. You may state your name for the record if you choose and then ask your question or make a comment. Frank, I believe you are muted. If you would unmute. Can you hear me? I can now. Thank you. I have two questions. One is on slide 23. We can't see slide 23. Can you go back or not? We can. Yes. Slide 22. That's not the one. 23. Oh, along Dick's Sporting Goods there. Well, maybe 21. Try 21. Dick's Sporting Goods. Okay. That loading area that was mentioned earlier that really is going to be a very difficult problem. I don't know how that's going to be solved because those big trucks coming and going. And I don't think you can ask Dick's to change their loading dock. That's my opinion. Number two, I don't see what you're going to do with that bus stop that's there. That was there. Is that going to be eliminated? And number three, about that crosswalk. You see that crosswalk going across when they get off the off the yeah, that's the crosswalk. What's going to happen to that bus stop there? And then the other one was go back to the other slide so I could show you that was 21. Slide 21. Yeah, you'll see the crosswalk there. Is there going to be a signage there or a flashing device or what's going to happen? What kind of device is going to be there to protect or to warn drivers coming in up up and down Edwards? There's a lot of traffic on Edwards and they're very fast. Maybe you can answer those three questions for me. Thanks a lot. Absolutely, Frank. Yeah, so we'll just I'm going to go ahead and I think Natalina Bernardi with BKF Engineers is our consultant on this project. I'm going to ask you if you could just speak briefly to the turning analysis we did at Dix to discuss the loading dock. But first I'm going to go ahead and jump ahead to question two and three. So question two was regarding the bus stop elimination. So currently the bus stop on Edwards serves two transit agencies Amtrak and the Mendocino Transit Authority MTA. And MTA connects to this bus stop currently only to as a connector to the Amtrak service. By the end of this year, the city's transit department or division has worked with with Amtrak to relocate their Amtrak service point to the downtown transit area transit mall on Second Street. And with that relocation of Amtrak, there's really the need for MTA to also go to this location is pretty much eliminated. So their service point will also be moved to the Second Street location for the bus or the transit mall. And then just to talk briefly about the crossing and believe you're referring to what's what's called a rectangular rapid flashing beacon and RRFB. We have not at this crossing. Thanks, Lauren, for bringing that back up to my knowledge. I don't think that we have looked at this. You did make a comment about high speed vehicles. I will say that there is we have traffic traffic counts for that for Edwards indicate there's low traffic volumes, but we have received comments and concerns about the speed that vehicles travel on Edwards. And so part of maybe some of those improvements that I was referring to earlier as an independent project from the over crossing project would also be to install some traffic calming measures. And there's a number of different options out there. So I won't speak to exactly what we may be doing as I mentioned, we're still in the scoping phase. But either with the over crossing project and probably with the over crossing project, we will definitely take a look at the need to add additional indication that there will be a pedestrian crossing at this crosswalk, either through rectangular rapid flashing beacon or other meets. Natalie, did you want to touch real briefly on the turning analysis for the Dick's Loading Dock? Sure. We reviewed the concept. We did not want to affect Dick's and Dick's Loading Dock because they did not have an alternative location for the loading. So we did confirm that with the manager of the store how the vehicles enter and back into the Loading Dock and basically re-ran the turning maneuvers similar to what they do today to confirm that this project and all the elements that we're proposing that you see here do not conflict with that. That turning maneuver did, as I mentioned, require backup, did require going into Edwards and backing into the Loading Dock, but it did not require interference or interfacing with the proposed crosswalk location, which was important to us. Thank you, Natalie. All right, Steve, is there another question or comment in the queue? Sure, our grant. Our next person in the queue is Derek Wayne. Derek, I'm going to enable your permissions. Your microphone has been unmuted. You can state your name for the record if you wish and then ask your question or make your comment. Hello. Hello, thank you. I'd just like to echo some comments that I heard from Jack Swearingen and others about how much of a win this is for Codding Town and the stores in Codding Town, especially Whole Foods. I can speak to my experience as an urban cyclist, somebody who loves to run his errands on foot or on his bike, that being able to go to Whole Foods from the Santa Rosa Junior College or even from Santa Rosa High School is pretty awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Derek. Appreciate your comment. Steve, is there another comment or question? And there is. Our next person in the queue is Tom Helm. Tom, I'm going to enable your permissions. Your microphone has been unmuted and you can state your name for the record if you so choose then ask your question or make your comment. Yes, thank you. I'm Tom Helm and like others, I've watched this project for some years and I'm very happy to see that it's getting close to reality. I want to refer back to slide 21, if you would please. So basically my comment is about how bicycles and cars will share a lane. There's not the Edwards Avenue is wide enough to have bike lanes and car travel. And so you can see near the left side of the photograph, there's Sheryls on the road. I think a lot of people don't know what Sheryls or how they're supposed to be used as far as cycling and a little education would be good. One of your signings as they get off of the over crossing could explain what a Sheryl is supposed to be for. And you could use this slide as an example of what is really that's not the right way to make a Sheryl, a bicycle travel on Edwards Avenue. You can see down at the bottom right there's a car in the lane and the bike rider is close to the curb and it looks like the car will probably overtake the bike rider. The reason there's a Sheryl out there in the street is because the lane is not wide enough for both a car and a bike to the share and a bicycle should just what they call take the lane. The Sheryls are there with the point of the Sheryls intended to be the path of travel for the bicycle. If the bicycle is out there on the Sheryl the car definitely will see the cyclist and use caution to pass around it instead of try to squeeze by it. So I'm just saying that I think if Sheryls are going to be on the road it would be good to have a sign explaining what they're there for and how to use them. Thank you. Thank you Tom. I really appreciate that suggestion and I think something we'll definitely look into and whether it's a sign or some other way to you know spread some information about how to use Sheryls effectively and sounds like we may need to update our imagery here a little bit too. So I really thank you for pointing that out. Steve is there another question in the queue? Actually Grant that is our last question from our attendees. I agree. Grant this is Natalina. I noticed there was a question on the chat asking where the Sorry go ahead. No it was asking if we knew where the Amtrak bus stop would be relocated to. Was that been decided? Yes the Amtrak bus station will be relocated to the second street transit mall in downtown Santa Rosa. I believe it's between East Street and San Rosa Avenue. I believe it's on second street between East Street and San Rosa Avenue. It's where the transit mall is located and that will be relocated. The Amtrak station will be relocated by the end of the year. It's what I'm told. I also wanted to I guess just check in with Steve or Lauren. Have you guys been monitoring the chat to see if there are any questions that popped up that we haven't addressed yet? Like Natalina was referring to. Okay I'm looking now through our chat to see if there's anything that has not already been answered or directly asked by one of our attendees. Give me just one moment. No problem. I actually do not see any questions that have not either been directly asked or answered. All right thanks Steve. So just a quick summary. The 101 bike and pedestrian over crossing project is going to build a 14 and a half foot wide shared bike and pedestrian bridge over US 101. It'll connect academic, residential, commercial and recreational areas and transit hubs. We're really looking forward to developing the design of this project and maintaining an active community participation through this. As a reminder we will be having a there will be a design review board meeting anticipated for October 2021. So in a few months here where we'll be presenting a more detailed design with the approaches and the over crossing that is a public meeting and I'd really like to encourage everyone here who's been involved and beyond in the community to participate in that meeting to provide us input on what you think this project should be and then we will have a meeting following the design review board meeting in November of 2021. So with no further questions I'd like to express my sincere appreciation and thank members of the public and all the panelists and hosts for participating tonight. We appreciate your time. We appreciate you taking the time to listen to us and provide your input on the Santa Rosa Highway 101 bike and pedestrian over crossing project. I want to remind everyone that we have a project specific web page for the for this project at www.srcity.org slash bike head over crossing. We can find current information on the project status and some traffic email updates on the project. I also want to note that well there's the project website right there on the slide but there's my contact information as well. So please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this project or any other projects going on in the city. I'm happy to work with you and take your input or questions. Thank you again and have a good night.