 Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the October 1, 2020 meeting of the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission. It is nine o'clock in the morning, and we are about to go open the roll for our monthly meeting of October 1st. Please call the roll. Commissioner Rockin, Commissioner Gonzales. Here. Commissioner Botworth. Here. Commissioner McPherson. Here. Commissioner Leopold. Here. Commissioner Alternate Mulher. Commissioner Alternate Schifrin. Here. Commissioner Caput. Commissioner Kaufman Gomez. Present. Commissioner Johnson. Here. Commissioner Brown. Commissioner Bertrand. Here. And Mr. Eads. We do have a forum. We're going to item number two. I'm sorry, Commissioner McPherson. Commissioner Lynn, just join us. Thank you. Yes. We do have a forum. We will go to item number two, oral communications. Any member of the public may address the commission on any item with a jurisdiction of the commission that is for an item that is not or an issue that is not on the agenda. Listen to all communications, but we won't be taking action on any items that are brought up. Speakers are requested to state their name and police or their names can be accurately recorded in the minutes of the meeting. Do we have anybody that would like to address us in oral communications? Yes. We have Mr. Pico. Okay. Good morning. I hope people can hear me. Yes. Yes. But I'll wait for Yosinia to pull up my PowerPoint. I'm a PowerPoint guy. And lucky for you, there will be just one I hope to get through, one page. I want to talk about the cost of the Unified Corridor Study, Unified Corridor Study projects on transit. And I've grafted out using their numbers for the different projects that are in Appendix B. So the bus on shoulder comes up to about 140 million, 120 million. I don't recall exactly, but you can see it's pretty low. To be fair, it's piggybacking on top of the auxiliary lane, which is going to cost about a hundred million dollars. So that whole line should be moved up a little bit. But the point is that's a low cost solution. However, we should recognize that the bus on shoulder will take relatively few people back and forth between Santa Cruz and Watsonville, because it's not going through the areas of interest besides stopping once at Cabrillo College. The bus rapid transit has a low cost as well. It's a higher cost of operation over 30 years. But it's going down the main areas of business and health and where people want to go. So it would carry a lot of people, probably more than any of the other alternatives being shown. The bus on the rail corridor, and I put in no connections, that's the one that's included in this study. But if you recall, that's going to just keep people limited on the rail corridor next to the coast. It's 600 million dollars over 30 years. More expensive than the bus rapid transit, less effective, and people are stranded at the boardwalk, which is half a mile away from downtown, half a mile away from Capitola Mall, all the places of businesses that people go. The bus on the rail corridor, if you add connector buses where people would like to go, like the Dominican Hospital and Home Depot and all those places, and even downtown Santa Cruz, maybe they might want to go, that would run the cost up to, unfortunately, I can't give me one second. I have to minimize something. Anyway, that goes up to about almost one billion dollars over 30 years. And lastly, the train on corridor with the connector buses, which is what is proposed, is a 1.2 billion dollar project over 30 years. And my point is, this commission is on an all or nothing strategy relative to quite honestly the train, or maybe the bus on the corridor. But you can't get there from here. And I wonder when the commission will take a moment to try and compromise their goals and actually find an affordable solution to transit instead of some ideology that we cannot afford. I've always said this, if the train were free, I'd be for it. I have no problem with that. It's just ridiculously expensive and ineffective, very low ridership for the amount of cost. And that's really my point. I wish you guys would quite honestly wake up to reality. And, you know, and I don't know, I just feel like we're wasting, you've wasted 10 years already, and you're going to waste another 20, 30 years until the commission figures out they don't have money to get there. Thank you. And I would love to hear some comments. If anybody would like to address my question about affordability on these. And I forgot to say my name's Kerry Pico from Aptos. I apologize. Thank you. Do we have anyone else that would like to address this in oral communications. Yes. We have Keith Otto, I need to bring something up for his presentation. Mr Otto was yours the PowerPoint here for me PDF. That's it. And yeah, you can do a control zero and it'll size to full screen looks like yeah looks like that's it. Okay, great. Hey, so quick sound check right and everyone hear me okay. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thanks so much Keith Otto County resident. I wanted to follow up on an item that was shared at the meeting last month by another speaker regarding utilization of the tracks in the rail corridor. Quick recap of the item discussed that I want to revisit. If train service is implemented in the rail corridor what can we expect as far as utilization of the tracks. In other words, if one were to stand next to the tracks all day, the state distance of course, how much of the time with the tracks be used with a train going by for example as pictured in the upper row. Compare that to how much time with the tracks be idle, no activity on the tracks as pictured in the lower row. The calculation comes down to how much time does it take for a train to pass by, and how many trains go by in a day. And compare that to the total time in a day. Does anyone recall the numbers shared last month. Next slide please. So those numbers were 1% utilization 99% of the time the tracks are idle. I pulled out some pencil and paper and did the math. There's some engineer types on the commission I invite you to do the math as well and let me know what you come up with. What did I find the speaker last month was very, very, very generous in his numbers. Next slide please. So in order to do these calculations, we need some specifics and I leveraged the pre pandemic details from the Sonoma Marin smart train. And here's what we find that the utilization is much, much, much less than 1%. Now, if you all choose to implement a train here, it probably won't be exactly the same as smart, it'll be somewhat different. But the utilization of the tracks will still be very much less than 1%. Consider what it would take for smart to reach that 1% utilization. Next slide please. Smart would need to run 287 trains a day to get to that 1%. Bottom line, why does this matter? What's the point? The rail corridor is a very unique, very precious space. The ask is that we make decisions to use this space most effectively and most wisely. And the question for all of you is in the coming months, that's going to be how do we make this happen? How do we use this most precious space wisely and effectively? Thanks for your time. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Appreciate your presentation. Anyone else that would like to address this oral communications. Mr Brian peoples. Mr peoples. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is Brian peoples with trail now. You know, first of all, I want to thank Carrie and keep for continuing to dig deep into the technical details of using the corridor and transportation as a whole. You know, those are communities actually really fortunate to have people like keep and carry and then as well who come out and really help communicate and dig into the numbers because the numbers can be complicated. There's a lot of variables. But truly, you know, when what both carry and keep are expressing is its unrealistic spending plan. The plan right now is not affordable. In our community really, really does need to use the Santa Cruz coastal corridor. We really, really need to use it for transportation today now. It's a core public policy that we're sitting a decade that taxpayer owned property that essentially actually actually factually has cost our Santa Cruz taxpayers $25 million for maintenance. And those maintenance is for a tourist train for tourists, tourists entertainment, and that's not what that corridor is about that corridor is about using it now. We need to open it up, you know, trail now has worked a long time trying to get the use of it today as a, you know, even as a temporary solution, and we're still asking to do that and we're hopeful that, you know, you're looking you're planning right now 2040. Well, 2040 is 20 years away and that's when you're going to get your may get money. You may not. But we need to use it now. So we're really asking for you to look at and help us find a way to use it in 2021 over. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else would like to address this and oral communication. Mr. Miss Sadie Miller. Good morning. I listened to Mr. Pico's presentation earlier. Just wanted to express my gratitude to the Regional Transportation Commission and all of you for listening to the community at large and embracing a triple bottom line analysis of transportation projects in our county. And while Kerry's presentation may have been impressive, he leaves out some very important things, which is the impacts on the people, the planet and the economy as a whole. For example, he fails to mention that putting a rail on the corridor generates the maximum number of users, 7000 per day versus 4,000 per day for a bus. He fails to mention that putting rail on the corridor would save roughly 10 metric tons of CO2 every day compared to a bus on the corridor, which is the equivalent of planting something like 66,000 trees every year. And growing them for 10 years of a world of forests, of carbon cleaners. And he fails to mention that when you look at a per passenger mile or purporting cost, rail is of the better value. So thank you for keeping the triple bottom line in mind when you're making decisions about transportation or port. Thank you. Thank you. When else would like to address this and oral communications. Mr. Michael St. Mr. St. Can you hear me. Yes. Okay. Good morning commissioners and staff. First, I'd like to thank all of you for your hard work and public service during these difficult times. I'd like to remind you back in 2013, the state passed Senate Bill 743 to correct a negative outcome of Sequa process. As of July 1, 2020, the state's guidelines for implementing SB 73 are now a requirement for all cities and counties. With the goal to reduce traffic delay, cities expanded roads and intersections. The state now recognizes that the old policy resulted in increased traffic, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and urban sprawl. CFST requests that you recommend a new policy that is more aligned with the spirit of SB 743. We request that the RTC use measure D funds towards reducing vehicle miles traveled, which is a metric identified by the state to determine policy's impact. Funding should go towards encouraging mode shifts such as walking, bicycling, mass transit, and telecommunicating. On September 10, 2020, I sent all the commissioners a letter realizing that your time is valuable and in short supply due to the numerous problems that have arisen these past six months. Basically, I'd like to direct you to that short 10-minute Caltrans video, which is included in that email. It gives you an overall summary of the new Sequa guidelines to use under SB 743 for planning and approving transportation projects. This is a big change and something we all need to have some grasp of to make present and future decisions about how we move people around our county. The county is not grandfathered under previous EIRs, and those may be revisited on a case-by-case basis. I hope you'll review that September 10th email I sent. Hope you'll watch the video to get some knowledge of what is actually supposed to happen in our county according to the state of California. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Stain. I'd like to address this on our communications. Barry Scott. Thank you. This is Barry Scott in Aftos, and I want to share a, I want to thank the RTC and I want to use, I want to, I want to share a lofty quote that sometimes has been attributed to Martin Luther King. But I believe it goes back to Theater Parker in sometime in the 19th century. He says, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. And I want to apply that to the arduous task of figuring out what to do with our rail corridor, our transit corridor. And that I really respect the diligence that staff and the commission and all of the other, you know, participants in this important decision, including our neighbors in Tamsi in Monterey County, have committed toward what will turn out to be justice. This, this, the use of this corridor is a matter of equity. I think the commissioners realize this. I know that there's, there are always challenges in, in trying to reach consensus and trying to find funding for something like this, but this is so important. I just really respect having been an observer and participant in the various studies that seem to continue to bring us back to the same point that transit and probably rail transit of some form on that rail core and connected to the state network and connected to Monterey are going to turn out to be the right thing to do. I just, I look forward to the results of the Prince transit corridor alternatives analysis. I'm excited to see the governor signing SB 288 that allows public transit agencies to temporarily bypass environmental reviews and fast track projects, including bus lanes, but also light rail service. And so I just encourage you to keep moving, moving ahead. And I just want to thank you very much. Thank you. Anybody else would like to address this under oral communications. I do not see any other hands. Okay. We will move on to item number three additions or deletions to the consent and regular agenda says any board member have went request to pull an item, either on consent or on the regular agenda. And before we do that, chair, I do have to report out that there is a replacement agenda. It's a fairly minor change. We added a county, the county has a party to item 22 at the bottom of the agenda and then I would like to reverse the order of closed session and have item 21 proceed item 22. Proceed item 21. And that's necessary due to staff availability. And then there's also a replacement page for item 12 and a handout for item 16 and those items are posted on our webpage. I got that was the handout there correspondence log. Okay. So item 22 is not on the closed session. We're just going to move 22 to 21 and 21 become 22. Correct. Okay. All right. Okay. Address anything on the consent agenda items. For through 17. Does anybody have any comments or want to pull any item for any reason. Anybody from the public. I do not see anybody with the raised hand. I'll move the consent agenda. Second it. Send agenda has been moved and seconded. Please call the roll. Commissioner alternate Lynn. She's on mute. I just on mute. I. Commissioner Gonzalez. I. Commissioner Botthorff. I. Commissioner McPherson. I. Commissioner Leopold. I. Commission alternate Mulher. Commission alternate Schifrin. I. Commissioner Caput. I. Commissioner Kaufman Gomez. Yes. Commissioner Johnson. I. Commissioner Brown. I. Commissioner Bertrand. I. That's unanimous. Very well. We will go to our regular agenda on item number 18 and commissioner report commissioner reports. Is there anybody that has an oral report that they would like to address. The commission. Seeing none hearing none we go to. Item number eight or 19 of the director's report. An oral report by our executive director guide Preston. Thank you. Commissioner McPherson commissioners and members of the public. I have several informational items to report out today on. Starting first with. One of our highway projects. RTC trans are seeking public input. On the highway one auxiliary lane and bus on shoulder project between freedom Boulevard and state park drive. And the coastal rail trails segment 12. Through an online open house. And it's also available on our website. Cal trans is formally initiating studies for the preparation of the draft environmental impact. Report and environmental assessment. On with. The means of the online open house. We will present factors to be considered in the draft. For the segment of the highway one and the coastal rail trail. Segment. Can visit the open house and provide their input through October 19th. Thank you. Is that open house again? What date is that again? It's available right now via our website. It's. It's an interactive. Open house via our website. So you can log on today and you can do it. Any time between now and October 19. Thank you. And then similarly. As part of the highway one auxiliary lane. And then we have a particular project between state park and Bay Porter drive. We have a online video and are also seeking public comment on the mar vista over crossing. Aesthetics associated with that project. There's a link also on my director's court to that. Website. It's available right now. And comment is being accepted through October 9th. 2020. I have a coastal rail trail update. Project development and construction continues on various segments of the coastal rail trail. Highlight this project. The land trust to Santa Cruz County produced an informational video which shows significant construction progress on segment. Seven phase one of the trial which extends across the west side of Santa Cruz. I expect to have an announcement on a virtual ribbon cutting of segment seven at the next RTC meeting. The video also provides a nice overview of the full trial and discusses many of its design concepts. And if you miss Corey Coletti, I highly recommend that you take a look at this website. Corey stars in it and really does a great job of showing what's some of the progress that we have on the rail trial. I also provided in my director's report a map which shows all of the sections of the rail trail that are under development. We have over half of the rail trial itself moving forward at this time. And there's great information on our website regarding the progress that we're making. The Santa Cruz County Bicycle Route signage program and project is expected to be completed tomorrow with the last signs being installed in Capitola. In an effort to increase bicycle ridership and safety in the county, bicycle way finding signs has been installed at 303 locations throughout the county, funded primarily by a state active transportation program brand. The signage will assist all types of bicycle riders in finding and assessing major destinations throughout the county. Signs also mark the revised long distance Pacific Coast route. As a reminder, October is bike month and in celebration we encourage everyone to get out and explore the county on their bikes and use the new signage to reach areas of interest as well as preferred and safe routes to travel throughout the county. There's an online map available with the signage on our website and I provide a link to that also in my director's report. I have an announcement on an emergency contract. On September 8, 2020 I executed an emergency sole source contract with industrial rail for $8,260 to make repairs to the maintenance walkway on the Antonelli Tressel after conferring with chair McPherson. This bridge was damaged when an SUV tried to drive across the bridge and broke through the walkway. The work to repair the walkway has been completed. RTC is seeking reimbursement from the insurance of the driver. The transit corridor alternatives analysis. RTC staff is working with this consultant, HDR on completing performance measures. And the draft report. The schedule was being driven by a Caltrans requirement associated with network integration study. Caltrans has agreed to provide relief to their deadline which has allowed RTC and its consultant the latitude to adjust the schedule out by approximately a month. The extra time will be used to complete the supporting information and the data needed to be provided. The revised schedule is shown in my director's report. But in summary, we'll be going out to the public in November, presenting to Metro in December, presenting to the board, staff's recommendation in January. Commission action will be in February on the locally preferred alternative. And then the business plan will come in April. Making national news, Governor Newsom released the report. In January, 2020, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change by drastically reducing the demand for fossil fuels by phasing out gasoline powered cars and trucks. Transportation currently accounts for more than 50% of California greenhouse gas emissions. Zero emission vehicles are a key part of California's clean, innovative economy and as already California's second largest global innovation philosophy. So, in September, 2020, we will be bringing forward the goal of the transition of cars and trucks to zero emission vehicles over the next 15 to 25 years. Details are provided in my director's report. But in summary, 100% of the in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks are ordered to be zero emissions by 2035. The goals are expected to be achieved through focus on requiring automakers to steadily sell more zero emission vehicles until they make up the 100% of new sales by 2035. The state will work in partnership with utility companies, local jurisdictions, air districts, transportation agencies, and other stakeholders to significantly expand charging infrastructure throughout the state and provide affordable fueling and charging options for zero emission vehicles in ways that serve all communities and in particular low income and disadvantaged communities. The executive order also calls for the development of a zero emissions vehicle market development strategy, including additional rebates to consumers. It also sets goals regarding oil production and extraction. There are several links in my report to studies that have been done locally and programs that have been done locally and I expect that there will be more forthcoming. The executive order also direct state agencies to develop strategies to improve clean, patient and sustainable freight and transit options, including an integrated statewide rail and transit network and supporting bicycle, pedestrian, and micro mobility options, particularly in low income and disadvantaged communities. So essentially the governor is doubling down on his executive order 1919 that I reported to you last month in regards to driving transportation funding towards these more sustainable programs. RTC continues to prioritize multimodal sustainable transportation solutions into its long range planning, including our RTP, the unified corridor study, the transit quarters alternatives analysis. The analysis itself funded by Caltrans will integrate transit assumptions and show connectivity to the state rail network. RTC is also advancing three hybrid highway one auxiliary lane bus on shoulder projects that would promote clean electric transit while promoting safety and operations and reducing cut through traffic on local roads. The highway one projects include bicycle infrastructure in a way that creates synergy between transportation modes. That's a goal of the state and RTC continues to lead in that effort. Our recent application for SB1 funding discusses how our proposed bicycle and pedestrian improvements on Soquel Drive lead to active transportation bridges on across the highway to the Santa Cruz branch rail line another multimodal facility consisting of the rail trail and future clean transit. RTC staff and local jurisdictions will be participating in discussions with state agencies on the implementation of the executive order. And a member of the public beat me to it in letting you know that the governor signed Senate Bill 288 on September 29th. This allows public transit agencies to temporarily bypass environmental reviews and fast track projects such as bus lane, bus routes and light route service. According to press announcements, pedestrian pathways, bike sharing facilities, bike only lanes, charging stations for electric buses and light rail systems would all be easier for transit agencies to construct under the law. Projects would have to be located within an existing public right away could not increase automobile capacity or demolish affordable housing and would have to meet heightened labor standards to qualify an existing exemption from environmental review law or new bicycle lanes plus parking and storage will be extended through 2030. Cities and County transit regional and state agencies are awaiting state guidance and evaluating which projects could be accelerated. I'm sure there'll be a lot of questions on this. There's going to be a lot of debate moving forward as to which projects we should consider and doing so. But I don't wanna jump the gun. I think we need to really analyze this before drawing any conclusions as to what exactly it means for our projects. Federal Transportation Act. Yesterday, the FAST Act was set to expire on September 22nd. The House approved a one year extension of the FAST Act wrapped into a continuing resolution aimed at averting a federal government shutdown from October 1 through December 11th. The Senate approved the extension yesterday. The extension includes $14 billion that is needed to keep the highway trustment afloat. And we do plan a more detailed roundup of state and federal legislation at our next RTC meeting. That concludes my director's report. Thank you very much for a very, very good report. And particularly on the bus signage, I know it's been a long time coming. And I think some of our commissioners, Mr. Leopold and others have put the question for that. You said there was 303 signs or locations. Does that go from Watsonville to Scotts Valley or what's the range? You might have mentioned that, but I didn't hear it exactly. It is throughout the entire County. So it's a local jurisdiction and it does go all the way up through the San Lorenzo Valley as well, commissioner McPherson. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Coffin-Gomez, you're muted, but go ahead. So one of the questions that I have, it's coordinating, right? One of the questions that I have is with the Senate Bill 288, has there been discussion about funding? Because obviously these projects to accelerate are going to require funding sooner if we're going to actually do some waving in terms of the EIR to implement some of them. So has there been discussion about money? No, there has not been discussion about money with respect to that bill specifically. However, executive order EO1919 did ask that the state transportation agency work to direct more funding towards these sorts of projects. Any other questions from the commissioners? Mr. Leopold. Thank you, chair. Thank you for the report. There are a lot of great pieces of information. I want to thank the staff for its work on the bike signage project. I know this has been something that's been in the RTC hands for a while and seeing completion of it is really exciting. And I know it will benefit bicyclists throughout the county. Also it is super exciting to hear about the governor's goal to end the sale of fossil fuel vehicles in California. I think that that could really change the market not only here in California, but through the entire country because as so goes California on cars, so goes the rest of the nation. And we've seen such a great uptick in the use of electric cars here in California that this will have a major effect on car sales throughout the entire country. So I look forward to this as it rolls out over the next 15 years, but we're on the right path here in California. Thanks. Okay, thank you. Any other commissioners, comments? Thank you for that extensive report. We have comments from the public. Okay, go ahead, please. Mr. Bryan Peoples. Thank you, thank you commission. Yeah, I think that's fabulous news about the governor of Booson signing all the bills, breaking down barriers to get our infrastructure improved. That's great. One of the ones that I wanna highlight though is the electric vehicles by 2035. That's a game changer. And that really ends the argument about a train emissions being more effective at reducing emissions because the automobile, electric automobile is already on the road. And we would say that industry will actually beat 2035. I know a lot of people already have these vehicles. So I do believe that. And then when we add to the fact that the automobile is actually gonna be autonomous. So virtually it's gonna, they're virtual trains. A 2012 Columbia University study showed that with autonomous cars where cars are communicating with one another, the capacity of a highway can increase by 270% because you essentially remove the space between the cars and you have a virtual train. Virtual train, that's what you have. And when we talk about people with disability and handicap, they need that direct-to-direct service of the automobile. And now that it's electric, they can get it from their home to their work direct point A to point B. And that's very significant. So I just wanna make sure we understand that now this eliminates any discussion about a train having more efficiency. Now, the other question I have is on segment 18 and segment seven A, the current trail. Great news, you're finishing up. I believe seven sec Watsonville segment 18 is shut down right now because of costs. I wonder if the commission could get a report on that as well as I hear rumblings that the cost overruns if they're gonna be recorded for seven A. The costs have gone up over, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Otto. Yeah, quick sound check, can you hear me okay? Yes. Yeah, so a quick comment with regards to the director report, thanks for the information. In particular, the timeline for the transit corridor alternatives analysis, quick question. When is the TCAA draft report expected to be available to the public? Is that gonna be part of the November open house or does that, does that not get published to or become available to the public until the January 2021 meeting? Thank you. No. Mr. Sey, Michael Sey. I don't know, Mr. Brestner might reiterate the draft and when it's going to be available to the public. So I believe the draft report doesn't go out as part of the public outreach because we need to update the public outreach to draft the final report. So the draft report will be available before it is provided to the commission but the exact dates are still to be determined and we'll provide more information as it becomes available. Thank you. Yeah, I'm here as a CNA if you're ready. We're ready. Okay, thank you for your time. A great report, Director Preston, lots of good information. Just want to emphasize all these bills, all these executive orders. There's nothing in any of these bills that promotes single occupancy vehicle travel. I think everyone needs to just sit back and maybe take all of this in and to revisit what this county actually needs and actually what our United States and our planet needs for climate change. We have to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Also just to give you a little update on presently I think Mr. Peeples mentioned about all the people he knows that have EVs and there are more coming on the road. Presently our tri-county area only has one to 2% electric vehicles and that's after 10 years of electric vehicles being on the road. So the original goal for the state was to have 5 million vehicles by 2030 electric vehicles. That would be our part of that would be 15% adoption in the tri-county areas. I don't like to be a negative person. I always try to look for the silver lining and things but that means we have to increase 14, 13% in the next 10 years. So any of you out there that are not driving an electric vehicle and if you want to walk the walk and you need a car, just go electric. And there's plenty of websites out there plenty of incentives that are going on right now and due to the COVID-19 problem and fires and all that kind of stuff electric vehicles are very inexpensive right now. I'm in the process of getting my son one a Fiat 500 which is 80 miles range but basically we're gonna get the car for free. So take a look at those things and like I said again, let's all walk the walk. Thank you. I didn't be sure executive orders are different from legislative action and approved by the governor. So we'll see it's a good target. I don't know if we're gonna get there but it's been tried before and congratulations on getting your son an electric vehicle. Thank you. Anyone else from the public that would like to address us. I do not see any more hands up commissioner. Okay. We will go to item number 17 in the new agenda. The Caltrans report. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the commission. I'm Scott Eads again here today with you. Tim Govins is not able to make it. I just have a couple items to report on. One is I wanted to highlight a study that's being done by Caltrans down in San Diego and it's looking at different ways of addressing wrong way drivers on off ramps. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it's pretty dire consequences in terms of the level of injuries or fatalities that are associated with those types of accidents. So we're currently in a study where we're looking at different types of measures that make the drivers more aware of the fact that they should not be driving in these spaces in the wrong direction. So it's going on now. That's about a year long study. And so if you happen to be down in San Diego and you see some of those features you'll understand why that's happening. And depending on the outcomes of that study you may see more of that throughout the state. The thing I want to highlight is the California transportation plan. I mentioned this last time for 2050 is out on the street for public review. We held a webinar last Friday and the public comment period closes on October 22nd. So if you haven't already please spend some time in that document. It's quite high level but it does cast a vision for the future throughout California. And as I mentioned, comments are due on October 22nd. More information is available on CTP 2050. And then the last thing I'll say is that we're working closely with the County of Santa Barbara staff to process emergency requests or emergency projects through a local assistance branch. CalTrans is also doing the same thing for the fire damage that was sustained in Anacruze County. So we're continuing to work closely with the County and others on that process. With that I'd be happy to take any questions. Any questions for CalTrans? I know we had a terrible, oh, just want to make a comment and Ms. Compton and Gomez. So we had a terrible wrong way entry. It wasn't an off ramp but the entrance to an ocean street from Highway 17, it was a fatality. That was somewhat five years ago at least or something. Yeah. Well, you can imagine those aren't good situations at all. Ms. Coffman, Gomez. Yes, thank you. I just want to share with you a comment that I've received from the public that would be a CalTrans location. And I know that you're working on March and East Beach in Watsonville but there was a comment that came up about requests for a flashing beacon at the block prior to, and that was that car in East Beach. Between the two of them is where the clinic is where the high school students are and there's been some near misses there that I've received information on. So we can just put that on the CalTrans radar since that is a CalTrans location. That if there's something that could be done or be put on the list for future items, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for passing that one. Mr. Bertrand. You're on mute. You're on mute. Sorry for the delay. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I do have a question about highway damage and I'm glad you brought that up, Scott, especially here in Santa Cruz County, some of the smaller roads, which are hard for us to maintain. And so any kind of damage is an issue. So I was visiting some friends of mine because I lived up in San Lorenzo Valley, visited them and saw their homes and a lot of concern about what they had to go through, of course, like I mentioned earlier, many of us know people like that. But one thing I noticed is highway nine in the valley almost was a barrier and the fire came down to the highway. And I was wondering if CalTrans could work a little bit more closely with the owners of those properties to make those more effective barriers. And it's a natural barrier because we put it there and make it a more effective barrier to the spread of fire and any other kind of action like that. We do that in 17, but maybe some of the smaller roads here in the county would be an appropriate place to attend to. Thank you. Thank you. Any other commissioner questions among CalTrans report? Any comments from the public? I do not see any hands raised. Okay. All right. That doesn't require action, but next we will go to item number 18 that is the Santa Cruz County and rail work integration system. I think Ms. Ginger Dicar will start the item. Then we'll hear from Debbie Hale, I believe. Good morning, commissioners. This is Ginger Dicar, RTC staff. As requested at the last RTC meeting, this item today will discuss the work of the transportation agency from Monterey County on the rail network integration study. Debbie Hale will be the executive director at TAMC and Christina Watson, the principal planner at TAMC will be providing the presentation and this item is for information only. But first I want to appreciate CalTrans for funding both the RTC and TAMC to develop these network integration studies, help our counties make the next steps towards implementing the 2018 California State Rail Plan. The rail network integration study for Santa Cruz County is incorporated into the transit corridors alternatives analysis that is underway. This analysis is evaluated in the options for transit service along the Santa Cruz branch rail line which connects to the statewide rail network at a new Pajaro station. And all the transit alternatives that are currently being considered for this Santa Cruz branch rail line would provide connectivity to this plan station at Pajaro. And I did want to bring up again to emphasize Governor Newsome's in his new executive order that he signed last week on climate change directs agencies to build towards an integrated statewide rail and transit network that's consistent with the California State Rail Plan which is exactly what the RTC and TAMC are working on in these rail network integration studies. With that, I'll hand off to Debbie Hale I'm executive director at TAMC. Thank you. Thank you, Ginger. And it's great to be here and see all the familiar faces. Our counties share a great deal in common. In fact, your two Watsonville matters are ex-officios on the TAMC board, council member Kauffman Gomez and council member Gonzalez. So it's great to see you all here and talk about our shared transportation interests. We share some economic ties. There are a number of people. Last I saw in the prior census over 3,500 people that commute back and forth between our counties. And in addition, we share an agricultural valley, the Pajaro Valley. And of course, there are lots of tourist trips that happen between our two cities. We're fortunate that we both own our own branch lines. You'll hear a little bit more and see the boundaries of the Monterey branch line. And we're both also looking into bus rapid transit. And as your executive director says everywhere, we are the two counties in the state that have gotten special dispensation to run buses on shoulders. And so we're really pleased to be working on this network integration study together. And with that, I would like to introduce to you Christina Watson, who is our principal planner, who is the manager of our rail network integration study and of our rail program in general. Take it away, Christina. You might be a mute. Yes, I just am. Am I muted still? Can you hear me? We can hear you now. Okay. And can you see the screen, the Monterey Bay Rail Network Integration Study slide? We can. Okay, great. Well, thank you everybody for having us today at your meeting. We're happy to be here to present the status and update on the Monterey Bay Area Rail Network Integration Study. This is a project that we've been undertaking for the last 16, actually about a year now with support from the Caltrans and the California State Transportation Agency. So today we're going to be presenting the goals and the status of that network integration study, the recently completed future service division memo and then I'll close with an update on the Monterey County Rail Extension Project. The study's goal is to lay the groundwork for the vision of the 2018 California State Rail Plan in the Central Coast area and Monterey Bay area. We are looking at rail and bus connectivity in the region and future needs for equipment acquisition, potential governance and operations scenarios for the vision of the rail network here and the benefits to the community of establishing that network. The lines on this map show the branch lines, the Santa Cruz branch line in green, the Monterey branch line in orange and the Hollister branch line in yellow and then the existing service on the coastline consisting of Caltrine from Gilroy North to San Francisco and the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Seattle. So that's the existing services today. Our study focuses in on the region Gilroy to San Luis Obispo including Santa Cruz County and Monterey County. We're looking specifically at the Central Coast corridor to support additional inner city service between Salinas and the Silicon Valley and down to San Luis Obispo and then the Santa Cruz to Monterey corridor. So this map shows the 2040 vision from the state rail plan. On this map, the blue lines are inner city rail or regional rail. The green or aqua line is the high speed rail network and then orange lines are inner city bus connection. And this study will provide the data that we will need to apply for grant applications for future stations at, for example, Pajaro Watsonville at the Watsonville Junction in Pajaro. The Castroville station, which is the junction with the Monterey branch line and then stations down in the valley at Soledad and King City as well as stations along the branch lines. So our recently completed future service vision memo is included in your packet in full. It's also available on our website. This is the sort of the basis, the foundation of the network integration study and it is founded on based on a rail network modeling that was done on the existing rail network throughout the central coast and to show what could be sustained with the existing infrastructure. The future service, sorry, let me get to the next slide. The future service vision shows these corridors in contemplating the rail service scenarios that I described earlier. So Salinas to San Francisco, Salinas to San Luis Obispo, not really shown on this map. And then the Monterey to Santa Cruz around the Bay corridors. So infrastructure needs identified in this study include reactivating the branch lines and bringing them up to the standards needed to sustain rail service, developing new stations and acquiring rolling stock or equipment to provide that service and developing support or maintenance facilities for the service. The initial service concept and this is built on the 2018 state rail plan which has three time horizons. So these time horizons come directly from that rail plan. And the idea is to phase in the improvements over time to achieve the 2040 vision without having redundant investments but to be able to improve service in the near term and then phase in over time to the full vision. So this service, the 2022 service scenario which seems very soon now contemplates peak hour, peak direction. So commute friendly service on the line from Salinas up to San Francisco using Caltrain service with three weekday round trips and the blue line on the map represents that service. And then the orange line represents connectivity on local and inner city bus services. And the idea is to have a pulse system where the buses and the trains meet each other so that the ride is seamless for the passenger. The passenger doesn't find themselves waiting for the next train or the next bus. The phased service concept is the sort of intermediary concept between the initial service and the full build out in that timeframe is 2027 approximately. And this includes an increase in frequency on the coastline for service between Salinas and the Bay Area to be bi-hourly, that is every other hour. And it includes also, you see the blue line now continue south from Salinas with a train going down to San Luis Obispo approximately every four hours with new stations at Soledad and King City which don't today have stations. So this is new investments that are needed. And then with the continuation of bus connections throughout the system. And this scenario assumes a one seat or one ticket ride from Monterey to Santa Cruz using the current routes that Santa Cruz Metro and Monterey-Salinas transit currently run. The idea here is to add in connectivity at the Castroville and Pajaro stations for timed connections to the trains. So those stations also do not exist today. So that would be future investments as well. This bus service is, we have the schedule is using the assumption of the current infrastructure for bus connectivity that bus is currently run today. But that system would obviously be improved with any kind of bus on shoulder project or the Monterey-Salinas transits surf project that they're planning for the Monterey branch line. So the speeds would be faster or the bus speeds would be faster and the service would be smoother. This is the full service vision build out as I referred to earlier. This is circa 2040. This includes hourly rail service Salinas to the Bay Area and by hourly rail service south to San Luis Obispo. And the new color on this map is green that represents a regional rail service around the Bay between Monterey and Santa Cruz. And as Ginger mentioned, all of the alternatives under consideration now with your TCAA would provide connectivity to this network. Obviously if it is a wheeled alternative there would be a connection rather than a one seat ride alternative. But in any case, there would be an improvement in service to the community. And there would always be in this scenario there would always be a connection at Pajaro and at Castroville to the inner city service on the coastline. So that is the future service vision that is in the in your packet. And then the network integration study is delivered in these separate memos that undergo a thorough review by TMC staff by the network advisory committee which your staff and Metro staff have seats and by the TMC rail policy committee and we are posting them on our website when they're available. So here is the schedule for those memos. So we have the existing conditions report is already up as of April of this year and the future service vision just went up just a few days ago in September which also includes the network modeling that's combined into one memo. What we're working on today and moving forward into the next few weeks is the governance models memo. So we're looking at governance and operations strategies and scenarios that could support these ambitious service scenarios. Grants support. So we're looking at what funding is available to secure for implementation. And then implementation planning includes such things as cost estimates, very important ridership estimates that are underway now with the state fleet strategy and funding and finance questions. And then finally the benefits assessment will be looking at how these different projects scenarios would help with achieving the greenhouse gas emission reductions and other economic improvements for the region. And we expect at the bottom of this slide it shows that we're expecting a draft study to be out for review in February. And then the final study will be in May. So that's the network integration study. The near-term scenario of that study is reliant on progress that we're making on the Monterey County rail extension project which is also the flyer for this project is also in your packet. This project extends CalTrain service to Monterey County. We are looking at an initial service of two round trips during the peak hours, leaving Salinas early in the morning, heading north up into Silicon Valley, and then coming back in the evenings. This project is known as the Kickstart project, as it is the first phase of the overall Monterey County rail extension project, which also then in the full build out includes new stations at Pajaro and Castabale. So the Kickstart project is broken down into three packages for design and construction. And we are already well underway with this package one, the Salinas train station improvements, which includes signalized access and improved parking and bike and pedestrian facilities at the existing downtown Amtrak station. So that provides improvements today to existing Amtrak service, which is the costar light, and throughway buses, and Greyhound service, which is also at that station. Package two is the Salinas train layover facility, which will be located to the west of the train station. And package three is improvements at the Gilroy station in Santa Clara County to connect the Caltrain end of the line station to the mainline tracks to enable those trains to continue south from Gilroy. So I'll talk a little bit more about each of those packages. These are views from the neighboring developments, the rooftop views of our completed parking lots at Salinas. It's a little hard to see probably, but in the background, we are still under construction on the railway avenue part of the project, which includes a bus turnaround facility with five bus bays. And the signalized access is visible in the left hand picture there. This has been under construction for about 16 months now, and we are nearing completion. We're looking at wrapping it up next month in November. And we're looking to have a virtual ribbon cutting on December 7. So stay tuned for details on that. And then the package two is the train layover facility. So this shows the train yard as envisioned in our 75% plans that are now undergoing edits and revisions to get closer to 100% design. We're also going through the property acquisition process. We're about halfway through that process now. A few of those parcels have been acquired by the agency. So this would include the tracks needed for the trains to lay over here between the late night arrivals and early morning departures out of Salinas. It also includes other support elements, like a crew-based building and storage shed and the ability for trucks to drive around to fuel the trains. And then package three at Gilroy is a connection between the end of the line Gilroy station track there at the bottom of the line there. So the black lines on this map are existing. The blue are new track, and then the red is a little bit of removed track to facilitate the Caltrain trains to continue south from Gilroy onto the coast main line tracks. This also will facilitate transfers to high-speed rail in the future, assuming that the preferred alternative is selected, which envisions a downtown high-speed rail station on the other side of the tracks from the existing Caltrain station. And then the next phase of work on the Monterey County Rail Extension project would be the Pajaro Watsonville station, which would be the hub for service between the Santa Cruz branch line and any bus connectivity to the rail line at Pajaro Watsonville. The map shows where the county line is the Pajaro River. And so it's just in Monterey County there where the Watsonville yard is today. And it shows that the Santa Cruz branch line branching off to the northwest of the station. So this station is designed to 60% and has been environmentally cleared, but it does not have any, we don't have any funding right now to move forward with the final design right-of-way acquisition or construction of this. So the network integration study will help us together the data that's needed to support the future grant applications to build this station, excuse me. And then finally, this image shows what the station could look like in the future as designed to 60%. And you can see in the background there the bus turnaround that would meet the train. And that sums up our presentation today and I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you very much for that report and your studies and your timeline that you see. Are there any questions from the commission? Mr. Mulher. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Hale for your presentation. Thank you also Ms. Watson for very informative presentation. I just had a question about kickstart package three. Do you have a timeline on when we might, that work there to upgrade the station and the tracks might occur? Is a project designed? Is there a timeline for construction and is there funding for it? So the Gilroy station is improvements are at 75% design now and we have a team, HDR, same firm that you have working on your TCAA, but different actual individuals from that firm and they're working to bring our design from 75% to 100% design in collaboration. We're working with Caltrain on the engineering of that. So we've received comments from Caltrain on the 75% plans and the biggest question mark in terms of our schedule is Union Pacific because we also need Union Pacific to review and comment on our design plans and then we'll be able to move forward with the project. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Lierbowl. I wanna thank you for the presentation. It's really nice to see these plans moving forward and that we will have this train connectivity down in the Monterey Bay region. I think it would be really helpful as someone who's taken that train up to Sacramento and San Francisco in the past, sometimes with Ms. Hale. I think we've been on the train together. It'll be nice that we'll be able to get it closer to home than where we have it now. So thank you for the work and I look forward to our alternative analysis that we'll figure out how we connect in with this system that connects us in with the rest of the state. Thank you. Comments from the commission. Ms. Coffman Gomez. Yes, thank you. I again appreciate this presentation because it offers clarity for the South County because there's a genuine interest that has been very supportive of the projects going on down here. And I know that the focus has been on the passenger side. I wanna ask the question since Watsonville does so much freight, what we have for the lines to see perhaps the potential or what the barriers for doing so to get to the Marina State Station. So that maybe we could be using some of that purpose to get the landfill that we've closed here. And we're hauling all of this material on our highways to get to Marina Station. And when we can see something that might integrate the freight option to get maybe that, all of the movement of that to Marina. I don't know what barriers if it's over rivers and there's issues there, but obviously freight is important for us. We wanna be able to utilize it. And if there's any where we might be with that in the planning stages. Well, so I'm not exactly sure if that's something that we've even ever talked about, but the Monterey branch line is not, we do not have funding for the rail line improvements that would need to support that kind of a project today. So that would be something that we would have to work with Santa Cruz County on a future grant application. I think I can envision right now off the top of my head two barriers. One would be that it would have to go on Union Pacific tracks between Watsonville and Castorville in order to access the Monterey branch line. And the other would be the Monterey branch line has a bridge over the Salinas River that needs to be upgraded and improved. And that's a many million dollar project. So I'm just speaking just off the top of my head. It's not something I don't think that we've talked about before. And if I might add, it's a really interesting thought and I think that we'll talk with the team as to how we might incorporate something into the longterm vision for the corridor because while those issues that Christina mentioned are key issues for freight, they're also key issues for passenger rail. And so maybe there's a way to solve that situation. So that's why we come and talk with you about it because we haven't talked about that. Thanks so much. Good points. Thank you. Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Chair. I noticed with your inner city rail from Salinas to San Luis Obispo having a daughter who goes to Cal Poly and this is close to Bruce McPherson's heart because he's an ex Mustang guy. So in my mind, I want to think about this, not only in terms of the expense of this connection, connectivity statewide, but also practicality. And so if it pleases the chair, I just kind of want to go through a scenario that if I'm in Scott's Valley and I have a desire to visit my daughter, my wife, I want to visit my daughter in San Luis Obispo over a weekend and she doesn't have a car, help me understand both in terms of time, expense and also convenience, how this scenario that you just described in terms of buses, connectivity, rail service, stop time, how that compares with the convenience of me jumping in my car with two or three suitcases, the two of us and getting there in two hours and 38 minutes probably, because we've done it before. How does that compare with getting, I mean, help me understand, I would have to catch a bus in Scott's Valley, transfer probably in Santa Cruz, go up to Salinas, I guess on a bus with my transport, with my suitcases, travel down to using the train down to San Luis Obispo, not having a vehicle, then use a bus system and if I want to go to Morro Bay or something like we always do or to various other places, then have to do that. If you want to go out to dinner, have to use a bus system and then repeat it all the way back. I guess my thing is that if I asked 100 people, which would you prefer to do? I would imagine more than 95% of them would say, I'm gonna get in my car and I'm not going to take, well, I'm not gonna assume anything. Christina, help me understand basically how long would it take me, best guess to get from Scott's Valley to San Luis Obispo if I started at noon early on a Friday afternoon? Okay, well, I'm assuming that this scenario takes place within the next year or two and not 20 years in the future, which is our full build-out scenario. So right now there is the co-starlight that stops in Salinas, once northbound and one southbound every day. Going south, you would catch the train at about 1148 a.m. Going down to San Luis Obispo and it's about, I think, a four or five hour ride, if I remember correctly, to get to SLO. SLO does have a transit system that meets the train. So in terms of getting from Scott's Valley to Salinas, that's a question that I could defer to Debbie, she's more familiar with that corridor than I am. So in terms of the future build-out scenario, if your daughter is still in school 20 years from now, or maybe it's her daughter that she's visiting, and then they would be able to get on whatever service you have on your branch line, connect in at Pajaro to the inner city service there. And that would be a one ticket ride at that point because we're looking, we're the city, the state of California is working on an integrated ticketing program where the idea is to have a seamless ticket experience for all modes of travel around the entire state. And that's something that they're working on today, Monterey Salinas Transit is their test case and they're doing a pilot program this year with that idea. So the ticketing should be easier in the future than it is today, because today you would have to get a metro, Santa Cruz metro ticket and then you would have to get an Amtrak ticket, Amtrak does sell their tickets online and you can get it on your phone, it is an e-ticket kind of scenario, like if you're flying today, you could get an e-ticket on your phone and then you just show your phone to the conductor when you're on the train. So the ticketing on Amtrak is relatively easy, but I don't know what the ticketing is like for San Luis Obispo Transit. So thank you for that and I appreciate you. It's kind of hard because there's a future and there's a present and so forth. But I guess my point is that really appreciate the presentation. I think it sounds good on paper, but in real life, I think so many people turn to what I would call the whole thing of the expense, the time and the convenience of jumping in a car with all your bags, maybe something for your student that you wanna deliver, having the convenience of being able to travel around San Luis Obispo, go to Morro Bay and not happen to wait. So when I add up all the time and the expense, I just wanna kind of keep an open mind on behavior and what people will actually do. And there kind of lies the rub in many cases in terms of best laid plans, but will people follow through in terms of what you've just described of a four or five or six hour trip, getting there, getting back. It just seems problematic and I just kind of wanted to make that point. And thanks Chair for indulging me on that one. Yeah, I think questions people wanna know or get a sense of, I really appreciate this presentation. Is there any other comments from commissioners? If I might, Mr. Chair, also to add on to the question by commissioner Johnson, I think it's pretty clear that the situation that we have now is not very convenient and it's only used by people who have no other options. As somebody who takes the train or used to take the train pretty frequently to Sacramento, I can tell you all of the weaknesses of it. The train segment isn't the weakness. I can work on the train. There's wifi, I can get a lot done. The weakness is getting to the train. And so that's where the integration part of this network integration study comes from. I can also hope that in two years or hopefully sooner than that in 10 years, we'll have some of this last mile issue taken care of because it's that Scotts Valley to Santa Cruz piece that's probably the most difficult, as well as like you say, the San Luis Obispo and getting around town piece. And certainly the ride-sharing companies have made that a lot easier. And taking a look at once you get to your destination, how can you get around there is something that our local transit companies do a lot. So our goal with this study is to try to make it easier, shorter, more convenient for people to get around without a car, recognizing that it's not gonna take every trip. Thank you. Yeah, I might just add is there a comparison with some of the people in Scotts Valley or Santa Cruz going just over the hill to San Jose and that's get in your car and then getting the train there and going, wouldn't that be a, if you were going north, that'd be a much, obviously a much quicker route, more direct route than going down to Watsonville, et cetera. Is that- Right. Right? I mean, it would save hours, but that's going north and not south. But that, I mean, that's, we're not gonna have a train go through the Santa Cruz mountains. We know that, so I'm just, we're probably gonna have some kind of a vehicle or a bus. We have great metro service over in the hill right now, but- Chair, I had one more thing. You mentioned Cal train. Is my understanding that there are either tax measures or some sort of conflict between counties in terms of the future of Cal train, especially from San Jose to San Francisco. I've been reading a little bit about that and I'm interested in what the status is of Cal train right now. Well, that's, well, I don't know if you can give an answer in 25 words or less, but yeah. I don't have any insight other than what I've been reading the papers either. So it sounds- We do know- Go ahead, Debbie. I was just gonna say Cal train is an interesting entity in that they have never had a direct funding source for their service. And it's because their fare box ratio, well, transit geeks, the fare box ratio has been so tremendously high. And so what they have initially went on the ballot for was to kind of streamline the process that they go through every year, which is asking San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Francisco, to give their contributions to make up the differences what's been, I don't know, a 75% fare box ratio. Now it's become even more urgent for them to get this because they don't have the same number of passengers in the COVID era. And so it's kind of a COVID crisis that they're going through right now. We believe that they will make it through that crisis, sales tax, no sales tax, it's just too, I hope they're too big to fail. But that's what's on the ballot. They've been talking about this measure for quite a while in terms of just having a dedicated revenue source to run those trains, like you'd have for Santa Cruz Metro, like we have now for Monterey-Salinas transit. So that's what's happening without training. I hope that's helpful. Very good, thank you again. Let's see, any other questions from commissioners? Is there? Mr. Gonzales, do you agree with me? Yeah, thank you, chair. Thank you for that really good report. You know, we talk about this and then we always talk about to the future the use of this. And we're gonna go into electric vehicles, hopefully, and then there's not gonna be no more gas powered vehicles. And then this equation, we have an individual that lives in Scotts Valley that can afford to send her daughter to Cal Poly and is worried about the travel time. I think about a farm worker that sends his kid to Cal Poly and it won't be able to afford that electric vehicle to go visit them. But we'll be able to afford to get on a train and travel that time to go visit your child into the future. So for me, the train is really important economic wise for the city of Watsonville and for the community of Watsonville because we do have children that do attend universities and sometimes their parents can't afford to go. And then into the future, once they get electric vehicles, these electric vehicles are gonna be really cheap. I mean, we're affordable for some of these common workers. So giving them the options to be able to travel, I think it's really viable. And so I commend you guys on moving this forward and thank you for the report. Okay, looking for any other comments from commissioners? Can you hear me? Bruce, can you hear me on the floor? Mr. Caput? Yeah, how you doing? Very good, okay, please go ahead. Yeah, then I wanna thank everybody for the report here. When this is like an old idea that's become a new idea in the past, if I remember correctly, so. We lost you? I can't hear Mr. Caput, can anybody else? Let's see, he's on mute, let me see if I can. Okay, Greg, you're on mute, I think. There you go. Okay. Yeah, it's like an old idea becoming a new idea. In the past, San Francisco, Watsonville, Pajaro, Salinas and San Luis Bispo all connected. We used to call that when I was really young, the milk run. So all of that is in there, but so we're talking about redoing the entire Watsonville Pajaro station and making it somewhat like it was 50 years ago? So anyway, that's my question. Well, basically, yeah, I think it's a renewed application of transportation by rail. I guess that's the best way to put it, I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Not having been here 50 years ago, I'm not sure what the station looked like. I probably ought to pull out some of those old pictures, but looking back over time, it's always really interesting to see where the train stations used to be and what they were like. Somebody that lives in Capitola, I look at the old Inn at Depot Hill and I wonder, hmm, I wonder what that used to look like. So it'll certainly be more modern and it'll have things like electric vehicle charging and bus stop, regional bus stop, and all kinds of different things that reflect the modern times. Places for Lyft and Uber to come and park, but in the basic concept, yeah, it's unfortunate that those stations went away. Okay, you bet. No, thank you very much. Very exciting to look at all of this. Okay, thank you. Any other questions from commissioners? I don't see any. Do we have any questions or comments from the public? Mr. Lowell? Well, thank you very much. This is a really exciting presentation and I wanna salute our visionaries from across the river. It's nice to have some experts that are close by. And sometimes what's old is new again and let's hope that this will be new again. I remember in another century riding the rails to Monterey, to Seaside, to the Costco parking lot and demonstration ride and crossing that Salinas Bridge was kind of interesting even at that time. And of course, I have taken the train to San Luis Obispo and it's a really nice ride. So I'm excited about the future and the connectivity and I just wanna say thanks to Tamsi, thanks to the visionaries just across the river. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herbs, great to see you. Very good. Anyone else from the public that would like to address us on this issue? Mr. Peeples? Yes, hi, Brian from Trail Now. You know, I'm gonna start with Mr. Gonzalez comments about affordability. Actually, it's not affordable for the community. It's not affordable for the community to continue to plan this nor is it affordable for the riders. Just look at the smart train up in San Sonoma. A great example of how it's not affordable for the community, the tax measure, the renewed tax measure fail. And then also the riders, they're not the poor and disadvantaged because they can't afford it. They actually, it's the people making over 100 grand riding the smart train. So the problem is, is when a community invests all their resources, it takes away from it more important, more effective transportation systems like bus. So there's a lot of barriers, the pandemic, you're operating diesel trains. This is a proposed for diesel trains. And now you got the new electric cars, the Mandi. So then the new electric cars are gonna come out before this train ever materializes. And then what I also heard was there was no current plans for funding for a major barrier from getting from Santa Cruz to Salinas, the Salinas River Bridge. So those are daunting barriers. And this is the problem that the community, Santa Cruz County community is frustrated with. I wanna remind you that Measure D, when it was first proposed, they had $14 million allocated to renew the train station Paro, which is in Monterey County. And they knew that if they kept that on that measure, it would fail. So they moved that, they moved it to the bus systems. So the frustration with the community is you continue to look at these heavily, highly expensive infrastructure ideas that do not serve the public. And they're gonna be even, they're gonna be ancient by the time 2040 come. The autonomous cars, the e-cars. And so then on our part, specifically for our mission, our missions get the Coastal Corridor Trail, Santa Cruz Coastal Trail now. And the train advocacies are holding the trail hostage. We've held it for a decade now. The community has, taxpayers have paid $25 million just to maintain it. Just to maintain this piece of property. They've had some tourist train tries. But again, this is wasted public time. Public comes to this. I take my time to come to this. It's, our time is valuable. And so you continue to hold our time. So thank you very much. I appreciate your time, over. Okay, anyone else from the public that would like to address us on this issue? Ms. Sally Arnold. Hi, excuse me, thank you for, thank you for that interesting presentation. Like many other speakers, I'm very excited about ways in which our local transportation system is gonna be linking to the whole rest of the world at Pajaro Station. This around the Bay Regional Service is gonna be just so fabulous. And I can imagine myself taking our little local train and then switching at Pajaro and taking a train over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the day and not having to sit in all that traffic. And I mean, I can just imagine ways in which it'll be useful. And I think that for people who haven't ridden public transit, all they see is the barriers. But for someone who has been a public transit writer many times in her life, it's a whole different way of looking at things. The time that you're in the transit car, whether it's a bus or a train, particularly if it's a train because they're so convenient and roomy, is it's not wasted time. It's not time you're sitting there gripping the wheel, watching the traffic, trying to avoid hitting or being hit. Instead you're relaxing, you're reading a book, you're answering your emails, you're doing some work. It's just a whole different way of looking about using your time. And then I used to take the train to visit my parents in Sacramento. My dad had meet me at the station in the car and because you have a first and last mile, public transit wasn't organized, but then I'd be visiting with them and have access to their car while I was there. I mean, it was super convenient. And it took a little bit longer than driving, but that time was not wasted. I was very productive time for me and a lot less stressful. I think that, so I think that is a lifestyle thing, building this kind of transit system out is gonna be really valuable for people. I think that the class differences that Mr. Gonzalez referred to are really important to think about. And then I think there's the environmental impact, that it's just so much more environmentally sustainable to be having public transit that is shared than everybody owning individual and driving individual vehicles that take up more space, more resources. It's just gonna be a wonderful service. I'm very excited to see that our two transportation agencies are working together and thank you very much for this inspiring presentation. Thank you, Ms. Arnold. Do you have anyone else from the public who'd like to address us? Ms. Gina Cole. Gina. Thank you, appreciate that. Gina Cole, by Santa Cruz County, but also Watsonville resident who is old enough to remember as a kid riding the train to Monterey to go to Dennis Jimenez Park. It has left a lasting impression on me. And I think it's really, really important that the work that you're doing and thank you so much for this great presentation that really gives us a visual look into the future. I'm really excited about that. I also just wanna point out it's not just from Santa Cruz to Watsonville to points beyond, it's to Watsonville. It's points beyond back to Watsonville. We had a pretty lively meeting last night about the downtown specific plan in Watsonville and one of the, you know, that was imagining a very vibrant downtown Watsonville. So, you know, hopefully that is something where folks from Salinas will come to Watsonville. Folks from Monterey will come to Watsonville for a slice of awesome pizza over for, you know, some of our local fair, local shops. And that I'm really, really, I don't know, I just think that we need to get beyond our box and think big for our future. And this provides not just a local link, not just a regional link, but also a statewide link that will make it easier to get around without a car. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Crow. Mr. Barry Scott. Yes, thank you. Barry Scott and Aptos. And I wanna first congratulate the RTC on building the trail segments that are becoming completed are fabulous. And I think a lot of folks don't realize that the Monterey branch, that the trail in Monterey County did not require removal of the rail line and that the Tamsi Monterey County has plans to restore rail service there. I think that's important. Secondly, I really wanna thank Ms. Hale and Ms. Watson for coming and presenting that regional view and for working with the RTC. We talked to people, Coastal Rail Santa Cruz and Friends of the Rail and Trail, talked to people daily about, you know, finding out what they know and what they don't know. And invariably, when they see the regional picture, the network, they become, you know, if they were, if they're on the fence or opposed to it, they start thinking, well, wait a minute, I didn't know that. And so I think it's just so important. And I, God, I hope we, I'd love to have an update from Tamsi every RTC meeting or every other RTC meeting. Whenever there's a something to share, I think it's really important to project that regional vision. And finally, to the concerns expressed by one commissioner about a trip that would be difficult to take for him, to San Luis Obispo, I wanna point out that not every, there's no single transportation system or mode that will work for every trip, for every person. And indeed, not everybody can afford a car to drive from Scotts Valley or from Watsonville to San Luis Obispo. That's actually kind of a treat for many, many people in our society. And so I think the idea of public transit is now and always has been providing an alternative and offering as many alternatives as possible, but so that there's something that works for every person's lifestyle, every person's budget and nobody gets left out. It's just, it's a rhetorical device that I hear often. Well, will it take me to my job in Sunnyvale? It's just like, no, it's not going to, but it'll work for an awful lot of people going on another trip. So I can't express enough my gratitude for TAMC and the RTC for understanding this dynamic and happily implementation of rail transit is not gonna take away anyone's right to drive to a destination. Those, that trip, that transportation mode will still exist, but let's give people some alternatives. Thank you. Mr. Michael St. Yeah, thank you commissioners. I just wanted to back up the last comments by Barry as well as Sally Arnold and give you an example of a trip. I went on, my in-laws live in Reading, California and I took it back down from Reading to Aptos. And yes, it did take longer. The train was six and a half hours to San Jose. Normally a four and a half hour drive, so that's about two hours. But when I got off the train, the 17 bus was waiting for me and they actually completed the time to Scots Valley in the same time a car would, about 40 minutes or so. And then my son picked me up at Scots Valley, drove me to Aptos, which is about 11 miles or so. So overall, I think the trip was about eight hours, seven to eight hours, and I can drive that in maybe six, something like that with a stop for lunch or something, which you don't have to do on the train because the train provides the food. And it was very relaxing. So it's all doable. Even if we have to spend a couple more hours to go on an occasional trip, maybe three hours, we all need to get out of our cars and that's the key. We always try to keep climate change and the climate crisis we're in as a high priority. And then these systems seem to be very desirable. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments from the public? I do not see any other hands raised, Commissioner. We'll just want to make one comment of just as a member of AMBAG Association of Monterey Day Area Government that was talking to somebody about it, a regional plan that includes down to Santa Barbara. And it's just told that the arena numbers, those of you might be familiar, the regional housing numbers that the state puts on that are never met or seldom met by any agency, but they tripled that number for housing for Santa Barbara recently and ours is coming up next year for our region. We're gonna have more people and there's gonna be more demands on our transportation network, no matter what it is that we use. And we have to keep that in mind too, as we move along on what are the options available for whether you like it or not, a growing population and more housing in our communities. That's just a general comment by me. This does not really take any formal action. Just one more, did anybody else have a general closing comment, a short comment at all? I wanna thank Christina Watson and Debbie Hale for giving us this, really a tremendous update. I know that we need to call you back every month, but certainly I'd like to make it more regular than it has been, maybe quarterly at least or something like that, but we'll let you know, because things are moving along literally in the legislature with some new legislation just passed this year that will have an impact on whatever we do. So I appreciate your professionalism and really your concise and really complete report. It really helps us a lot to get a better image for the whole Monterey Day area of what's available to us in transportation. So thank you again. It's always good to see you and very nice presentation. Appreciate it very much. Thank you so much. Glad to have the opportunity. Great to see you all. Okay, we will now move to item number 19, the North Coast Rail Trail, the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation Operating Agreement. There's, I don't know who it is from the, well, I guess Grace is going to make a presentation or- Yes, I can go ahead and get started. Okay, Grace Blake-Slay from RTC will make the presentation on item number 19 on the North Coast Rail Trail. Good morning commissioners and members of the public. This morning I'm here before you to request your approval to authorize the executive director to enter into an operating agreement with state parks to develop and operate portions of the North Coast Rail Trail. By way of background, the plan North Coast Rail Trail project includes construction of seven and a half miles of the coastal rail trail. When the project is divided into two phases, phase one is fully funded and spans five and a half miles from Wilder Ranch to Panther Yellow Bank Beach. Phase two spans a little over two miles from Panther Yellow Bank Beach to Davenport includes parking lot improvements. RTC staff is seeking funding for the phase two so that the project would be fully funded. RTC has been working closely with state parks on development of the plan North Coast Rail Trail and portions of the North Coast Rail Trail alignment is located on property owned by state parks. RTC must acquire rights to utilize the state parks property for the purpose of the trail. RTC and staff parks have prepared an operating agreement which is included in your agenda item 19 exhibit A. RTC's excuse me, state park staff Sheila Brannon is on to at today's meeting on this call and has been very involved in the North Coast Rail Trail project since its inception. The intent of the operating agreement is to provide access for RTC to develop and operate control and maintain portions of the North Coast Rail Trail alignment that is located on state parks property. This primarily occurs in locations where the trail comes out of the rail cut and is located on bluffs to maximize coastal views. And in locations where the trail is near to the Wilder Ranch Coastal Complex and parking lot. During the term of the operating agreement it's RTC's responsibility to maintain the property excuse me, to maintain the property to ensure that the North Coast Rail Trail is maintained to the satisfaction of the state and the measure D5 year plan does include funding for future trail maintenance and operation. The term of the operating agreement is 25 years. However, RTC and state parks intend to pursue a land transfer to provide RTC and ownership interest in most of the state parks property addressed in the operating agreement. The portion of the trail not expected or anticipated to be a part of the land transfer is referred to as the Wilder Ranch extension and it's the portion of the trail that's close to the parking lot and the Wilder Ranch Coastal Cultural Complex. This portion of the trail is anticipated to remain under the operating agreement. In terms of an overall project schedule update the project plans are moving forward from 70% to 90%. The 90% plans are scheduled to be complete this February with another site visit from the central federal lands team. Although the pre-construction activities including the design and other pre-construction activities are scheduled to be complete in fall of 2021. Although the federal land and access program funding has been reprogrammed to 2024, RTC intends to request this funding to be advanced to be in construction in winter, early winter, 2022. In terms of the next steps for the operating agreement, it is now at the state parks director's office and then goes to the legislative office for finance for approval. We expect to have the operating agreement completed before the sign before the end of the year. Before concluding my report, I did want to note that the coastal rail trail is still in design and construction planning phase and it's not yet open to the public. Members of the public should not enter the right of way until RTC announces that construction of the trail has been completed and it's open for public use. And with that, I've concluded my report. I'll be happy to take questions. Well, thank you for that report. And thank you for moving along. It sounds like we've moved forward with this very well into the construction. Again, it would ask planned if it goes ahead, it would be in early 2022, is that correct? Correct, we're working with the team to finalize the schedule. We will be completing the pre-construction activities next fall and we're also working with the farmers to coordinate when it's best to initiate construction. Okay, congratulations on your up to this, a successful negotiation. Sounds really good. Any questions from commissioners? Oh, Ms. Kaufman Gomez. Just a real quick question. This is seven and a half miles. At the end of 2022, what percentage of our corridor for trails would actually be completed? Constructed and open to the public? Yes. I'd expect we would have segment seven completed as well as segment five and segment 18. Meanwhile, segments eight, nine, 10 and 11 are moving forward with their pre-construction activities and would be well into design. So would you say that we would have at the end of 2020, the completion schedule of this project, we would have 50% of our trails? I would say approximately 10 miles. 10 out of the 32, 30%. Thank you. Questions from commissioners? Don't see any questions from the public. Mr. Bryan Peoples. Yeah, hi, Bryan from Trailnail. Thank you, absolutely. We support the contract agreement, whatever agreement it is. Good news on that move that you're negotiating the 2024 current plan, bringing it in to 2022. Hopefully, I suspect and maybe you can give me a little credit here for pushing that because I was bugging our federal people. So maybe they felt the heat. Do I get any credit for that, you guys? I should get some credit here, credit due. Standing ovation. Okay, so the other thing I want to point out and it's kind of a sidebar thing that I think the commission needs to address. As you, $100 million is the amount that is paid need to be returned if a train doesn't operate or the appraised value. So the appraised value of the property today is most likely less than a lot of money because it's so expensive to maintain, high liability, a lot of contamination. But as you go through and establish these parcel, as you negotiate with the adjacent property owners and you establish this as real property, you are basically increasing the value of that property. So it could get to a point where you can't pull the rails because it's gonna be $100 million. So I think that you should start thinking about that if you haven't already. It's very important because what your role really is at the end of the day is managing this property for taxpayers. You're managing this valuable resources that goes across through the core of our community, 32 miles. Now, granted, this North Coast Trail really isn't so much a transportation, it's more of a recreational thing, but a good 12 miles, 15 miles, goes through the heart of our community. And we need to keep that corridor open. We need to open it. We need not to lose it. And we need to use it as soon as possible. So I encourage you to be due diligence on understanding the responsibility that you have as public officials managing our property. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other comments from the public? I'm Ms. Sally Arnold. Hi. This is Sally Arnold, Friends of the Rail and Trail. I just wanted to again, appreciate the staff for their work. Just I'm always impressed with the multiple moving parts you all are managing between the state parks and the federal lands. And just there's so many pieces to getting this rail trail built and watching the segment on the west side come together. It's so much more than just like, pour some gravel down and we'd have a trail tomorrow. It's like so detailed with like exactly how the curb cuts are gonna go and exactly where the railings are and exactly how you keep it accessible to the disabled and keep safe street crossings. And I've seen the plans for the north coast and it's up on the bluff, it's down below the bluff. It's just a lot to it. And I just wanna express my admiration for staff for managing all these many details. And we're so excited at the progress being made. Thank you for sharing this report. I agree. I agree. Any other comments from the public? I do not see any other hands raised. Any other comments maybe now from the commissioners? Yes, this is Andy Schifrin. I also want to congratulate and thank express appreciation to staff for all their work on this operating agreement. It's taken a while, it's complex. And I also wanna express appreciation to Chris Spora of State Parks who has been very supportive of this agreement all along. Getting any agreement through the State Parks bureaucracy is a challenge and requires perseverance not only on our part, on our stairs part, but on the local State Parks representative. And so I really do appreciate all the support that's been given to this operating agreement. And it's a critical piece in moving this project forward. So based on that, I'd like to move the staff recommendation to approve this agreement with State Parks. I'll second. See that was Mr. Bertrand seconded motion by Schifrin. I agree, I wanna especially thank State Parks and Chris Spora too of State Parks for his efforts. He's been great to work with. We appreciate it very much. So we have a motion to second, please call the roll. Mr. Bertrand. Aye. Ms. Commissioner Brown. Aye. Commissioner Johnson. Aye. Commissioner Kaufman Gomez. Yes. Commissioner Caput. Yes. Commissioner Alternate Schifrin. Aye. Commissioner Alternate Mulher. Aye. Commissioner Leopold. Aye. Commissioner McPherson. Aye. Commissioner Botorff. Aye. Commissioner Gonzales. He's there. Where is he? No. Commissioner Alternate Lynn. Aye. Commissioner Gonzales. Okay, that motion passes unanimously. That, well, now we will move in to review items in the closed session. Item number 20 to 21. I think we have two issues. I understand much better if I can get familiar with the planning talks. I need your permission to help. Are we done with somebody not on me? Okay, we're gonna be going into closed session. Do we have a, I'll refer to legal counsel. Do we have any reportable items that will be coming out of our closed session? Yes, Mr. Chairman. We will come out of closed session for one reportable item. And I would note for the record that we're going into closed session on items 21 and 22. Mr. Chairman, we do not have any action to report to the commission on item 23. So staff would recommend that we take that item off the closed session. I would also note that with regards to item 21 that that matter relates to potential litigation related to the potential closure of a private railway crossing near Troutgoach Road and the adjacent commercial properties in Aptos. And with that, Mr. Chairman, we can go into closed session. I would also note for the commissioners that commissioners would have received a separate email this morning around eight o'clock with the invitation information, the Zoom ID information for the closed session. Okay, now on item 23, we don't have to take any action on that at all then. Now, we're just noting for the record that we're removing it from the agenda, Mr. Chairman, because we're not going to be discussing that item in closed session. Okay, very good. Okay, we will move into closed session and there will be a reportable item presumably after we return. So I will move into closed session and let's get back in about five minutes. Does anybody need more than five minutes? Let's make it five minutes and we will get back and it's now five minutes to 11. So at 11 o'clock, we will return to our closed session. Okay, Steve, we are ready. Okay, we are great. I'll go ahead and Mr. Chairman, with your consent, I'll go ahead and announce out of closed session. Very well, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The commission did convening closed session for items 21 and 22 on the agenda. There was no reportable action for item 21, the two anticipated litigation matters. And with regards to item 22, the commission provided direction on a 11-1 vote to authorize the executive director to work with the county to make offers on the properties that are associated and identified in the closed session announcement. So those are the properties associated with the Highway One, a bus on shoulder, central lane project, and specifically the pedestrian bridge crossing. And so with that, Mr. Chairman, there are no further reports from closed session. Okay, with that, we will adjourn until our next meeting and I don't have that date in front of me. That's Thursday, November 5th at nine o'clock and I'm sure it'll be by teleconference again. Thank those who are in the public who joined us. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.