The next meeting of BikeWalkSolana, the Solana Beach Active Transportation Committee,  be held on Monday, September 9,  2019, 5pm at Fletcher Cove Community Center. 

Fletcher Cove Community Center
133 Pacific Avenue
Solana Beach, CA 92075

Agenda:

• Updates from the City
• Lomas Santa Fe Corridor Improvement Project. Discussion and recommendations.
• Encinitas Holiday Parade December 7, 2019. Working with BikeWalkEncinitas for entry in support of biking and walking in our communities
• Upcoming event: The next FREE monthly Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) webinar in September (Wednesday, 9/18 from 12-1pm at Encinitas City Hall) is a very good one for all bike + ped supporters, whether you are a traffic engineer, planner, educator, advocate, elected official, or any combination.  Please mark your calendars well ahead so as to not miss it.

  • Proposing solutions that call for reallocating roadway space can stir up controversy. This webinar will examine innovative approaches to building support for innovation in the public right-of-way. How do we manage the conversation in a way that both educates and inspires our stakeholders?

    Can We Talk About the Street? Building Support for Controversial Projects

    Presenters:
    Mary Stewart, Alta Planning + Design
    Jeff Fuchs, PE, City of Tualatin
    Dave Brokaw, Wallis Engineering

• Other Business

People Attending: Mo Sammak (City of Solana Beach), Kristine Schindler, Brian Seymour, Shawna McGarry

Communication from the City

City of Solana Beach engineer, Mo Sammak, and the rest of the group discussed:

• Lomas Santa Fe Corridor Improvement Project
  • The City is preparing for the next hearing. It is not scheduled yet but will probably be in the October/November timeframe. It will likely be an item on a Council meeting agenda, though there is a possibility that they will have one more community meeting. 
  • The community gave a lot of feedback at the Open House in May, 2019. 
  • The City will continue to take comments up to the date of the hearing. 

• Lomas Santa Fe/Glencrest Dr intersection project
  • The work was completed in time for schools starting
  • There were some concerns about the sidewalk
  • Mo will meet with property owners in the Glencrest neighborhood on October 7th to further discuss traffic calming on Glencrest Dr. from Dell St. to Canyon Dr. 
  • The City is working on a speed cushion policy. A speed cushion elevates the road about 3 inches for 6-10 feet. There are gaps for emergency vehicles to be able go through faster.
  • Narrowed edge lines can also be used to slow traffic.

• The City applied for a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) planning grant last year but did not get it. Solana Beach does not have an official SRTS plan. They’re moving forward with another application, which is due in October. They consulted with CalTrans for feedback on how to improve upon last year’s grant.

• Hwy 101 cycletrack from Chesterfield to Solana Beach
  • Encinitas is planning to build a Class I cycletrack on both sides of Hwy 101 from Chesterfield Dr. to the north entrance of Solana Beach
  • It will have pylons between the car lanes and bike lanes and raised rubberized wheel stops between the pylons, so bikes cannot move in an out.
  • BikeWalkEncinitas is not wholly in support. The BikeWalk Encinitas group has an online forum and some faster riders are against this project because they would not want to ride in it. They would like to see sharrows in the adjacent travel lane if this is built.
  • Some Solana Beach residents have expressed that they would like a separated bikeway that connects from the Cardiff Rail Trail to the Solana Beach Coastal Rail Trail.
  • City of Encinitas has reached out to City of Solana Beach to ask how we could connect this cycletrack lane to our Coastal Rail Trail.
  • There is some opposition to a signalized crossing near Harbaugh Trails because of the views from homes nearby. This type of crossing would be similar to Swami’s pedestrian crossing.
  • At this point, Solana Beach has told Encinitas that riders can connect to our Coastal Rail Trail via the crossings at Cliff, Solana Vista, or at Ocean.
  • This cycletrack will require the narrowing the lanes on Hwy 101 to 10’-11’, a known traffic calming improvement.
  • If/when this project gets approved in Encinitas, it will be a good opportunity for Solana Beach to re-look at the crossing at the north edge of town

Lomas Santa Fe Corridor Improvement Project
Discussion and recommendations

• Karl Rudnick recently submitted a letter to the City with BikeWalkSolana’s preferences for the Lomas Santa Fe Corridor Project. Mo noted that they had received the letter. He noted that BikeWalkSolana has not yet commented on many elements of the project.  
• With regard to the Class 1 Multi-Use Trail option on the west side of Lomas Santa Fe, Mo shared that there are a lot of driveways, and that property owners, pedestrians, and bicyclists would have to agree to accommodate that interaction.
• It was suggested that the consultants create some more visual renderings to help residents get a better understanding of what the different lane options would really look like.
• BWS members did not feel that there was quite enough education during the Open House in May for people to really understand the different options presented in the Lomas Santa Fe Corridor Improvement plans.  

Encinitas Holiday Parade December 7, 2019

• BikeWalkSolana and BikeWalkEncinitas will have an entry in the Encinitas Holiday Parade in support of biking and walking in our communities.

Other Items

There is an opportunity for a group presentation given by Caltrans on the North Coast Corridor Highway Improvements project that could be done in conjunction with the October BWS meeting. Mo said that it would be possible to host it at the Fletcher Cove Community Center if that would be helpful.

BWS would like Solana Beach to install some Bike Friendly City (BFC) signs, since we were awarded BFC Silver Level status. The cost will be about $1000. Mo believed that the City could help with that and asked that we email him the areas we would like the signs.

Notes recorded by Shawna McGarry