Are you all signed up to attend the Blueprint Anniversary workshop on Friday, April 2, 2010, from 8 – 11 am at CSUS??  If not, sign up to register (you gotta register) at:

http://www.sacregionblueprint.org/implementation/anniversary5/registration/

… so that Complete Streets are in the house.  The Blueprint process has helped make a lot of our success possible, so let’s be there!!

Cindy Blain of the Sacramento Tree Foundation outlined the Foundation’s proposed Model Urban Forest Ordinance.  She noted that the draft ordinance is back on the Foundation’s current agenda and she welcomed comments from WALKSacramento.

Some of the concerns raised at today’s meeting:

Tree canopy & sidewalks & bike lanes

The current draft is considering recommending 50-70% tree canopy coverage for the overall street but doesn’t mention the sidewalks.  We’d like to see sidewalks and bike-lanes shaded to encourage both walking and bicycling.  We suggested that the ordinance sets a specific objective of shading sidewalks and bike lanes. 

Tree canopy and Safe Routes to School

We were excited to learn that the Tree Foundation is working with school districts to plant trees on school property (Twin Rivers is planting 1,000 trees and San Juan School District will be planting 1,500 trees in the next 5 years).  We urged that the Foundation and school districts plant trees along the edges of the school particularly along sidewalks and pathways children take to get to school.

The Tree Foundation has an extensive program with SMUD to encourage homeowners to plant trees to shade their homes.  We suggested that homeowners also be encouraged to plant trees to shade the routes children take past their homes to school.

Tree canopy and commercial parking lots

Commercial parking lots often have trees planted for shade but then are drastically pruned to maintain sign visibility to passing motorists.  We suggested that the Tree Foundation work with shopping center owners to provide incentives to provide greater shade coverage particularly of sidewalks and pathways.  There might be a way of providing LEED type credit for good practices.  Perhaps parking space reduction might be provided with commitment to significant shade coverage.

Provisions for large canopy trees in higher density areas

We urged the Tree Foundation to consider requirements for large shade canopy trees for higher density neighborhoods through the use of such things as “Cornell Soil” that enable large canopy trees to be planted in smaller planters than normally recommended.  Providing trees in these higher density areas and along alley’s will be important as we move toward higher density living.

Next steps:

We agreed to review some of the draft ordinance’s provisions and provide additional comments to Cindy.  We invite our members to send their comments to Chris Holm and we will forward them with WALKSacramento staff’s comments to the Tree Foundation.

http://cbs13.com/local/regional.transit.layoffs.2.1490263.html

In December we wrote and asked for your continued support for our Complete Streets efforts in and around Sacramento.  As we use the cool, grey days of an early Sacramento January to plan for the year, the challenges we face appear sharper than ever.

Sacramento County is working on updating its General Plan.  WALKSacramento has been actively engaged in this process for some time, working to ensure that lofty policy language translates into real change on the ground.  Unfortunately, as of now, it doesn’t.  The County has an extensive network of road widenings in the proposed plan.  Wide, fast six lane roads are difficult and dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists, encourage sprawl and cost too much to build and maintain.  WALKSacramento has therefore called on the County to:

1. Adopt a flexible policy on road widenings
2. Set as policy that four lanes are the preferred designated except as exception
3. Establish a community-based planning process for reviewing proposed road widenings and developing solutions.  Charlotte NC has an excellent six-step process for this.  In July 2009, WALKSacramento organized a two hour seminar at SACOG led by the lead engineer on the Charlotte process.  We need a similar process here.

Please read the attached letter to the County Planning Commission, sent December 31, 2009, for more on our concerns.  It is these concerns, in our local communities as well as around our County, and the kind of effort detailed in the letter, that we need your support for.  Our grant funding generally doesn’t allow this level of policy advocacy.

It’s our partnership with you, our members and friends, has made much of this possible.  As one of our active members says – “WALKSacramento is the go-to organization addressing basic transportation – walking – as well as biking and mass transit – in Sacramento.”  We need your continued involvement – physical, intellectual and financial in 2010.  Are you ready to support WALKSacramento for another year?  We know the answer is YES!!

• Make your tax-deductible gift to WALKSacramento today!

Your Financial Support is Critical for 2010

Your support helps us provide a strong independent voice on behalf of Complete Streets and walkable communities.  Our voice accomplished a lot in 2009:

Complete Streets:  WALKSacramento works for Complete Streets – streets that are safe for all users at all times throughout Sacramento cities and County.

• WALKSacramento organized and staffs the Complete Streets Coalition, bringing together individuals and organizations to advocate for Complete Streets.  The Coalition meets together monthly bringing partners such as Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, Breathe CA, SACOG, AARP, Sacramento Regional Transit, ECOS, Sacramento Metro Air Quality Mgmt District and others, each organization playing a role in moving the Complete Streets agenda forward.
• WALKSacramento played a strong role in getting Complete Streets incorporated into the City of Sacramento’s updated General Plan, the Sacramento Transit District’s Master Plan and Complete Streets are in the draft update of the County’s General Plan and Circulation Element.
• WALKSacramento partnered with the Local Government Commission to co-host the Sacramento Complete Streets Symposium in July 2009, attended by over 250 planners, engineers, advocates, health professionals and others from throughout our region and beyond.  We’ve heard from many participants that this workshop provided them with new direction for policies and initiatives.

Safe Routes to School:  WALKSacramento works for Complete Streets to and around our neighborhood schools.

• We are currently working with the County Department of Transportation to identify challenges to students walking (and bicycling) safely to schools in the County’s unincorporated area and to recommend solutions to schools, parents and local agencies.
• In October we organized and hosted the first Sacramento Safe Routes to School Conference attended by nearly 100 enthusiastic participants – parents, teachers, school board members, transportation engineers and planners.  The conference provided information on local, state and national Safe Routes efforts, review of tips on building local Walk to School programs and how to find funding to implement recommendations.

Partnerships: As you can see, WALKSacramento works with many organizations in leveraging local skills and strengths to shape policy in many ways.

• Our broad-based Safe Routes to School regional conference planning committee consisted of local child safety advocates, health professionals, several transportation management associations, school districts and others.  The committee is now looking forward to our 2010 Safe Routes conference and trainings.
• In December 2009 the American Journal of Preventive Medicine published our paper “Partnership Moves Community Toward Complete Streets” – documenting what WALKSacramento achieved in partnership with many community and governmental organizations to make Complete Streets policies a reality.
• Our Partnership for Active Communities – a project funded by the Active Living by Design program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has born much fruit, including the Complete Streets Coalition mentioned above.

And the work continues

However, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation support for Complete Streets work ended in October 2009 and we are really just beginning now to work to get those great Complete Streets policies implemented on the ground.

Sacramento is considered a national leader in the “Complete Streets” movement.  But, as they say, there is still much to be done — and grant funding for our Complete Streets effort is coming to an end.  Your support will help us keep up our strong independent voice.

• Please click here to make your tax-deductible gift to WALKSacramento to help us keep working to bring Complete Streets to our communities.  We need your support to get it done.

Thank you and best regards,

Eric Fredericks, President

Anne Geraghty, Executive Director

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