Placer Transportation Planning Agency shares planning, outreach efforts with supervisors

The Placer County Board of Supervisors were provided with an overview of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency's (PCTPA) planning and outreach efforts during their Sept. 12 meeting. Mike Costa, senior transportation planner with PCTPA, shared one project the agency is working on is its 2050 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), a long-range planning document that guides investments, strategies and policies to support major and local transportation projects in the county. Costa confirmed PCTPA updates the document every five years. Outreach confirming what the community viewed as important modes of transportation was conducted in October-December of last year. According to Costa, the agency drafted policies in its RTP based on the perspectives provided, and the policies were adopted by the PCTPA board in June. Costa advised in the coming months, PCTPA will conduct additional outreach and speak with focus groups to examine equity in relation to its projects and how it informs investments and policies for the RTP. "We have very specific projects that are regionally significant projects that we've identified, and we're just asking the public to weigh in on some of those projects to tell us if they believe those are also priorities as well," he said. Costa confirmed outreach will be conducted at community events to allow Placer residents to weigh in on projects and ask questions. According to the memorandum in the staff report, tentative upcoming events include the Taste of Lincoln Showcase on Sept. 23, Roseville's Family Fest on Sept. 30, the Placer Valley Tourism Expo in Roseville, Loomis' Eggplant Festival on Oct. 7, the Old Town Farmers Market in Auburn on Oct. 14 and Sheridan's Pop-Up Fair on Oct. 14. According to Costa, PCTPA will also hold a series of workshops, one in person and two virtual, in October to gain the public's input. Residents can also provide input online at pctpa.net/rtp2050. Costa confirmed a preferred project list is anticipated to be developed by the spring of 2024, with adoption of the document in 2025. The second project PCTPA is working on is its annual unmet transit needs assessment, a multi-month process to determine if there are any unmet transit needs that are not already provided in the existing transit system. Costa said if an unmet need is identified and determined reasonable to meet (sustainable, financially viable and supported by the community), Transportation Development Acts funds can be allocated to address the need. If no unmet needs are identified, the funds could be utilized for street and road purposes. The last project, being conducted concurrently with the unmet needs assessment, is the Comprehensive Operational Analysis, which will take a comprehensive look at public transit services provided in unincorporated areas of the county and communities Placer County Transit serves (Loomis, Lincoln, Rocklin, North Auburn and Colfax). "... We're looking at services in all of those jurisdictions, including the unincorporated areas, and essentially we're looking at how can we create better coordination and integration of our transit network to meet the needs of the public," Costa said. According to the memorandum, Placer residents can complete the survey online at pctpa.net/unmet-transit-needs or pctpa.net/coa-srtp. Comments will be accepted through Oct. 31. Following the presentation, District 5 Supervisor Cindy Gustafson suggested PCTPA look into having a pop-up event in North Auburn to gain outreach from that community as well. Costa confirmed the agency could look into doing so. No action was taken on the item due to it being an informational presentation.