Vallejo's Participatory Budgeting and Steering Committee is moving forward with a community member-developed proposal that seeks to promote pedestrian safety at intersections along 5th Street.
Saturday's forum at the Norman C. King Community Center is a direct response to business owner pushback for the "Slower Streets for Safety" initiative, which received more than 600 votes from Vallejoans in the city's eighth cycle of participatory budgeting. Councilmember Cristina Arriola, who represents South Vallejo and where 5th Street lay, arranged for the town hall under the direction of the mayor.
This marks the first time since participatory budgeting began in 2012 that a proposal has been halted for additional community input. Terry Kent, who works for the Lippincott Supply Co. along 5th Street, said the project was misleading in name. Safety, she said on Saturday, includes police enforcement, street cleanups and responses to encampments and abandoned vehicles.
Kent told the city council in August that moving forward with efforts to mitigate high-speed traffic are "only going to bring more problems to our neighborhood," but it remains unclear to participatory budgeting personnel what correlation exists between the two. The city's response to homelessness, detailed in the council's goals for the fiscal year, are outside the project's purview.
"There isn't a correlation," said David Belef, author and delegate for the Slow Streets project.
Unhoused Vallejoans who reside in the area previously told the Times-Herald that such efforts would make 5th Street safer for them. The slower streets project, according to its March proposal, aims to reduce what its proposers describe as reckless speed driving that reaches up to 70 mph — higher than the limit of 25 mph. They argue that 5th Street is an ideal spot for the project due to its access to the Bay Trail and other routes and trails for non-drivers.
"My kids don't play outside anymore in the front. We don't feel safe being outside in our front yard," 5th Street resident Sharayah Alexander said. "I just want for our family and (others) to feel like they are safe and that they can be out and enjoy their homes and property."
Designs for what that may look like are yet to be drafted. The process traditionally occurs after the city council approves the resident-voted proposals and transfers the funds to the city's Public Works Department, Magallanes said. Community members have historically provided input alongside the design phase, ahead of a final council review and approval.
Such strategies for reducing traffic speeds on 5th Street could include stop and yield signs, speed humps and roundabout curbing. These strategies, however, xcannot be implemented without 67 percent of community approval, per participatory rules.
Amassing that support could result in a scaling down of the project, in order to acknowledge business owner concerns that these efforts would make commercial truck access to their stores more difficult. Belef said the community input period will assist in developing a compromise plan for involved stakeholders to 5th Street.
Frustration rose early into Saturday's town hall among attendees, some of whom believed the event would address the city's response to side show and encampments. The confusion seems to result from a flier that Kent distributed to businesses and residents along 5th Street.
"Do you want northbound 5th Street to be a one-way street with minimal access to your property, a bike lane, loss of parking … and potential decline in property value?" reads the flier, which fails to identify the sender.
Magalles said once the emotions in the room subsided and the project's details were explained, it received largely positive reception from the crowd. Belef clarified that the project neither aims to make the street one-way nor add a bike lane that would reduce parking. Instead, he said, the street would be a bike route. A bike route sign would be installed to signify to drivers that 5th Street has cyclist demand. The project proposal also argues home values would increase as a result.
Of the more than 30 people in attendance, four had voted in this round of participatory budgeting. Some yearslong residents of Vallejo said they weren't aware of the voting process until Saturday. Kent and others said they wished to have been notified of the area-specific proposal before the voting deadline, something Magallanes said would be taken into account in future participatory budgeting cycles.
"The communication (from City Hall) is very vague. They say, 'Go here, go there, the information is there,'" said Gilbert Dodson. "but I'm looking at 603 votes, and that doesn't represent all of South Vallejo or Vallejo in general. They know how to get our votes and the information out, but when it comes to things like this, it's very limited."
A summary of Saturday's community forum will be submitted with a draft of the project to council members for their Nov. 28 meeting, where members of the public can weigh in ahead of the council's vote.
No comments:
Post a Comment