Walt Seifert, Executive Director of the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, sent us the following account of a public workshop held in Citrus Heights, California last month. Citrus Heights, a supporting member of the National Complete Streets Coalition, is a city of about 85,000 northeast of Sacramento. The Sacramento area has been a leader in complete streets policies, including a county policy that covers some roads in Citrus Heights. Sacramento is also home to Representative Doris Matsui, a complete streets champion and sponsor of the Complete Streets Act of 2009 (H.R. 1443). Last year, the California General Assembly passed AB 1358, requiring all cities and counties to include complete streets when updating their general plans, commencing January 1, 2011.
Walt reports:
On November 17, 2009, I attended a workshop on the update of the City of Citrus Heights General Plan ready to advocate for bicycling. About 25 residents were there to hear a presentation and ask questions. Though Citrus Heights is a new city, starting operations in 1997, it is mostly built out. It was created out of part of northern Sacramento County in an area defined by a huge suburban mall, wide, busy suburban roads and a freeway. It has many single-family residences, apartment complexes and considerable commercial uses as well.
A consultant provided a presentation on the background of the general plan and the general plan process. He said the city would be focusing on four areas for the update: climate change, complete streets, water resources and flood hazard management.
The consultant explained the city was not taking the lead on climate change but was required to comply with changes in state law. He also said that the issue of climate change was not going to be debated, but how the city responded to state requirements would be covered.
On complete streets, the presentation suggested the city was unsure how its citizens were going to react to the idea. One presentation slide had this question, “Do complete streets fit Citrus Heights’ community values?” It seemed as though staff was anticipating an answer of, “No, they don’t. We don’t want them.”
But when people in the audience spoke, the first asked why Citrus Heights couldn’t be more like Davis with more bicycling and solar panels. A second said she had resolved to walk a hundred miles and bike 500 miles during the summer. She wasn’t able to do that in Citrus Heights because she found it to be too dangerous. A third talked about the inadequate bicycle and pedestrian faculties in the city and the need to do more.
At that point, the city staff took the microphone and talked about how the Citrus Heights City Council was ahead of the curve and had already approved projects that were essentially complete streets projects, listing some examples.
In the space of a few minutes the tenor of the discussion changed from “Do we really want complete streets in Citrus Heights?” to “We are a leader in complete streets!” It was all catalyzed by the power of the idea of complete streets and state legislation. I didn’t have to say the word “bicycle.” I didn’t have to say anything. Even though they might have had some trepidation, staff was ahead of me with their plan to focus on complete streets. Residents seemed to be ahead of them by wanting more. It was heartwarming and gratifying.
Events like this could be happening hundreds of times across California as the state complete streets legislation takes affect. It could happen thousands of times across the country if federal complete streets legislation is passed.