College Place UTAC backs roadway safety action plan, asks for language on updating priorities

The City of College Place Utility and Transportation Advisory Commission on Aug. 14 recommended that the City Council adopt the city’s 2025 Roadway Safety Action Plan, approving the draft with a small amendment to clarify how priorities will be revised as new crash data arrives.

Commissioners said the plan, prepared to meet U.S. Department of Transportation grant requirements, lays out the city’s safety goal and project prioritization and will be used to guide future project selection and funding requests. The commission added the sentence, "As new data is obtained, the city may update priorities accordingly," to the plan’s progress and transparency section before forwarding the document to the council.

The plan sets a leadership commitment goal of zero fatalities and zero serious injuries and compiles seven required components: leadership commitment (with a model council resolution placed in Appendix A), planning structure (the advisory role of UTAC), safety analysis, public engagement (the plan records more than 450 public comments), policy and process changes, project selection and prioritization, and performance measures for tracking outcomes. The draft keeps the plan’s goal year of 2032.

Spencer Montgomery, who presented the final draft and its supporting tables and maps, noted that the document packages prior analyses into the format required by the US DOT grant and adds updated statistics. Montgomery told commissioners that the plan includes multiple prioritized project lists (intersections and roadway segments) and describes methods for tracking implementation and crash outcomes. He said, "I think we put it every 2 years at a minimum," when describing the intended cadence for formal review, while noting the plan allows for more frequent monitoring.

Commissioner Williams, who pushed for a clear statement that priorities could be adjusted in response to new crash information, read aloud proposed wording and asked that it be added to the progress-and-transparency material. Williams said the change was intended to ensure the plan would not preclude elevating a project after an unforeseen, serious crash.

Commissioner McAndrews introduced the commission motion to approve the plan "with minor adjustments to the prioritization process as discussed"; Commissioner Bridal seconded. At roll call, Commissioners Shauna Larson, Williams, Gomez and Riggle voted to recommend the plan to the City Council. The chair declared the motion approved and the plan will be transmitted to the council for final action.

The commission discussion clarified several points staff had already included in the draft: that the document will be posted publicly, that the city is tracking five-year rolling averages of crashes and has incorporated 2024 data where available, and that prioritization tables (identified in the draft as table 11 and related tables) focus on higher-speed and functionally classified streets where pedestrian and bicycle conflicts are likeliest to produce fatalities or serious injuries. Commissioners and staff noted that many of the projects listed in the safety plan also appear in regional MPO lists and therefore could be eligible for federal funding.

The commission did not alter the plan’s substantive prioritization methodology during the meeting; the explicit addition authorizes updating priorities when new data is obtained and creates a clearer rationale staff can cite when seeking council approval to adjust project order or funding requests.

The commission’s recommendation now goes to the College Place City Council for review and potential adoption by resolution. The commission set no deadline for council action but expects to present the amended draft at the council’s next available meeting cycle.