Glendale commission notes draft mobility element after lengthy public discussion on safety, outreach and timelines

The Glendale Transportation and Parking Commission on Sept. 15 formally noted and filed a staff presentation of the city’s draft Mobility Element and invited further public comment and technical review ahead of environmental analysis.

The draft element, presented by Vilia Zonotaitis, deputy director of long range planning in the Community Development Department, lays out seven themes — including complete streets, active transportation, public transit and goods movement — and a new multimodal roadway classification system. Zonotaitis said the draft was released Sept. 3 and is part of a larger update that also includes a land use element and a newly required environmental justice element.

The commission’s action was procedural: commissioners voted to “note and file” the informational presentation so the draft and public comments can be considered as staff prepares a program-level draft environmental impact report (EIR). The commission did not take any regulatory or policy votes to adopt the element.

Why it matters: The Mobility Element sets the policy framework the city will use to guide transportation investments and street design for the next decades. It will be folded into CEQA review (including vehicle-miles-traveled, or VMT, analyses required under state law, commonly identified by SB 743) and will guide projects ranging from bicycle and sidewalk investments to designation of truck routes tied to AB 98 (state law addressing…