Paradise holds CEQA scoping meeting on proposed Railroad extension evacuation route

PARADISE — Town of Paradise staff and consultants held a public scoping meeting to begin environmental review of a proposed Railroad extension intended to add an east–west multimodal corridor and improve evacuation access in south Paradise.

Mark Maddox, the town’s public works director and town engineer, opened the meeting by describing the session as an early, public input step in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process. “This tonight is about a public scoping meeting for a, evacuation route project. But what I really wanna start off and say that this is your project,” Maddox said, asking residents to submit written comments for formal consideration.

The project team described the Railroad extension as a multi‑phase effort to create new east–west connections between Pence Road and Clark Road (with a narrower focus between Edgewood Lane and Clark Road in early phases). Staff said the long‑term vision from the town’s transportation master plan is to provide a resilient east–west corridor linking existing north–south evacuation routes such as Skyway, Neil and Clark.

Lewis (Louis) Johnson, the town’s supervising project manager, reviewed alignment alternatives and engineering tradeoffs. He said the team has evaluated more than 30 alignment options and that chosen alternatives balance right‑of‑way impacts, constructability (including bridge spans over canyons and Clear Creek), and design standards needed for state and federal review. “Some of them were just because of they were impact houses. Some of them because of, we knew that the terrain was too difficult to make it…