City updates Connecting Aurora multimodal plan after wide public outreach

City planners on the Transportation, Airports and Public Works Committee on a midproject update said Connecting Aurora — the city’s first citywide multimodal transportation master plan — is halfway complete and moving into development of a proposed multimodal network and implementation strategies.

Huilang Lu, principal transportation planner with the city’s Planning Department, said the project has completed an existing-conditions analysis and scenario testing and is now developing multimodal networks for bicycles, transit, freight and vehicles. “The city of Aurora will provide a complete transportation system to meet the needs of all people. The city will engage the public in the delivery of plans, programs, policy, standards, and projects,” Lu told the committee, repeating the plan’s drafted mission.

The plan’s consultants described three intentionally extreme futures used in scenario testing: a car-oriented city that reflects status quo development patterns; a transit-oriented city that pairs stronger transit service with higher-density, mixed-use development; and a neighborhood-oriented city that prioritizes infill, walkable town centers connected with transit. The scenario testing used the travel demand model to compare the futures and to identify investments that would be resilient across multiple possible outcomes.

Consultant project manager Keith Bauschine of HDR said the proposed networks are being designed to work under multiple futures and that policy and program recommendations will follow. The team recommended projects and programs that would be effective whether the city becomes more car-, transit- or neighborhood-oriented.

Planners reported extensive public engagement during the scenario-testing phase. The outreach campaign included more than 50,000 touch points, about 1,300 active participants in the online open house, roughly 55 completed online surveys (with over 50% nonwhite participation), social-media reach above 70,000, two in-person open houses, a virtual town hall and small-group roundtable events. The team said it engaged about 250 people face-to-face at pop-up events.

Survey and open-house results showed stronger public preference for the transit-oriented and neighborhood-oriented scenarios than for the car-oriented scenario. Bauschine told the committee those two scenarios were generally perceived to produce a better quality of life and better mobility and safety outcomes for older adults, youth and people with disabilities.

Council member Krista Lawson raised timing and safety concerns about current transit operations, saying personal experience using light rail underscored reliability and safety issues. “It took me almost an hour to get downtown, and I might as well have driven,” Lawson said, adding that poor lighting at transfers and inconsistent on-time performance discourage transit use. Planners and the consultant acknowledged those concerns and said the subsequent implementation and programming phase will include actions intended to improve service reliability, safety and funding coordination with RTD.

Janine Rastatt, director of Planning and Business Development, said the city has a quarterly standing meeting with the Regional Transportation District and that staff are asking RTD for earlier notice of service disruptions to aid city communications. “If you experience particular difficulties, please reach out to myself, Laura Perry, Cindy Collop,” Rastatt said, identifying staff who attend the RTD meetings.

Next steps: the project team is finalizing multimodal networks and will present project lists, funding strategies and policy recommendations during milestone 3 public engagement this spring; the team said it expects to present the draft plan to council for adoption later this year. The team called out the citywide Engage Aurora event scheduled for April 19 as a primary outreach moment for the next milestone.