Committee delays Active Transportation Plan approval after public concerns, asks staff to review

Santa Clara County’s housing, land use, environment and transportation committee on Thursday received an update on the draft Active Santa Clara active transportation plan and instructed staff to review public concerns before bringing a final draft back in 2025.

The committee’s interim briefing came as county staff reported they extended public outreach after posting the draft and collecting more than 150 public comments. “We actually extended the open period for public comment — it was open between October 28 and December 8. We’ve received over 150 public comments from the community,” said Chris Lamb, deputy director of Roads and Airports, who presented the verbal update.

The report is intended to update the committee on outreach and schedule. Lamb told the committee the project began early outreach in 2020 and the draft plan is now in a public-comment phase; staff expect a revised final draft in early 2025. “We’re probably looking at having a final draft ready in early 2025 that we would take again to the VTA BPAC, to the roads commission, and then again to the full board for recommendation and approval in probably the spring of 2025,” Lamb said.

Public speakers voiced mixed reactions. Jim Stallman of Saratoga urged the county to preserve earlier project-specific bicycle and pedestrian recommendations and to keep the plan’s detailed measures intact. “Yes, let's do it right. Let's thank you, county roads for taking another stab at this thing and getting some more public comment incorporated, so we don't go in the wrong direction here,” Stallman said.

Another public commenter, Akos Sobosloy, urged rejection of the draft, saying it would erase prior expressway bicycle and sidewalk protections. “Your highway engineers get paid to fight against existing board requirements and to waste everyone's time. Mr. Freitas spent $525,000 to buy custom propaganda to change 50 board votes that require bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the road,” Sobosloy said.

Harry Freitas, speaking for County Roads, said staff are working through every comment and emphasized the difficulty of applying a single approach across varied county road types. “The county road system is very different than [a city system] — hills, narrow, flat, country roads, arterials, collectors, neighborhood streets, as well as things as large as expressways. So we think we've put together a plan that both coordinates with various city bicycle and pedestrian plans… and we are responding to every single comment right now,” Freitas said.

After public comment, a committee member moved that the committee receive the staff report and ask county staff to review concerns raised about alignment with earlier plans and the needs of multiple user groups. The motion passed. Vice Chairperson Subidien and Chairperson Arenas recorded affirmative votes; staff noted the plan will be returned with responses to comments before formal board consideration.

County staff said the draft was presented to the VTA Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee on Nov. 13 and to the County Roads Commission on Nov. 18, and that Alta Planning (the plan consultant) is working through the public-comment matrix. Staff and the consultant will prepare a “final draft” and again present it to advisory bodies before the board of supervisors considers approval.

Committee members requested that staff pay special attention to expressway contexts, to the needs of San Martin and South County residents, and to make clear trade-offs the county considered when proposals differ from prior county expressway or city plans.

The committee did not adopt the plan; instead members voted to receive the staff report and directed staff to incorporate and respond to public comments before returning with a revised draft in early 2025.