Participant 4, a staff member leading the working session, said the city’s transportation and climate working groups are combining policy work and will present a draft transportation chapter to the Planning Commission on Dec. 10. "The goal is to be at planning commission with a draft chapter by December 10," Participant 4 said.

The group described a three-way convergence: the revised transportation chapter, a climate-policy effort and a state-driven vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) reduction mandate. "They're looking specifically at vehicle miles travel reduction, which is mandated by the state," Participant 4 said, noting that the climate team's recommendations need to be integrated into the transportation chapter.

Participants emphasized that the revised chapter should be shorter and more focused than the 2017 version, which embedded long excerpts of other plans and grew to more than 70 pages. "We're looking at going down from, you know, 70 plus pages in the transportation chapter to about 20," Participant 4 said. The working-group discussion repeatedly favored keeping high-level goals and policies in the chapter while relocating detailed performance measures and 20-year project lists to an appendix or a separate implementation plan so they can be amended without changing the chapter.

Several members asked for explicit cross-references to existing documents such as the pedestrian master plan and bicycle master plan so the transportation chapter can point to established networks rather than restating project lists. The group repeatedly recommended clear coordination with other city boards and commissions — including the Transportation Commission and planning-related committees — so feedback channels are aligned before the Planning Commission hearing.

No formal vote was taken. Participant 4 said staff will revise the draft to incorporate comments from the meeting and follow up with the group before the Planning Commission date.

The next procedural step is for staff to circulate a revised draft that integrates climate and VMT policy language and clarifies references to other plans; that draft will then be scheduled for Planning Commission review in early December.