Kern COG tells Wasco council draft regional plan would direct most RTP dollars to local travel

Jay Schlosser, executive director of the Kern Council of Governments, briefed the Wasco City Council on the draft long-range Regional Transportation Plan and invited public comment through July 2.

Schlosser said the RTP organizes projects into tiers — short-term projects with committed funding and longer-term, aspirational projects — and estimated that Wasco represents about 14% of Kern County’s population. He told the council that, by his calculation, roughly 78.9% of the transportation expenditures listed in the draft plan would benefit Wasco or Wasco-area travel patterns. “So 78.9%…so I can say 80%,” Schlosser said, summarizing the figure for the chamber.

Why it matters: the RTP is the roadmap the region uses to prioritize and ultimately fund roads, transit and other transportation projects; projects must be in the RTP to be eligible for many state and federal funding sources. Schlosser noted the plan also includes the federally required environmental (CEQA/NEPA) documents and air-quality conformity analyses.

Details cited during the presentation: Schlosser said the county plans roughly $1.4 billion for road maintenance over the next 20 years and noted a $40 million roundabout project at 43rd and 46th streets. He also described a potential extension of Merced Avenue from 43rd to Highway 99 and said that some projects shown are unfunded ideas meant to guide future investments. He said outreach has reached more than 10,000 residents via fairs, workshops and a statistically valid phone survey.

Council and public questions focused on what items in the packet are completed versus planned, how color-coding on the project lists should be read, and whether bike-lane projects are feasible on narrower local streets. Schlosser said the shaded or grayed rows usually indicate completed items or those marked as finished, while red highlighting shows items called out for attention; he advised staff and residents to notify the COG if they spot inaccuracies on the list.

Next steps: Schlosser asked the city and residents to submit comments by July 2 and offered to accept project suggestions for inclusion as unfunded projects. He said the final RTP must be transmitted to Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration for approval. “If you have project ideas that are important to you all, we are still able to add those to the next in-line list,” Schlosser said.

The council did not take formal action on the RTP at the meeting but thanked Schlosser and discussed follow-up outreach to Caltrans and county staff to pursue local priorities.