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Council reviews draft Envision Ridgefield 2045 transportation and public‑facilities goals
Summary
City planners presented draft transportation and public‑facilities elements for the Envision Ridgefield 2045 comprehensive plan, highlighting alignment with capital facilities plans, water supply and stormwater policies, multimodal transportation, and non‑vehicular level‑of‑service standards; council asked for clarifications on trails, private wells and transit.
City planning staff presented the draft public facilities and transportation goals for Envision Ridgefield 2045 at the Sept. 11 Ridgefield City Council meeting, seeking council feedback before a public open house and subsequent hearings.
Planner Claire Lust, supported by consultant Jod Meer of WSP, said the transportation and public facilities elements are the final mandatory components of the 20‑year plan update and are intended to align with recently adopted capital facilities plans for water and stormwater. She described draft goals for general facilities, water supply, stormwater management and financial sustainability, and for transportation emphasized multimodal investments, safety and better integration of land use and transit.
Key policy issues raised in council discussion included whether the public facilities goal language should explicitly reference trails as well as parks; how the city should treat existing private wells (staff said the policy encourages connection to public water when infrastructure is nearby or when private wells fail, and noted code already limits drilling of new wells in many locations); and the east‑side reservoir project, which staff said will add 2.5 million gallons of storage with room to expand by a second reservoir of the same size. Staff also noted that regional interties (purchasing water from neighboring providers) remain part of the city’s mix, at retail cost to ratepayers, while developing local water rights reduces regional purchase costs.
On transportation, councilors pressed for realistic language on pedestrian infrastructure (questions about whether sidewalks “on both sides of all streets” are feasible), for inclusion of e‑bikes and scooters in policies for alternative modes, and for stronger language about transit service that would be useful and well‑used by residents. Staff said the draft includes new language on non‑vehicular level‑of‑service standards (for transit, bicycle and pedestrian modes) and that more detailed implementation and community outreach will follow.
Next steps: staff will revise draft language based on council input, hold an open house on Sept. 16 and continue iterative review with the planning commission and council toward hearings on adoption.
