Residents press Santa Rosa on school safety, evacuations and PG&E plans during Kalisoga Road Q&A

Residents used a community meeting Q&A to press city staff about how Kalisoga Road construction will affect school crossings, evacuations, utilities and everyday access.

Several speakers asked whether the project presented an opportunity to underground utility lines. "We don't expect any undergrounding to happen," project staff replied; they said PG&E (which staff referred to during the meeting using a variant transcription) will be lowering some existing utilities in the roadway but has not committed to burying overhead lines. Resident Mike Cook asked whether PG&E could have been notified earlier; staff said the utility was notified when the city realized the underground locations would be an issue and that the city does not control PG&E’s decisions on undergrounding.

School safety emerged as a recurring concern. Liz Crane, who lives near Sequoia Elementary, asked what the corridor will look like when school returns in August and how students will safely cross. "We're going to start with the underground water and sewer directly in front of the school to try to get that knocked out before school is back in session," a staff member said, and Mike Janet, the construction manager, added that the contractor will provide safe alternate crossings if work is occurring at a crosswalk and that work hours will be coordinated with school drop-off and pickup times.

Residents also raised fire-evacuation concerns for neighborhoods with limited exit routes. Neil Bregman, emergency preparedness manager with the Santa Rosa City Fire Department, said the city will coordinate with the contractor and first responders and will stop work during high fire-danger conditions when possible. "We would be in communication with the contractor and work would be stopped as much as possible," Bregman said, and he recommended issuing warnings earlier to give vulnerable neighborhoods additional time to evacuate.

Neighborhoods questioned design trade-offs such as removing some on-street parking, installing ballards for protected bike lanes, and how those changes affect turning movements and street-sweeping operations. Acting deputy director Mike Vanmitti said the city has narrow sweepers for constrained sections and that turning analyses were performed; he framed ballards and other calming measures as an explicit effort to reduce vehicle speeds and improve safety. "We're trying to slow people down ... the explicit goal is to lower the speeds," Vanmitti said.

Staff also clarified several mitigation and communication measures: project plans are posted on the city capital projects page and staff will add a clearer link to the project website; the weekly newsletter and the staffed hotline will provide advance notice of major paving and lane closures; and crew contact cards will be available on site.

The city invited further input and asked residents to report specific locations of concern (lighting, signage or vegetation) so staff can follow up; staff said they will continue to coordinate with schools, PG&E and emergency services as the project proceeds.