Kern COG director briefs Bakersfield council on 2026 regional transportation plan; Stockdale offramp concern raised

Jay Schlloer, executive director of the Kern Council of Governments, briefed the Bakersfield City Council on the 2026 Regional Transportation Plan on June 24 and outlined how the agency intends to program federal and state transportation funds over the next 20-plus years.

"We've gathered output from almost the 10,500 residents here in Kern County on how we ought to spend about 14 billion in gas tax funds that we expect to receive in the next 20 years," Schlloer said, summarizing the RTP outreach and the plan's funding assumptions. He told councilmembers the RTP divides projects into tiers — imminent (funded and in development), secondary (candidates for funding), and long‑term ideas — and provides the programming needed for projects to move toward construction.

Why it matters: Schlloer said 64.3% of Kern County's population lives in Bakersfield and that about 81% of the RTP funding identified in the plan benefits Bakersfield residents, making the plan materially relevant to local maintenance and investment priorities.

Council members asked about specific projects and local impacts. Council Member Gonzalez pressed Schlloer about reports that Caltrans intends to close the southbound Highway 99 exit at Stockdale Avenue, saying, "I think that would be a huge mistake," and warning the closure would disproportionately affect working families who rely on that exit for work and school trips.

Schlloer responded that the Stockdale access issue is primarily an engineering and real‑estate constraint that was effectively decided years ago as part of the TRIP program: "You cannot do both anymore," he said, explaining there is not enough right‑of‑way to preserve the prior access while completing the larger highway movements. He said COG and the city can advocate with Caltrans and that COG can include mitigating surface‑street improvements in the RTP to help affected neighborhoods.

The briefing also described several major projects and studies identified in the package. Schlloer listed about $7.95 billion identified for road maintenance across the county and noted a near‑term state rehabilitation project on Highway 99 from California to White Lane that is expected to go to construction in roughly a year. He said the plan continues to program work on the 58/99 corridor (including a currently‑underway "seventh movement" and a scheduled "eighth movement") and that large projects such as the Centennial Corridor and high‑speed‑rail scenarios are included for planning and impact analysis.

Council Member Coleman asked whether the long‑discussed Westside Beltway remains on COG's list. Schlloer said the corridor appears in the packet under the name "West Urban Corridor," that freight and cargo studies and a recent COG resolution have pushed the corridor higher on the priority list, but that its final cross‑section (expressway versus arterial) and exact alignment remain under study.

On landscaping and highway appearance, Schlloer said beautification along Highway 99 is constrained by funding and by local decisions about self‑taxing for transportation work in some Central Valley counties. He said COG is pursuing opportunities to include beautification in project budgets where feasible.

Procedural outcome: Vice Mayor Core moved to receive and file the RTP briefing; the council approved the motion. The clerk recorded the motion as approved with Council Member Smith absent.

Next steps: public comments on the draft RTP are due July 2; COG staff expect to return with responses to comments and seek adoption of the RTP (including an Environmental Impact Report and a Sustainable Communities Strategy) at the COG board's August meeting.

Sources: presentation and remarks by Jay Schlloer, Kern Council of Governments; staff remarks from the city manager's office; Bakersfield City Council discussion on June 24, 2026.