Auburn council adopts Active Transportation and Safety plans to chase federal grants

Auburn's City Council voted unanimously May 11 to adopt a long-awaited Active Transportation Plan (ATP) and a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP), moves city officials said are intended to make the city more walkable and bicycle-friendly and to position Auburn for federal and state grants.

The plans, presented to the council by consultant Robert of Fred Piers and Public Works Director Manjil Dean, outline a citywide active-transportation network and a suite of safety countermeasures. The ATP calls for roughly 65 miles of new sidewalks and an additional 31 miles of bikeways, while cost estimates for the full recommended network totaled about $62,000,000 and the five top-priority corridor projects were estimated at just under $10,000,000.

"The Active Transportation Plan really focuses on walking, cycling and other human-powered modes of travel," Robert said during the presentation. He added that the CSAP sets an ambitious safety target: "reducing the number of roadway fatalities and serious injuries by 25 percent of the 2023 baseline every five years with the eventual goal of reaching zero by 2045."

Why it matters: Councilmembers and staff stressed that adopting the plans does not obligate the city to immediate construction and that most work will rely on outside funding. "This opens up grant funding," Mayor Kelly Davis said, noting the plans are prerequisites for many competitive grant programs and will help staff seek outside dollars to implement priority projects.

Key council concerns and clarifications: Several council members pressed staff and the consultant about how recommended facility types would be chosen for specific corridors. A recurring question was whether busy, high-speed roads such as Auburn Folsom Road and Highway 49 should receive physically separated bikeways (Class 4) or buffered painted lanes (Class 2). The consultant said recommendations followed Federal Highway Administration guidance but were tempered by local constraints and community feedback; for example, some segments on Highway 49 were identified as needing stronger separation but would require Caltrans cooperation because the highway lies on state right-of-way.

Councilmember comment: A council member who questioned the plan's aggressive scope noted the adoption does not commit the city to construction: "The adoption of this plan does not mean that we are committing to completing the entire plan," the councilmember said. "Every proposal will come before us with a budget request."

Implementation and funding: Staff outlined that the ATP/CSAP were developed with significant public engagement (more than 400 comments) and that the plans include a "toolbox" of context-sensitive treatments, intersection countermeasures and priority corridors. Public Works Director Manjil Dean said city staff will use the plans to pursue grant opportunities and to inform future design work; some high-crash corridors on state highways will require coordination with Caltrans.

Next steps: With the plans adopted, city staff said they will pursue grant applications for priority projects and return to council for any individual project approvals, budget requests or contract authorizations. Councilmembers emphasized that implementation would be phased and come back for subsequent public review and project-level design decisions.

The council approved the resolution adopting the ATP and CSAP on a roll-call vote; the motion passed unanimously.