NVTA presents countywide Active Transportation Plan; Calistoga gets 70 recommended projects

Patrick Band, senior planner with the Napa Valley Transportation Authority, presented the countywide Active Transportation Plan update and described the document’s local chapter for Calistoga and the public engagement that shaped it.

Band said the NVTA updated earlier pedestrian and bicycle plans (2016 and 2019) with about 2,000 unique engagements countywide and a plan chapter tailored to each jurisdiction. For Calistoga specifically, the plan identifies roughly 70 projects, including approximately 3.5 miles of proposed Class 1 shared use pathways and about 3.7 miles of sidewalk gap closures near key destinations such as schools and parks.

The plan emphasizes safety (Vision Zero/high‑injury network), equity, connectivity, project maintainability and grant eligibility; Band noted projects in an adopted plan are more likely to qualify for state or federal funding. He also described a level‑of‑traffic‑stress analysis used to prioritize corridors and said roughly 20% of Calistoga’s road miles score as higher stress (levels 3–4).

Council members asked about data sources and coordination with local public works; Band said NVTA worked closely with city planning and public works to obtain traffic volumes, speed data and facility inventories. NVTA will return to Calistoga for formal adoption at a later meeting; staff and Band encouraged review of the full plan, appendices and project prioritization toolkit available online.

What’s next: council will receive the plan for formal consideration at a later date; adoption would place projects on an eligibility list for grants and capital planning.