Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The City of San Clemente Makes Orange County History

The City Council voted unanimously to support multimodal transportation in the updated General Plan. They are the only City in Orange County to make such a declaration. Introduced by Councilman Baker, the motion passed with consensus (5-0) opinion and stated the following:

"San Clemente's Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan shall be fully integrated with the City's updated Circulation Element so as to comply with the letter and spirit of California's Complete Streets Law, thereby creating a balanced multimodal transportation system for all."

Looking toward the future, Councilwoman Lori Donchak said, "I really view this as San Clemente's Complete Streets Initiative. We have a tool before us to ensure we'll take the Complete Streets legislation seriously and that, ultimately, we'll end up with a superior Circulation Element . . . It would be a true salute to the fact that we want multimodal experiences in San Clemente."

If you'd like to read more, here's a link I wrote as an Op-Ed piece about the Council's decision:
http://sanclemente.patch.com/articles/opinion-bike-advocate-lauds-city-transit-plan

I sense that 2012 will be a great year for San Clemente, the Spanish Village by the Sea.

Sincerely,
Brenda

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The City of San Clemente has agreed to release the INITIAL DRAFT of our town's first ever Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan.

Keep in mind that this INITIAL DRAFT was not likely to be released until after the holidays. As such, there likely are grammatical & other errors. If you'll keep a log of comments based on page number of the document, that will help PEDal and City staff focus attention where needed. You can email your comments to me (brenda@myfeetfirst.org) and/or to Principal Planner Jeff Hook (HookJ@san-clemente.org).

I'd like to pay thanks to the San Clemente City Council and City Manager for their willing ears–which may still be ringing as a result of all my phone calls–in hearing my pleas in favor of early disclosure, even if the document has some flaws at this time.

In the interests of transparency of process, I advocated for early release of the document so a public dialogue could begin. I'm hopeful that with increased access and time to ponder its contents, a better Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan will result.

Your comments and corrections will ultimately shape the Plan's final form. This is our Plan, just like it's our Future. Our children and their children will be impacted by our input in making this document relevant. Carpe diem.

Sincerely,
Brenda

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

At Tuesday's City Council meeting dedicated to Long Term Financial Planning, our pedestrian advocacy was able to garner a unanimous vote from the City Council. The vote authorized City staff to prepare an analysis of the costs necessary to create a formal City sidewalk policy. That policy would dovetail with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, now under way, and would provide guidance to City officials as they decide where and how to create sidewalks that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The research conducted by staff will be presented to the Council later this spring as elected officials decide whether to allocate money to create the policy. The spring budget meetings will also include discussions of how to satisfy the substantial need for sidewalks usable by everyone. Policy details would be created at some date in the future. They were not part of Tuesday night's meeting. Stay tuned.

I'd also like to thank the 3 PEDal members who, in addition to myself, waited more than 3 hours to speak in favor of creation of the sidewalk policy. Those members are Larry Culbertson, George Gregory, and Rose Velasquez of Orange County Human Relations. I'd also like to recognize the work of City Engineer Tom Bonigut for his professionalism and willingness to engage San Clemente's non-motorized transportation advocates. A job well done by all!

Sincerely,
Brenda

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, the Council voted 5-0 to do two things:

1. San Clemente residents WILL have a Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan--an historic event of which we should all be proud.
2. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plans will be part of the General Plan Update and so will be a legally binding policy document.

Thank you City Council.

Thanks to all the PEDal people who have written letters, spoken at Council meetings, and spent more than 200 hours volunteering to count bicycles and pedestrians in our town. Having numbers to document existing activity by bicyclists and pedestrians likely played a key role in demonstrating the need to create an official Plan that will integrate non-motorized transit within the existing circulation system.

You can read more about this in the San Clemente Times and the Sun Post.