Sycamore Trail Phase IV and V Feasibility Study

Background West Sacramento is a vibrant riverfront community centrally located in Northern California. West Sacramento shares the Sacramento River with neighboring Sacramento, with the deep water ship canal serving the Port of Sacramento. Incorporated in 1987, West Sacramento encompasses approximately 22 square miles, with a population just over 55,000. West Sacramento has a Council/Manager form of government. Citizens elect four City Council Members by district (as of the November, 2022 election) who serve four year terms and directly elect the mayor who serves a four-year term. The City is full-service with nine (9) departments and nearly 500 full-time employees. The City provides the full range of municipal services including police and fire protection, park, street, fleet, and facility maintenance, economic development and housing, community development, capital projects, and parks and recreation. The City also provides water, wastewater, and solid waste services. In addition, the City maintains port, water, wastewater, and solid waste enterprise funds. Other activities and related entities include the West Sacramento Redevelopment Successor Agency, Reclamation District 900 and the West Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. In 2023, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) was awarded funding from the United States Department of Transportation's Neighborhood Access and Equity (NAE) Discretionary Grant Program for the Green Zone Access and Equity Regional Planning Project. This award will allow the SACOG region to advance planning, engineering, design and project development activities to address barrier transportation facilities in nine federally designated disadvantaged communities that are (1) locally prioritized for infill development and (2) share the challenge of high volume, autocentric facilities that bisect existing neighborhoods to limit both economic and transportation mobility. This collection of barrier transportation facilities included the City of West Sacramento's Sycamore Trail Phase IV and V Feasibility Study will help the City to address the legacy of barrier facilities: (1) Union Pacific Railroad and (2) Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel and Barge Canal. Included in the 2013 Master Plan was the Sycamore Trail, a five-phase project that extends south from Sacramento Avenue near Yolo Street across the United State Route 50 (US 50) and the Barge Canal to the Lake Washington Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard intersection. Sycamore Trail is a Class 1 multi-use trail that will be the only low transportation stress route connecting the City's northern and southern areas, and it will cross three transportation facilities that divide the community and deny disadvantaged communities access to the high-quality amenities in the City's newer areas that are not disadvantaged. The three east-west transportation facilities are, from north to south: 1) the Union Pacific Railroad/Sierra Northern Railway, 2) US-50/I-80 Business, and 3) the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel and Barge Canal. The City completed Phase I of the Sycamore Trail in April of 2019. The first phase provides a multi-use paved trail and trail amenities that connect Westfield Park to Joey Lopes Park. Phase II of the project opened to the public in May 2025 and connects Evergreen Avenue just south of Joey Lopes Park with Westmore Oaks Elementary School to the south of US-50. A new pedestrian overcrossing crossing US-50/I-80 Business was constructed as part of Phase II. Phase III will further extend the trail from Westmore Oaks Elementary School to the intersection of Park Boulevard and Stone Boulevard. Phase III is currently in design and is fully funded through construction. A map of Sycamore Trail is provided in Attachment A. This study would begin work on Sycamore Trail crossing the two remaining phases. After Phase III is complete, the next step will be to cross through or over the twenty-foot-high Union Pacific Railroad and Sierra Northern Railway track embankments at the north end to reach Broderick/Bryte (Phase IV) and to cross the barge canal and Port of Sacramento railyard in the south to reach Southport (Phase V). Study Area Barriers Sycamore Trail alignment crossing Union Pacific Railroad, Sierra Northern Railway, and Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel and Barge Canal. See Attachment A for the general extent of these barrier facilities and Attachment B for a map of Sycamore Trail by phase. Relevant Plans, Projects, and Materials General Plan West Sacramento Green Zone Sacramento Avenue Complete Street Plan Pioneer Bluff & Stone Lock Master Plan Vision Zero Action Plan Climate Action and Adaptation Plan City is underway with an update to the Bicycle, Pedestrian and Trails Master Plan. Current status and more detail can be found at the project website: Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Trails Master Plan Update | City of West Sacramento