US 50/BUS 80 Community Connectivity Project

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 US50/BUS80 Community Connectivity Project will help the City to address the legacy of barrier facilities: (1) Cabaldon Parkway (formerly known as Tower Bridge Gateway, State Route 275, Interstate 80, and West Sacramento Freeway) (2) Jefferson Boulevard (formerly known as State Route 84) and (3) Former Sacramento Northern Railway Corridor. Cabaldon Parkway was first constructed in 1954 as the West Sacramento Freeway, connecting the east end of the Yolo Causeway to the west end of Tower Bridge. It was redesignated as Interstate 80 as part of and the state's freeway renumbering in 1964 and then again redesignated as State Route 275 after a realignment of I-80 with the Pioneer Memorial Bridge towards the south side of downtown Sacramento. The State of California delayed relinquishment of Cabaldon Parkway due to the significance of the connection to the state's Capitol. The State of California relinquished Cabaldon Parkway and Jefferson Boulevard to the City in the early 2000s. Since then, the City transformed part of the former state-controlled access freeway to a local arterial boulevard by reconfiguring the freeway to an at-grade, multi-modal boulevard with signalized intersections at Riske Lane, 5th Street and 3rd Street. In 2008, Caltrans approved a Project Study Report (PSR) on US 50/BUS 80 at Jefferson Boulevard Interchange and South River Road Interchange. The PSR intended to address the current and future traffic capacity and operational deficiencies at the interchanges between US 50 and Jefferson Boulevard, South River Road, and Cabaldon Parkway. Progress after the PSR stalled due to complicated right-of-way ownership in this intersection and the combination of the Great Recession and then COVID-19 pandemic. Despite success in transforming Cabaldon Parkway within the Bridge and Washington Districts and attracting new affordable, mixed-use development along the former grade-separated corridor, the residential communities of West Sacramento remain divided by the former freeway alignment and north to south crossings are limited to a few heavily trafficked streets along the current 3.75 mile east-west alignment. Currently, Jefferson Boulevard and Cabaldon Parkway are tied into one system that does not match any standard interchange configuration and remains a major transportation barrier that has impeded bike/pedestrian mobility within the City, inhibited access to jobs and resources, and stymied development and progress for the surrounding communities. Since 2008, there has been numerous changes in goals, policies, and priorities in how to approach transportation projects such as focusing on reducing vehicle miles traveled, encouraging and supporting infill development, and prioritizing projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions/climate change impacts. Furthermore, the City and Caltrans have pursued other projects that align with this new outlook on transportation planning and would achieve co-benefits that were not realized in the 2008 PSR. Caltrans is underway with the I-80 Pavement Rehabilitation Project and the Yolo 80 Corridor Improvements Project. Less than a half mile from the intersection of US 50/BUS 80 at Cabaldon Parkway/Jefferson Boulevard, a freight railway corridor runs parallel to Drever Street creating another barrier impeding pedestrian use. Currently, one portion of the former Sacramento Northern Railway corridor is active under Union Pacific and another belongs to the Port, an independent special district managed by the City since 2006. The Sacramento Regional Transit District (RT), in collaboration with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, City of Sacramento, City of West Sacramento, and Yolo County Transportation District, is leading the Downtown Riverfront Streetcar. The Downtown Riverfront Streetcar Project received California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act (CEQA/NEPA) approvals in February 2016 when the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) following the publication of an Environmental Assessment in May 2015. A change in the alignment was determined necessary in 2021 within the City of Sacramento requiring additional engineering design and environmental study. The portion of the alignment within West Sacramento remained the same, and the RT is completing a CEQA Addendum and NEPA Revalidation for the project that will be completed summer 2025. The City plans to extend light rail beyond the Downtown Riverfront Streetcar Project by retrofitting the portion of former Sacramento Northern Railway track now owned by the Port. The City is fully invested in recovering our neighborhoods and transforming Cabaldon Parkway to meet the City's character and needs – improvements to US 50/BUS 80, Cabaldon Parkway, and Jefferson Boulevard and the reintroduction of passenger rail are included in the City's 2024 Mobility Element of the General Plan and SACOG's upcoming 2025 Blueprint (Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy). This US50/BUS80 Community Connectivity Project will help unlock 13 acres of vacant land in the center of the City's urban core that is currently isolated by these barriers and identify the opportunity for infill and transit-oriented development in West Sacramento's Green Zone. Study Area Barriers US50/Cabaldon Parkway from Westacre to Grand Street; Jefferson Blvd from West Capitol to Drever; Union Pacific Railroad/Sierra Northern Railroad. See Attachment A for the general extent of these barrier facilities. Relevant Plans, Projects, and Materials General Plan Grand Gateway Master Plan Grand Gateway Zoning District - See Attachment B Bridge District Specific Plan West Capitol Avenue Central Business District Design Guidelines West Sacramento Green Zone 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 Vision Zero Action Plan Downtown Riverfront Streetcar West Sacramento Major Planning Projects & Initiatives West Capitol Avenue Regional Connection Bicyclist and Pedestrian Safety Improvements | City of West Sacramento Park Blvd Resurfacing & Bicylce/Pedestrian Safety Improvements | City of West Sacramento Yolo 80 Corridor Improvements Project | Caltrans I-80 Pavement Rehabilitation Project | Caltrans 2008 Project Study Report In the City of West Sacramento on US 50 at the Jefferson Boulevard and South River Road Interchanges (Attachment C). This document is provided for information only.