The Santa Maria City Council on Nov. 17 approved a bike plan that will add 139 new miles of bike paths, lanes, and routes and fill in gaps in the city’s existing bike path network.
The Bikeway Master Plan, which will become effective in December, will connect neighborhoods to the downtown area, parks, and schools, and will link the two Allan Hancock College campuses to the city network.
The plan includes a 6-mile extension between Santa Maria and Guadalupe along the Santa Maria Levee and allows for bike routes along the Santa Maria Railroad line, known as the Santa Maria Rail Trail.
The Council voted to adopt the measure by a vote of 3-2, with Mayor Larry Lavagnino and councilmembers Bob Orach and Hilda Zacarias voting in support. Councilmembers Alice Patino and Mike Cordero dissented.
The city’s community development director, Larry Appel, who drafted the plan, called it a “well-designed wish list.”
“It’s a master plan that we’re trying to tie together the Santa Maria Valley,” he said.
Estimated at a cost of $62 million, the plan lists an additional 64 miles of bike lanes, 59 miles of bike paths, and 16 miles of bike routes to be added to the existing network. The city currently boasts 66 miles of bikeways.
The city will add 59 miles of Class I bike facilities—paths used exclusively by bicycles and pedestrians—to the already existing Battles, Santa Maria Levee, and Skyway/Hagerman/Waller Park trails.
While some construction is ongoing, Appel said he doesn’t expect any of the projects that run through private land to be built anytime in the next few years.
“Someday we would like to see it, but it’s out of our jurisdiction,” Appel said of the levee project. “We’re looking to future development to tell us when we have the ability to do that.”
Funding for the expansion will come from federal grants, private developers, and the county.
The Santa Maria Bikeway Master Plan was last updated in 1992 and is designed to increase connectivity locally and regionally, and promote bicycle riding in the city.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 3, 2009.