After Petaluma highway funding, focus shifts to Rainier

The controversial crosstown roadway project moves forward, but a funding gap remains.|

For decades, no single issue in Petaluma has been more controversial than the Rainier crosstown connector. The roadway, which is planned to one day connect east and west Petaluma, has divided city councils, fired up political campaigns and appeared on at least two ballot measures.

Depending on one’s stance, Rainier is either a panacea for Petaluma’s traffic woes and a way for often isolated east side residents to access the city’s downtown core, or it is an expensive boondoggle that will open up 100 acres of land to unwanted development.

Politicians on both sides have in the past laid out positions on the issue comfortable in the knowledge that the project, so far, has been hypothetical, confined to an engineer’s blue prints and heated discussions in the city council chambers.

That is, until now.

A decision by a state transportation agency last week thrust Rainier into reality. Rainier Avenue currently dead-ends at Highway 101 just north of the Deer Creek shopping center, and the extension project has always been contingent on Caltrans constructing an underpass at the spot in conjunction with its freeway widening work. The freeway project had been stalled due to a lack of funding.

Then, last Wednesday, the California Transportation Commission approved $85 million to complete the two-decade long Highway 101 widening project through Sonoma County, funding the final four-mile gap through the heart of Petaluma. The move opens up new hope for advocates of building Rainier, and officials have taken a flurry of steps to advance the project recently.

But, the Rainier project faces a significant funding gap, and some feel other city transportation projects would be more effective at relieving traffic and should be built first.

“Now, with the possibility of freeway funding, Rainier has taken on a reality it hasn’t had to this point,” City Manager John Brown said.

Contentious past

The history of the Rainier project is as long as the proposed roadway is short. The .65-mile four-lane extension, which will pass under Highway 101 and over the SMART train tracks and Petaluma River to connect with Petaluma Boulevard North, was first identified in 1965.

Caltrans and the city planned for a freeway interchange at Rainier Avenue in the 1980s, and the city certified an environmental report for the project in 1994. Then, in 1999, a city council opposed to development in the area removed Rainier from the city’s General Plan, a controversial move that was subsequently overturned in 2004. Also in 2004, 72 percent of voters backed an advisory ballot measure supporting the construction of Rainier.

In 2006, Caltrans informed Petaluma officials that the Highway 101 interchange portion of the project did not meet minimum spacing requirements because it was less than a mile from the interchange at East Washington Street and would need a special exemption.

The city council in January 2010 voted to separate Rainier into two projects - the crosstown connector and the interchange - in order to work on the roadway extension first. In August 2015, the council voted 5-2 to approve the crosstown connector’s environmental report, with Mayor David Glass and Councilwoman Teresa Barrett dissenting.

The report says the Rainier crosstown connector is needed to offset traffic that is expected after planned developments are built. There are currently five roads in Petaluma that cross Highway 101 - Old Redwood Highway, Corona Road, East Washington Street, Caulfield Lane and Lakeville Street.

Developer funded

A 2014 city staff report lists the estimated cost of just the crosstown connector at $61 million. The city has anticipated that developers would pay the cost of the project and the city council included a traffic impact fee in the General Plan in 2008. That fee has been altered by various councils over the years, and is currently around $15,000 per single family home, $20,000 per 1,000 square feet of office space and $30,000 per 1,000 square feet of commercial space.

The city’s 2018-19 budget lists the total traffic impact fee fund at about $24 million, meaning a significant funding shortfall exists to complete the Rainier project, which is likely to get more expensive with time. But, as hundreds of new housing units are built in the next few years, the city’s traffic impact fund should increase, City Councilman Mike Healy said.

“We don’t have the funding in hand,” he said. “But over the next two to three years, as more developments come on line, we’ll collect more money.”

In addition to traffic impact fees, about half of the funding for Rainier is anticipated to come from the owners of the properties that the future roadway will traverse, Brown said. That land, the vacant parcels that abut Highway 101 just south of the Petaluma outlet mall, are currently undevelopable because they lack street access. Connecting the future Rainier extension to the properties, which are zoned for housing in the General Plan, makes the land more valuable, Brown said.

“That’s a key component,” he said. “It generates the missing piece.”

The city is currently exploring the option of financing construction of Rainier, including potentially issuing bonds backed by future developer fees Brown said, and the city council is expected to hold a public workshop on Rainier financing options this summer.

In the meantime, Brown has been negotiating access for the right of way of the future roadway with property owners, including Marin Sun Farms founder David Evans, who owns 20 acres around the slaughterhouse and future western terminus of Rainier, and the J. Cyril Johnson family trust, which owns 64 acres along the freeway.

“At this point, we have made contact with the property owners,” Brown said.

Next steps

Barring an effort to repeal the state gas tax increase on the November ballot, which could negate the funding for the Highway 101 widening project, Caltrans is expected to break ground on the work next year and wrap up in 2022. This gives the city four years to finalize the details of the Rainier project.

Petaluma contributed $7 million to the Caltrans freeway widening project to pay for the undercrossing for Rainier, money from the city’s former redevelopment agency. While negotiating for the right of way, the city is planning to begin a detailed survey of the land in order to complete the engineering work for the roadway, Brown said.

“I don’t see this process syncing up with the highway process,” he said. “The city needs to stay out of the way until Caltrans has done it’s part. We’ve got plenty to do in the meantime.”

Brown said the project’s environmental report might need to be revisited in the future before construction begins.

Contentious future?

Even as the city moves forward with plans for Rainier, the project will likely remain a political hot potato and a key issue in the November mayoral race. The two declared candidates, Councilwoman Barrett and former Councilman Mike Harris, have staked out contrasting positions on the issue in the past.

Barrett said she is pleased Caltrans has the money to widen Highway 101, but she is skeptical the city will have the funding in place to build Rainier. She said past city councils went easy on developers and did not set traffic impact fees high enough to fund the project.

“I’m in favor of looking at the financing,” she said. “I’ve never felt Rainier is cost effective. I’m not convinced that Rainier is the solution. I am in favor of looking at increasing crosstown viability. Part of being feasible is being affordable.”

She said she would not support a sales tax measure to fund Rainier. While a sales tax is not being considered as a current financing option, Rainier was included in the ballot language for the failed Measure Q one-cent sales tax in 2014, which Barrett and Glass opposed.

Barrett said she is also interested in looking at using the traffic impact fund for other crosstown road projects, like a new bridge over the Petaluma River at Caulfield Lane connecting the new Riverfront development with Quarry Heights, or perhaps upgrading the Corona Road overpass.

Harris said he took steps to advance the Rainier project as a council member, and he still supports the project “100 percent.” He said all funding options are on the table, but said that developers fees in Petaluma are already quite high.

If elected mayor, Harris said he would continue to advocate for the project.

“I’ve always been a staunch supporter of the Rainier crosstown connector,” he said. “It is an important component of traffic relief. I’m glad we can see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)

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