Active Transportation Committee - Regular Meeting

Can we start? Alright. I'll call to order the special meeting for 01/29/2026 for the city of Fullerton infrastructure and natural resources advisory committee. Please call the roll.

Chair Suborn.

I am present.

Vice chair Tuna.

Present.

Member Klingsberg.

Present.

Member Molina?

Present.

Member Sargent?

Present.

Member Sarvas? Here. And member Munish is absent.

My understanding is member Munish would be participating via Zoom. It was he requested to participate remotely in this meeting under a b two four four nine emergency provisions. Is member Bardwaja on Zoom?

It looks like he just joined. Let me go ahead and and promote him at as panelist so he

can speak.

Thank you. Member Bardwaja, assuming that you can hear me, can you please confirm or explain the reason for your request?

We got no volume.

Can you hear me now?

There we go. Now we can hear you. Remember, Birdwater.

Just like those Verizon commercials. Yes. I'm trying to open up that thing that we're we're reading back and forth. It yes. I'm unable to attend in person due to not feeling so well. And here's what I'm give me one second. I'll open up the script. Here we go. So, yeah, I request remote participation for this meeting due to an unforeseen illness, and I'd like to keep everyone there healthy.

So I can't hear.

I will how about now? Is that better?

Not I don't know that it's on your and member, we are trying to turn up your volume.

Go ahead.

I request remote participation for this meeting due to an unforeseen illness. I am feeling a little under the weather and chose to not make anyone sick over there in person. So I'm requesting remote remote attendance participation.

There you go.

How's that?

Fantastic. I need to ask, do any members object to member Bardewaja participating via Zoom? I hear none. Otherwise, we'll accept the request by acclamation. Member Bardewaja, do you have anyone under the age of 18 in the room with you? And if so, please explain the general nature of your relationship to them?

None at all, sir. None.

Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Alright. We will continue. We'll now open it up to public comments. If there's any member of the public online that would like to speak, now would be the time to raise your hand and get your comment in. Do we have any members of the public joining us tonight?

Okay.

Very well. We will move on to oaths of office. I don't think anybody needs to take an oath of office. I think we've all been sworn in already, so we'll move on to the consent calendar. We have the minutes. I believe we do need to take a roll call vote to approve.

I move to approve the minutes.

Thank you very much. We have a motion and a second. If there's no further objection, we'll take a roll call.

Chair Suborn.

Aye.

Vice chair Tuna? Aye. Member Munish?

Yes. I agree.

Member Klingsberg?

Aye.

Member Molina? Aye. Member Sargent?

Aye.

Member Sarvas?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you. We'll now move into regular business. And, at this time, we will select committee chair and vice chair. I believe at this point, I turn it over to staff to run that portion of it and to take nominations.

That's correct. Alright. Good evening, everybody. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

It seems like it's forever since I last seen you. Alright. So at the beginning of every calendar year, we need to select chair and vice chair from our committee members. There are some rules, so I'll try to explain them. You you don't need a second if you want to nominate somebody. Whoever was chair before can be chair again and vice and the same for the vice chair. Looks like everybody is present here. So at this point, you know, we can move forward with any nominations for chair or vice chair.

Vice chair?

Sure. We can start with vice chair.

Is there a nomination for vice chair?

Well, I'll nominate myself.

We have a nomination for vice chair for member Bergwaja. Is

that right? Nominated myself also already. And

for I'm sorry. Member Sergeant, you nominated yourself as well? Correct. Alright. Sounds like we have two members, nominating for vice chair. Any others? Alright. How do we settle this? Rock, paper, scissors?

I don't know if you would like to entertain if anybody is interested in being chair.

Is I can nominate myself for chair also. So but I I was prepared for vice chair for the past six months. So

Oh oh, I'll nominate, member sergeant for chair.

Alright. We have a nomination for member sergeant for chair. And do you wanna withdraw your nomination for yourself for vice chair, member sergeant?

On that pretense, yes.

Okay. So we have a nomination for member Bardwaja for vice chair and member sergeant for chair. Correct. Any other nominations? Alright. I guess you can close nominations, and I guess that's an acquiescence, or do you have to do a roll call?

I wish I could remember every year what we did.

Let me see.

I think it's a safe bet for a roll call.

I say let's do roll call, then we're covered.

Yeah. So that's a slate. And I think the motion is to approve those nominees for those positions or offices. And if the clerk will read the

role. Chair.

Chair Suborn?

Aye.

Vice chair Tuna?

Aye.

Member member Munish?

Yes.

Member Klingsberg?

Aye.

Member Molina?

Yes.

Member Sergeant?

Yes.

Member Sarvas?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Fantastic. Congratulations, chair and vice chair. Thank you. Alright. At this time, I'm gonna turn it over to the chair.

Come on down. Oh, man. You're gonna throw me right in the deep end. Yeah. You asked for it.

That that was quick. I

don't think Greg can run away fast enough.

Yeah,

just go down there.

Okay. I understand. I'm the Kenny Gordon chair right here, so keep me nice. I was prepared for vice. I guess we're going all the way. Please, sir. Thank you. The next order of business?

Excuse me. Chair, I have my hand up. I may not be able to see it. Can I say one quick thing?

Yeah. Go ahead. I can't hear him.

Oh, first, I'll try to speak up louder. First of all, congratulations, Chuck. We're looking forward to working with you. And for everyone else, I'd like to thank the academy and all my fellow members for putting putting a little bit of trust in me. But most importantly, I wanted to say thank you to Greg. Greg hasn't just been chair of INRAAC, but he's been a phenomenal leader and representative for all of us when he goes and speaks in public and also speaks at council meetings. And I've gotta tell you, I've learned quite a bit from Greg Seaborne over the last ten plus years. So thank you, Greg.

Kind words, member Bardwaja. Thank you.

I'd like to make one more comment about Greg Seaborne if possible.

It's not true.

Greg and I have known each other quite a long time. Previously, he probably won't admit it. Thirty years? Thirty years ago. We were in the police academy together, so he I didn't remember him because I was the oldest guy in the academy, so I kinda stayed away from the youngsters. So but we went to that meeting together, and he did a phenomenal job with city council. And I attended that. And very proud to have him as chair. And I wish him the best. Been a great partner and a leader and kinda schooled me to be here today, and I appreciate everybody. Thank you so much.

Chair, if I could have just a moment to respond.

Yes, sir.

Thank you. Really didn't prepare anything. Just wanna say thank you to this committee and to the staff. It doesn't happen on accident. It doesn't happen because of any one person. It happens because people come to the table. We have open minds to hear different ideas. We sort through those ideas. We we test them. We hammer on them to see if they're strong and gonna hold up under scrutiny.

And some ideas move forward and some don't. And it's because of this committee and the people involved and all of the great staff that do research and come up with some of the great ideas that that we've been able to implement and recommend to the council. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the for mayor Jung putting me on here and appointing me to the committee. I'm grateful for for his appointment to this committee. This year marks my twentieth year doing this, and so I am very happy to allow other people to take over and have some fun trying to come up with ideas for infrastructure.

It's not it's not about one person. It's about the collective. And the collective has a goal, and that is infrastructure. And I couldn't be more proud to have, had, the years of, tenure on this committee and working with infrastructure. So, hats off to everyone and their hard work thus far.

We're gonna move on to item three. For the item three is to select, the dispute panel for chair and vice chair.

Alright. So moving on to the next item. I'd like to give just a brief background on this on the water bill dispute, panel. One of the subcommittees to NREC is the water bill dispute panel. And what that means is that there are times during the year, that residents are questioning their water bill.

These are stages to addressing their questions and concerns. Typically, it goes through, our staff starting with utility services division. If we can't come to a resolution, the final the final stage is coming forth in front of the water bill dispute panel. The water bill dispute panel is the final authority to make the final decision on the dispute or the questions being brought by the resident over the property owner. We need a minimum minimum of three in rack members, for every bill dispute panel.

We could take more if you like, so that there'll be more flexibility as these these disputes come up, during the year and just to ensure that we have enough members, at these panels. On your screen, what you're seeing are the twenty twenty five members for the water bill dispute panel. We can take nominations, or if you'd like to volunteer your time, that'd be great. We could also keep it the same. Just to give you some background on how many times they met last year, they met twice.

I think one of them canceled or one didn't show. Usually, it takes about one hour or so. Overall, I think it's helpful for residents who come forth in front of other residents, not instead of staff giving the final decision. So with that being said, I'll open it up to anybody that wants to volunteer, wanted to want you guys wanna do nominations or you wanna keep it the same. I

would like to ask Munish if he's online with us, if he would like to retain that position. I've worked with him as the vice chair and would love to continue on. If he does not, I would not have any issue with serving because my availability is very, very good to serve on the committee unconditionally. I would say to him, I'll take the chair if he doesn't want it anymore, or I'll say at the vice chair, I'm more than happy to fill that position.

Thank you so much, Chuck. I am happy to stay on his chair if that's what the rest of the members like. If not, I'm happy to let anyone else get an opportunity as well. So I'll leave it that. Happy to remain, but if someone else would like to step up and get some experience, I am happy to support that.

I think you guys are doing a great job leading, and I am happy to continue following your leadership on the committee.

Let me let me qualify. I will only continue if Greg Sarvis volunteers to stay on to the water dispute power.

Second that. I'll I'll third it if I can. I I volunteer to stay

on and

nominate myself. There you go.

Mister chair Thank you. I I proposed that the twenty twenty five members be retained, every one of them.

Do the members wanna be retained? Right?

I'm okay with being retained. I just can't be chair or vice chair this year.

That's fine with me too.

Me too. I'm good. That's my niche.

Alright. Sounds good. With that.

We're gonna stay in the same.

Yep. Yep. I think we gotta call

the vote for that nomination.

Then we can call the vote for the nomination, please.

Chair Sargent?

Yes.

Vice Chair Munish?

Yes.

Member Saborn?

Yes.

Member Klingesburg?

Yes.

Member Molina?

Yes.

Member Sarves?

Yes.

Member Tunam?

Yes.

Most motion passes.

Congratulations to the committee. And move on to next item.

Alright. This next item is pretty simple, I would say. This is basically the 2026 meeting dates. Like you all know, we meet once a month. The third Monday of each month is our regular scheduled, meeting day from five to seven, typically, here at the council's chambers at City Hall.

The dates you see on your screen, these would be our regular scheduled meetings, for 2026. Obviously, January 19 did not happen, but next month on February 16, that is president's day. So we moved that meeting to Thursday, February 19. Every other date seems to be fine, not conflicting with any holidays, except for December 21 where the committee can decide as we get closer to that date if we want to meet given that it's so close to the end year holidays. We don't expect any other changes, but if they are, you'll be notified in advance.

If there are any concerns or questions, I'll take them up at this time. Otherwise, staff recommends that we cancel the February 16 meeting and change it to February 19.

So we're confirming February. Correct?

Correct. Yeah.

So Regular meeting?

Special meeting. Yeah. That'd be a special meeting. The reason it's a Thursday is because there's now a new committee or commission that has their meetings on the fourth Monday of every month. So, typically, we'd move it to the following Monday. We're unable to do that. So that's why we're having Thursday meetings. I'll also say that you do have the you can request changing the meeting date or the regular meeting date. However, I will caveat that with we have a lot of other meetings, and changing the date would be difficult to do, but you can have that discussion if you so wish.

Okay.

Chair?

Yes.

If I could, I would move this item, right after we take public comments.

We need to take a vote on it?

I think you gotta have public comment first.

We can go to public comment. Any hands up right now in public comment? None? Okay. I guess we'll move on then.

I'll move it.

Second.

Greg makes it look so smooth, but I just

It's alright.

You're you're you're getting the rhythm. You need a roll call.

Okay. And a motion for a second.

Yep.

Yes. We have a motion for a second. We'll do roll call. Roll call vote, please.

Chair chair sergeant?

Yes.

Vice chair Munish? I'll come back to him. Member Molina?

Yes.

Member Sarves?

Yes.

Member Klingsberg?

Yes. But I will likely not be able to attend on 02/16/1916. Member Tuna?

Yes.

Member Suborn?

Yes.

Vice chair Munish? Oh.

Hi. Thank you for putting me back on panelist. I somehow got disconnected. Yes. I'd like to leave the dates and the times the same.

Motion passes.

Okay. We're moving on to item five, traffic engineering division.

So for this presentation, our city traffic engineer, Michael Plotnick, is gonna present.

Good evening, newly elected chair, vice chair, and committee members. For those of you who have not met me, I'm Michael Plunnik. I'm the city traffic engineer, and we're going to give you a presentation on what does traffic engineering do. The blue light comes oh, wait. Okay.

Alright. Now that the clicker is working, so we'll give you an overview of traffic engineering followed by roles and responsibilities of traffic engineering. We'll then continue with traffic infrastructure along with recent projects and then end up with challenges that we come across. The traffic engineering, for those of you who do not know, is a subdiscipline of civil engineering which focuses on safe, efficient, and convenient planning, design, and operations of streets, highways, and their networks. It applies engineering principles to manage traffic flow, including traffic signal timing, signage, pavement markings, and intersection design to minimize congestion and accidents for vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians, and all other non motorized modes of transportation.

Key aspects of traffic engineering include operations and safety, which is managing the traffic signals, setting the speed limits, and analyzing accident data to improve safety. Design and planning, which is designing intersections, turn lanes, roundabouts, and traffic calming measures. Data analysis where we're using traffic counts, speed surveys, and modeling to forecast traffic patterns. Infrastructure components, which would address lighting, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities with the goal to optimize the movement of people and goods all while enhancing safety for all road users. And just to give you an idea of what the traffic traffic engineering division does, we work with the like, you have your in rack meeting.

We have the traffic and circulation commission. So we work with them, prepare staff reports, set up the meeting, and help run everything traffic related. So any request we get, people want a blue curve. They want a stop sign. They want a traffic signal.

We bring that to the commission because they are the advisory group for the city council. And if they recommend moving forward, we'll then present it to council for either to do it or not do it. We also meet with other departments. We coordinate with all the other departments in the city when it's a traffic related matter, which comes up quite often. We deal with a lot of capital improvement projects such as intersection upgrades and signal synchronization projects.

We deal with the private development projects. We'll review all the entitlements and make sure that everything is going to work and not cause a headache down the road for the future tenants as well as anybody in the city now. We deal with various permits such as encroachment, transportation, and parking. We also review the traffic control for construction activities as well as traffic control devices, traffic signal designs and modifications, traffic signal construction inspection. So when a new signal gets constructed, we'll go out there and make sure that everything was installed per plans and up to code.

We'll look at crosswalks as well as accessible pedestrian signals, APS. Those are the ones that talk and beat. Everybody hears it. It's designed to help everybody. Everything with PROAC, so public right of way accessibility guidelines, we follow that for our designs.

Safety lighting at the intersection, not to be confused with roadway lighting, signing and striping, and also define speed limits with an engineering and traffic survey. We conduct those every five to seven years. If there's not a whole lot of changes, we can sometimes just extend it a letter. And I believe the maximum you could do is fourteen years if there's really not a whole lot of changes. We also look at accident analysis.

Sometimes we're called into court to act as the most knowledgeable person for the expert witness for the city. Active transportation projects. So those are all the ones that have to deal with non motorized modes of transportation, maybe a bike trail project, things like that. We'll do walkability audits, safe routes to school, safe streets for all. So that looks at roadway for everybody from eight years old to 80 years old that can easily get around.

A complete streets project, we're currently working on one on Harbor Boulevard. Regional traffic signal synchronization program, I'll get into that in a little bit. We do the traffic counts. So that'll be the average daily traffic. We'll do spot counts if somebody's concerned about an area.

And we'll also get turning movement counts so we can see how many people are turning in an intersection and what direction to see where they're going and figure out traffic patterns. We have a traffic management center, which is if you see the image on there, that's what a fully functioning one is and one that we will have. We have a ITS system. This is the intelligent transportation system, collects data, does a lot of analytics, provides us with a lot of information for questions we have. Residential and business requests that come in traffic related.

And then we also work with the Fullerton School District and the Joint Union High School and a lot of police coordination. We So work with the police department a lot. We have questions for them, and they have questions for us. We have a very good partnership with them. So to give you an overview of the city, we have a 154 signalized intersections.

There is a potential for two more. We're working on them at this time. One of them, we went and laid out the whole locations, and we're gonna have a contractor go and perform the they're gonna dig in and make sure the foundations can go, or we laid them out on the plans to check that there's no conflicts. So we've also been upgrading all the traffic signals to LED. The only ones that may not be LED could be the yellows, but they're mostly been replaced by this time.

Every now and then, we still see one that's yellow, but when it goes out, it'll be replaced with LED. And the safety lighting at the intersections, most of them have also been upgraded to LED. If you see one that looks more yellow, that'll be the older high pressure sodium, and that will be replaced with LED. And we have video detection as well as CCTV cameras that gives us the ability to look at what's happening in the intersections. And we just livestream it.

We do not record it. We also have ITS devices, which are tools we use to optimize traffic flow, safety, and efficiency through real time data collection and management. Key devices include CCTV cameras. The newer ones have analytics built into them, you don't need a whole separate processor to do the video. Vehicle sensors, which can be radar, lidar, video, or loops.

Dynamic message signs, which you've seen on those on the freeways. We don't have them in the city, but that could be something we would look at doing. An adaptive responsive signal control system, which that is something we do now. So if it meets a certain threshold, the signal is actually smart enough to know to change the plan to get cars moving better or bicycles. The little yellow box, that's one of the wireless radios we have.

That's at Euclid and Bassin Chery, and that's one of the methods we communicate throughout the city. This ensures that the city is able to see what's going on in intersection even if we don't have in ground infrastructure that gives us an ability to do it a lot cheaper than it would be to actually install conduit. Now when we get funding, we always go with conduit and put fiber. But if it's a quick quick something, we can do it. It's a lot more costly or cost effective.

And the other thing so if we don't have conduit and this is our option, it ensures that we keep all the signals at the right time and they're running properly because if they're not running with the right time, that's when you see. Why am I pulling up to this intersection and it's red? I should be getting green through. So that happens when we lose the clocks at the intersection if we don't have communication. So that brings us to what's what's in the future. What's our to do list? So we have a big list. We wanna do a citywide traffic signal map. So we wanna have a new up to date map. Communication upgrades.

Wherever we have communication issues like we do, we need to focus on those areas to bring all the intersections online and talking because if they're not, it doesn't do us any good, which in turn doesn't help anybody else. Wireless radio communication. So the areas where we do not have conduit and we have wireless, we're going to upgrade the radio. There's one on the water tower that we need to put a new one, and it's very hard to find somebody to climb up a 150 feet. But we're gonna swap it out, and that should give us another ten years for the other intersections that need to communicate there.

We we also use twisted pair, so that's the copper wire that's already in the ground. And it used to be serial communication. Now we switch it over to ethernet. So we don't get as fast the speed as fiber optic, but it's still a viable option. But wherever we have twisted pair, we have conduit.

So anytime we can do that, we pull the twisted pair out and we put fiber in, and it's a nice quick upgrade. And that gives us a lot of a lot for the future. Layer three switch is our main router that talks to all the networks. We're gonna upgrade to a 10 or even 40 gigabit, and this will be the backbone for the whole network to get everything going faster. There's a lot of data now, and we need to get it back to where we can see it.

CCTV upgrades. The goal will be to have at least one camera at every intersection. And once we've done that, we'll have a second one so we could see both directions without, having to turn the cameras. We'll also share this with the police department, and they'll share their cameras with us. So we'll be able to see everything going on in the city.

So if somebody calls, we don't necessarily have to run out to the field. It'll make it'll make it that much faster that we can react to something or even see something before somebody calls in. Battery backups upgrades. This will be at specific intersections where we wanna keep everything running, whether it's a planned or unplanned outage. That's I think that's good for now.

Alright. So here's one of the recent projects we did. This is at Lemon in Valencia. This is a signal modification. This is how it looked before we did anything. So this was brought to our attention that there were a lot of concerns from the residents, from the school, and so we knew something had to be done. We went out there. We looked at everything and talked to a lot people, and then this is what it became now. So as you can see, there's quite a bit of changes here. So the upgrades that were done as part of this intersection includes new signal poles, new traffic signal controller, new timing.

We have yellow reflectorized back plates, the outer edge. We did LED safety lighting. We put an APS push buttons. This has the flashing yellow arrow as well as protected left turnout. So depending on the time of the day, it'll run-in either operation.

And we also put, video radar hybrid detection system so that can we can now detect if a car is approaching the intersection as well as their speed. So now we can make adjustments. If we see cars speeding, we can make it red longer or not give them green. We were able to complete this project before the school came back into session for the fall. They were very happy and appreciative.

We talked to the crossing guards out there every day and said, how do you like it? And we received a lot of positive feedback from them. This is one of the funding sources where we get for a lot of our traffic signal projects. So this is through OCTA. This is the regional traffic signal synchronization program.

So this is this provides m two funding for the coordination of traffic signals across jurisdictional boundaries, including project based operational and maintenance funding. So only OC cities are allowed to submit for this program. Caltrans cannot. They can if one of the cities decides to let them be a partner, but Caltrans cannot apply directly. But the nice thing about this is it's less competitive than other grants because now, say, Fullerton were to apply, we only have to compete with 33 other cities.

Whereas other grants for a state of California, they get 500 of them. And it makes it a lot more competitive, a lot more selective. Plus, the great thing about this is it only costs 20¢ on a dollar, and then we got 80¢. So it's a very good program funding wise. And these are the current RTSSP projects that we're working on.

So we have Yorba Linda Boulevard, and that is the city that you'll see a lot of cities are involved with these. So this is Yorba Linda, Anaheim, Fullerton, Placentia, and Caltrans. Yorba Linda is the lead on this project. It includes 47 signals over 10.84 miles and a lot of upgrades we do are conduit, fiber, controllers, timing, communication, and video detection among other things. The next one is Harbor Boulevard.

We're the lead on this one, and this is Fullerton, La Habra, and Caltrans. This involves 29 signals over 6.4 miles and a lot of the same upgrades. Euclid Street is a La Habra led project that involves La Habra, Fullerton, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Mountain Valley, and Caltrans. That has 67 signals plus 69 offset signals. So that's any signal within 2,500 feet of the intersection.

So it's a 136 signals total over 16.9 miles. So it's pretty much all the way from the top of Euclid to the bottom where it ends by the 405. And State College Boulevard, this is Anaheim led project, and that is Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, Orange, and Caltrans. This is 58 signals over 11.3 miles. And the ones coming up, we applied for Baston Cherry as well as Placentia.

Baston Cherry is going to be led by Yorba Linda, and that'll be Yorba Linda, Fullerton, and Placentia. 36 signals over 11.4 miles. And Placentia is Placentia, Anaheim, Fullerton, and Caltrans, 16 signals over 4.4 miles. And the whole point of these is to get everybody moving more efficiently. They're not sitting around idling, increasing emissions.

But what we always say is now the road is not just for cars. It's for bikes or pedestrians. So we always have to take that into account. Because before, it was just let's get traffic moving. But now we have to count for bicycle timing and other things.

So it does complicate the projects a little. And now this brings us to challenges that we come across in engineering. So when it comes with dealing to the public, not all of them, but sometimes we have people that think they're a traffic engineer and know better than us, and we have to listen to them, and we're happy too. And sometimes it's hard to say why we're saying no to something, and we have to explain that to them. But sometimes there's other factors that they're not taking into account, such as prioritizing safety over traffic flow, managing demands with limited fund sources, and addressing misunderstandings caused by websites such as Nextdoor and TikTok.

And residents often demand solutions like unwarranted traffic signals or speed limit reductions, which can act which can actually do the opposite and will increase traffic hazards and confusion. Traffic engineering often viewed as a technical discipline faces significant challenges due to its intersection with political, economic, and social agendas. These challenges arise when professional expertise conflicts with elected con officials' priorities, budgetary constraints, or public resistance to change. Traffic engineering challenges arise with private developers center which center on aligning profit driven project goals with public safety and infrastructure capacity. Key issues include inaccurate traffic impact studies.

So sometimes they send us a study that was prepared by a licensed traffic engineer, and we have to really look out with the the magnifying lens and say, this does not make sense. And we have to argue with them why this is not right and get them to change it to correct even though the developer is telling them to do it otherwise. But we're always looking out for the public and the city's best interest. We wanna make sure those are accurate. They'll underestimate trip generation and developers attempting to minimize mitigation costs and fees in conflicts between rapid development and long term multimodal or sustainable transportation planning.

We may also ask these developers to contribute to upgrades such as enhanced lighting at an intersection or other devices and equipment we need that are directly related to their project. If their project was not there, we wouldn't need this. So we asked them to help pay a portion of upgrades that we're gonna have to do, which benefit everybody, including the residents that may be moving on to their site. So if it's a housing project and we know there's going to be more people walking, we may ask them to help pay for lighting upgrades at the intersection or APS. Traffic engineers face severe challenges due to limited street capacity, high demand, and aging infrastructure, often requiring solutions beyond traditional expansion.

Key issues include congestion, traffic spillover into neighborhoods, and balancing vehicular flow with pedestrian and cyclist safety. So solutions focus on smart technology such as signal coordination and demand sensitive pricing. So at the end of the day, we don't have unlimited funds. So we always need to balance which one do we need to do, which grants can we go after. We also don't have unlimited staff to rent write grants.

They take a lot of time. And is this one are we gonna be more competitive than another city? So we always have to look at everything before going after getting money. And, also, Fullerton's built out a lot. So there's the challenge. We don't have unlimited space to keep adding lanes, so we have to work with what we have sometimes. And with that being said, I will open it up to questions and answers.

Anybody have a question?

We'll get us started.

Are we opening up to staff committee communication? Is that what we're doing? I'm sorry? Are we opening up to staff communication?

No. I have I have a couple questions

Yeah. Go ahead.

Presentation at this time. Thank you very much for for that and for hitting on staffing. That was my my first question. Sounds like a lot of the work that your group is doing is tied into a lot of the funding sources that we're relying on for street work. So how big how big is traffic engineering, and and do you have enough?

Sure. Well, you have two thirds of our traffic engineering department right here. You have myself and Julia. And then we also have, on call consultant through LLG. We have two that are typically here often. But other than that, that's it. That's your traffic engineering division.

Do they do they do grant work or consulting for you guys when an opportunity comes by?

So a lot of the times, staff actually applies for grants.

Along with with the data collection, can is it possible to control traffic devices remotely? Can you get interactive remote control?

No. We do not have a open network. Somebody could not like you see in the movies, they cannot hack onto our network and adjust our devices. Now if they were to physically go in the field, open the cabinet, and get on the network, they would have to know their way around the devices. But if they were to plug in their device, we're gonna know it's a outside address and it'll lock it down and they will not have access. But if they got in, I guess they could physically adjust it.

You you you got to the crux of my concern. Thank you. You mentioned that the the live camera feeds that you can see throughout the city are are streaming live, but you don't record them. But we you also share those live feeds with the police department. Does the police department record them?

That I don't know. We've just given them access, and we have no control over that. They're just viewing it like we are. If they decide to record it, that is up to them. We don't wanna record it because then we would have to maintain it, and we get calls all day about somebody getting in an accident at an intersection, and we would have to produce that like any other public record. So for us, it's just easier to livestream when we're there and see what's going on.

Does the public have access to those cameras?

If they were to come to our traffic center, we could show it to them, but we don't share it on the website.

Thank you. I'm gonna go ahead and defer to other questions.

I have a question. On your turn signal lanes, who regulates the timing and how do we regulate, for instance, on Raymond and Commonwealth when you're going northbound? Turning, let's say, westbound on Commonwealth, that left turn lane, the light on that turn lane turns yellow approximately when two and a half cars get through it. It's and last week, I noticed that it was increased. And now I'm seeing four and five cars go through it. So I'm curious who sets the regulation on how many vehicles can get through before it goes to that.

So we have to follow the California METCD and everything else that sets those guidelines now. What you're describing, it sounded like it was not functioning correctly, which could be a detection issue. And so we That's the one you went to, Julie? You and Jeffrey? Raymond and Commonwealth? So we we had an issue, and I believe we found what was going on with it and adjusted it so it was running Yeah.

I noticed the change. It was a drastic change, and it relieved a lot of congestion, traffic, and irritation. My second question is coming down Lemon Street going southbound, when you get to the intersection of Commonwealth going eastbound, you have a left turn green arrow that goes on. When the car turns into that lane, no matter if it's one car or not, that light turns extremely fast, which is, I thought, was because of maybe the fire department. It's regulated by the timing.

But those cars don't wait. And now that's been decreased where it doesn't change now. So that's went from extremely, fast to not changing. You have to go through the general turn general light to turn left. It no longer turns green immediately like it used to do.

So we we also we received a complaint about that intersection. We went and checked it out. We found out a lot of the so westbound or eastbound on Commonwealth? Eastbound. Okay. So eastbound on Commonwealth, that site should be running properly. It was westbound. It would drop it really quickly or it would hold it sometimes. So we saw that the detection was not running properly, and we corrected it. But right now, the westbound is on recall. So it's gonna come up with the arrow no matter what until we can replace that system. The westbound should be running properly detecting vehicles. So if there's however many vehicles are there, it should give it enough time.

So it's not it's nothing there is regulated because of the fire department. When the fire department gets a call, does that change the patterns in the light?

So the fire department, I would have to check. They have, I believe, they have a signal outside of the fire station.

Yes. They do.

So they if they activate their button in the firehouse, that's gonna activate that light, which is a preemption. I don't know if that signal is then connected to Lemon and Commonwealth or not. If it is, then if they hit the button, it'll send a priority call, a preemption to that signal, which would then clear the traffic for them to go through.

Yeah. Well, thank you very much. You answered my question efficiently. Thank

Mister chairman, it is my personal opinion regardless of the city. All residents are Tropic engineers. And I pity you guys that you have to spend and I'm saying this with all due respect. You guys have to spend 4 years at engineering school. They don't. And, immediately, they know the answer. Increase the speed. Put a stop sign. Widen the road. Speed bumps. They know it immediately. They don't even have to compute. First question, how do they air their concerns to you? And secondly, how do you handle this kind of concerns?

Well, just just like you're saying. They know it best, so we let them tell us what what is their concern and listen to them. And whatever it is, they say they're speeding. There needs to be a stop sign here. There needs to be speed bumps there. So then we say, okay. And we look at it. Oh, and they say, well, I've lived here twenty, thirty years. Okay. Well, you know your neighborhood. I may not know your street as well as you know it, but let's look at what's going on. Are there patterns? Is there something going on? Because we're gonna give an answer based on data. We're not gonna just give an answer based on, oh, this is how I what I see every day.

We're gonna use hard information, And then we can respond to them. So sometimes, they say, we need a stop sign here. Okay. We need to look at it, but a lot of times, we need a stop sign because they're speeding. And we say we cannot put a stop sign due to speeding in the California MUTCD and the MUTCD, which is the manual on traffic control devices.

That's our bible, what we follow. That says, you shall not install a stop sign for speeding. But there are other warrants that need to be met. So if it meets the warrants, then we would look at an all way stop. Now if you come to an intersection and there's no stop sign, we can use engineering judgment to determine maybe we need to assign right of way because people don't know who goes when I come here.

So you'll see in a lot of neighborhoods, we'll have stop signs at a four way on two of the legs because we can do that, and we don't have to do a warrant. If we do a four all way or if it's just it's a t intersection, that would have to meet warrants in order for us to put a stop sign. The same thing with a traffic signal that has nine warrants that we would have to go through. Now just because it meets warrants doesn't mean we have to do it. We also have to look at, is this reasonable?

Just because something says it's a guideline, it says you you should do it, but it doesn't say you shall. So we always have to look at is this the best option here. Just because it says put a signal doesn't mean we wanna put a signal. We wanna do slow incremental steps before we get to a signal. Maybe we need to try a yield. Maybe we need to try a stop. Maybe we need to try bringing in the road, striping. We need to try everything else before we go and make this big leap. So we'll listen to people, and then we'll give them an answer. And sometimes they're okay with it, and sometimes they're not.

And we say, well, we're gonna agree to disagree on this, but we appreciate what you have to say, and that's all we can do right now. Because sometimes people say, oh, they're going fifty, sixty down the street. And we collect data, and we're working with the police, and we get the numbers back. And it ends up being they're going 28. Well, it's a 25. Police are most likely not gonna enforce a 28. And we tell them, well, I'm sorry. Based on the information we have, it's not the case. So we can't do anything. And sometimes they say, okay.

And I'll explain to them that it's very hard to see how fast an object is moving. I know sometimes it sounds loud or it looks like they're going fast, but it ends up not being the case all the time. And sometimes it's the opposite. It is, and we have to do something. But if somebody doesn't bring it into our attention, we can't do anything about it.

I I I get your explanation, and they you know, that's the explanation of a regular engineer, and I understand that. But this is just my opinion also. People does not think that way. They're like, how do you how are you going to spend a lot of time studying the solution is so obvious and, you know, they would insist their ways. So sometimes I'm just curious how do you handle this thing. So, yeah, that

You do,

and Thank you.

And we'll sit with them, and we'll show them. We don't hide anything. We go, this is where this came from, and and we educate them. A lot of times, they say, oh, thank you very much, or I'm gonna go talk to my neighbors. And we go, thank you. And if anybody has questions, come in, call us. We'll be happy to work with you.

Mhmm. Any other committee members have any question?

There is.

Go ahead, Munish.

Hi. Thank you. You know, Greg had brought up a, a service that brought up a point about the if their the cameras are being recorded or not. I was just gonna say, you know, anyone's ever gone on to the city website and looked at how many public records requests there are for video, I could only imagine if we're videotaping from every camera, how inundated the city would get with those records requests. And so I do commend whoever figured that out that, you know, to keep these as live cameras but not recorded cameras is probably the right way to go.

I don't if you guys have ever looked on that website. There there's thousands of records requests, and I I can't imagine how much time the city spends and taxpayer money spent on those records requests. But they are compulsory by law, and I'm glad that they're there. But if we were recording, we would absolutely have to provide those records as well. Mhmm. Yes.

Any further question by any committee member?

One last okay. Go ahead. K. One last question, mister chairman, for me. Go ahead. Don't know if you I've discussed it. Maybe I missed it. But are you also handling parking issues?

Some parking issues. So we will get a call, and it depends what the issue is. If it's there's no parking space, we can look at that. If it's a they want a blue curb, we can look at that. If it's we actually get a lot of calls for citations that people receive, and we tell them that's this is traffic engineering, not the police department.

Mhmm.

And there's also a so we have Parking Districts 1 And 2, which fall under the traffic and circulation commission. So we bring we can bring those issues to them. So like I said, it depends on which parking issue, but we do deal with a lot of it. Also, and early morning parking permits. So, in December, council is December right?

I think December council approved the early morning parking program. It was a pilot program for eighteen months, and it is now a permanent program. So if anybody cannot park in front of their house, they can request online to receive a parking permit. And we get a lot of calls about that just walking them through the process.

And does your office issue the parking permit?

It's on a website that we work with the company that does it.

So it's a it's a third company that issues the parking permit?

Yes. But we sometimes people have called and said, I'm trying to get a permit, and my address isn't correct, and we'll verify the information. Sometimes we have to call and say, yes. This is a correct address, and they just weren't in the system.

Thank you, chair.

Any further question from the committee?

I'm gonna give you a general question and ask you to kinda respond to that one because it has to do with how, different departments and different committees, I think, here are are interacting with each other. When you're doing and I'm particularly thinking of, like, curb extensions. I think you had brought up as a particular traffic control measure. We're taking part of the public right of way that was dedicated toward just vehicular traffic and now can be allocated for trees or for street lighting or there's lots of other uses of this space. So how in your design process, when those spaces are created, how do you interact with other city departments to ensure that we're providing, you know, additional additions to the the urban forest and shade?

We're obviously an infrastructure committee and not not your active transportation committee, not your circulation committee. So how how can we best interact with the traffic department?

We would when we would do the design, we would present it through the different departments or committees or commissions that need to see it. So then we can receive feedback and that's probably the best way we can see if we're doing. So for instance, if we wanted to do curb extensions so that we can make it shorter for people to cross the street, plus it'll narrow the street down causing people to drive slower, we would run it by everybody and make sure it's it's okay. So it's still a street. We're just we may be losing some parking at the end of the up to the corner.

But if it needs to have trees or lighting or whatever needs to go there, we would take that into account. And we would also run it by our landscaping part of public work, make sure it's the right kind of tree, talk with planning. Is this how it should be in the city? Is this the type of tree there? What about maintenance? Is it gonna cause the street to lift or the sidewalk to lift? Is it gonna be a maintenance headache in the future? Because just because we're planting a tree now, maybe ten, twenty years down the road, start seeing sidewalk and street cracking, and we don't want that.

So just gonna add on to that. That's kind of one of my main responsibilities to make sure our designs are coordinated across the departments and divisions. So anytime we do a concept, we'll obviously bring in traffic to make sure that we're implementing anything they would like to implement, but also discuss within anything we would like to do from an, you know, a street design set standpoint. We have a good relationship with our maintenance department. We always get them involved.

So our normal run of the mill projects, we don't bring to committees or commissions. However, major projects such as Knotwood that's coming up and Harbor Boulevard that's coming up, we do plan on bringing those projects to both INRAAC and TCC just to get feedback before we finalize anything. So major projects, absolutely. Maintenance projects, yeah, they're you know, we're not really doing much different than what's out there.

But as long as your departments are are working together, we see how these are all integrated. And mostly, I am concerned about the the grant and the funding for our streets that seems to come from all of these other pieces that need to be integrated together.

So Thank you. One other comment before we go to public comment. I just wanna touch on funding. As with a lot of our infrastructure, traffic doesn't really have a dedicated funding source. There is traffic mitigation fees that we can get from development, but those are never guaranteed from year to year. It could be nothing. It could be a lot. But Michael, correct me if I'm wrong here. A lot of times now since we're so built out, there mitigation is not there or the mitigation is already in place. So getting fees from developers is more and more difficult.

The fees are limited. And in addition, traffic mitigation fees could only be used for certain things. So there isn't a lot of money from traffic mitigation. There is no other dedicated funding source. So we to your point earlier, we are taking m two funds that can be used on the streets, And our m two allocation, a portion of that is being put into the traffic division to fund traffic projects. And that's the discussion we have every year as to what are they planning on doing, what is streets planning on doing. Let's make sure that, you know, everyone's allocated a sufficient amount of money, and you'll find out more about that in the upcoming meetings as we go over the CIP budget.

Yes. You're correct, David. And the biggest thing is if it's a land use change, but if it's going from, say, a fast food restaurant to a housing development, it's gonna be very hard to go after them for a whole lot. So sometimes we ask for the lighting upgrades at an intersection, or maybe they're just gonna pay for the corner that it affects, and they're not gonna contribute to the whole thing. But in the big scheme of things, it does help.

Any committee members have any final questions for him? Go ahead, Manish.

No, sir. No.

Thank you. Nobody?

Public comment?

We're gonna open it up to public comment. Any hands up for a public comment? No hands up for public comments, so let's move on to thanking you for your presentation. It was wonderful, and your job is gigantic. And I don't know how you do it. Thank you so much for your presentation, and I didn't realize how many problems you face. And thank you so much.

Oh, I'm thankful for the help I have, and thank you very much.

Thank you. I guess we're gonna move on to item number six for the, capital improvements, CIP.

Yes. Alright. So our typical, CAP in general infrastructure updates and highlights. I'm gonna try to switch it up a little bit today and give a little bit more highlights on more specific projects and bigger picture on some of the funding sources or at least one of them. So from the last time we met, this pretty this map pretty much stayed the same.

We are in crunch time to finish a lot of the design for the streets so that we can put these out and get this going in the spring and summer when the weather, it's a lot more fair favorable. Design and bidding phases for water, the same. Not many many updates here. So just working along, you know, these last few months, to get projects out. Now for awarding construction phase projects, this is where I'm gonna take a little bit of a deeper dive in two projects, highlight highlight them, and hopefully, you get to see some cool pictures and videos on what's actually been completed.

So the first project is project one, which is Euclid and Rosecrans. This is a water and sewer improvement project. So just to give you some background of the project, this is located the project limits is located along Euclid Street, Rosecrans, and Paseo Dorado. This work focused on critical infrastructure utilities underground, mainly water and sewer. And for the most part, these are the utilities that people don't see much but heavily rely on.

Right? You need to get water, and you need to know where your sewage is gonna go to. The project involved, replacing old water main and sewer infrastructure within the corridor. In total, it's about three, point seven five miles of water main replacement. Also, the project included targeted sewer improvements addressing old pipe segments underneath the railroad.

So these these improvements, obviously, would improve our water and sewer systems. They're gonna reduce risk of water main breaks and also help maintain water quality for the residents and businesses in that area. Funding came from a combination of water fund and sewer enterprise funds. All in all, inclusive construction, design, inspection. You know, it's roughly gonna come out to be probably $3,000,000 for this project.

The street paving, this is and surface restoration, this is actually gonna be completed by the developer that's been developing there. If you've seen the construction, it's been ongoing for at least well over a year or more. So they were conditioned to pave the road. So they'll be paving along Rosecrans, Euclid, and Paseo Dorado. So what I have on the screen and I want you to see is I'm gonna play a video.

Hopefully, this this works. So what you see here, is actually roughly about 20 by 50 pit that's approximately 20 to 20 feet deep. So this is where the contractor dug this out, and this is, this is where they'll be installing the sewer main underneath the railroad. So what you see here, this is actually a 18 inch cast iron casing pipe to protect the new VCP pipe. So this is a jack and bore operation.

That would basically, the new sewer will go underneath the railroad tracks. We don't see this quite often. We don't do this to work quite often. So it's pretty neat to actually go out there and see this. This is a gigantic all on the ground, and you just see these guys down there, you know, taking out dirt. So it was a pretty, neat project to see on how they actually did it. Obviously, there were traffic impacts, due to the magnitude of what needed to get done. That meant northbound Euclid traffic was closed, and it was closed from Bass And Cherry. Dead. Dead.

So, but it's, it's it's project is now complete, and hole is covered up, and it's open for now.

Just to follow on a little bit with the challenges of that project, the weather and the railroad. This this was the third time we scheduled this project. The first two times we were ready to go, the rain hit. So we weren't obviously, safety is the number one concern. We weren't gonna have a a big hole open with a lot of rain coming.

The railroad was a very interesting challenge. That railroad is inactive, but it's still railroad right away. And you have to they make you treat it as a active railroad. That added up to a lot of extra time, effort, and expense. We had to monitor the tracks all the time to make sure they didn't move.

The backfill requirements, the everything under the sun was was you know, you look at it and go, it's unreasonable for an out of service track, but they consider it there there right away. So it added a lot of time, a lot of effort. And, honestly, there were times when I was making phone calls at 07:00 at night to their supervisors to make sure we continued on because of misunderstandings with their inspectors out in the field, shall we call it. It was very challenging, but we got it done. Yes.

I know everyone was upset with the traffic control, but we we essentially had no choice. It was far safer for the construction crew and the traveling public to close that the northbound down. The other part of this project was timing with the pioneer development. This was an upsizing of a pipe that wasn't done in the past, and I can see why they didn't upsize it in the past because of the headaches we went through. We had the traffic signal at Rosecrans and Euclid that we upgraded.

We had sidewalk that was built on the West Side Of Euclid. There was no sidewalk. There was a gap closure we took care of. All of that had to be scheduled, designed, coordinated before the the developers now paving the street, which they are starting next week, I think. They so there's gonna be more traffic up there while they they they do a full remove and replacement of the street. So all in all, long projects, but logistics were incredible to get it all done.

That's gonna they're gonna dig up again?

The entire road from Bass And Shuri through the intersection of Rosecrans, up Rosecrans to the first cul de sac is going to be dug out and completely reconstructed by the developer on their dime.

Yeah. I went over and looked at the product. I think you and I had a conversation about that because I got about a thousand people caught talked to me in my neighborhood and just were screaming. And and what's going on? I said they're doing the best they can do. It's dangerous. You can't

Yeah.

You can't put delineators. I mean, they'll go in that hole.

I mean, is the the I'm gonna go off on a slight tangent here. Sorry, Juan.

It's all good.

Taking over your presentation. I've had many conversations with past public works directors and about how to notify the public. Notifying the public on arterial streets of major projects is extremely difficult. Yes. We put up changeable message signs, CMS signs where we can, but it's very limited locations that we can put these signs up. We don't have shoulders to put it in. We can't put it in the sidewalk because we're blocking it. If we do have a shoulder, it's usually a bike lane. So it is extremely difficult to notify the public. And let's be honest, you drive by it.

Do you really read it? Do you really pay attention? Do you really remember? So usually, the first two days of a of a project, it's everyone is screaming bloody murder. And then, hopefully, we just deal with it and hope people get used to it and and make the adjustment. But if you have any magic ideas of how to notify people of a major arterial project, I'm all ears.

I think you guys already had some of the magic ideas. Just to add in some of the thank you for communicating what was going on with this project. I drive through here at least twice a day, go in to drop my kids off and pick them up from school. And having a picture on Instagram that says, hey. We're gonna close the road on Monday. Oh, hold on. We're not gonna do it. Like, I can grab that. I can share it with all the other moms. Like, it I think that we understood what was going on. There's a really cool hole in the street. I'm not allowed to drive by here when this was open because I kept sticking my head out the window. But we appreciated understanding that the street's gonna be closed or it's not gonna be closed, and here's what's going on. Just a a little bit of a blurb of information. People want the water to keep running and the sewer to keep flowing and not to know too much detail more beyond that.

So thank you.

K.

Can I make one suggestion or give you an idea? We had spoken in the past about notification on water bills, rate increases, and all this kind of stuff. What would kill us if we had to put a special note on their water bills? Because everybody gets that no matter what, so it's not additional mailing fees or anything. Why can't there be some insert put into the water bills that we are going to close? Would that be something we would consider doing to the cheapest level to do it?

I mean, the the mailing cost is similar, but there's obviously a significant cost to actually make the notice itself. And we're trying to target the people that use that area rather than citywide. Otherwise, you can confuse people when it comes to that. But to your point, I think it has its place. The utility billing has its place. Mhmm. But I think, typically, we try to focus our notifications to a specific area rather than citywide.

Well, you had signage, so that's you know, you're doing your part. That's

We're trying. We try.

But no matter what we do, it's never enough. Right?

Of course.

So Thank you. Yeah. I I I have two questions, mister chairman. Yeah. Go ahead. First is I don't know if I missed it, but how long are you guys going to, to do this project? The duration, the end time? And, once it's done, do you have do you know how many exactly how many residents, people are going to benefit from this project?

So the sewer and water portion is already completed. The other components that David mentioned regarding sidewalk gap closure, traffic signal improvements, At least the traffic signal is closed, but the the sidewalk's done. Storm drain's done. Like he mentioned, the the developer is scheduled to be paving those streets within a week or so. So you'll probably be seeing a pretty much complete project, with a new road within the next month or so. Impact on overall, waterline, I think it was a transmission line. Right?

So yeah. So part of it I mean, far as the number of residences, the the the sewer is more of one of our main trunk lines. Well, not that we have trunk lines, but one of our major lines. There was a pinch point under the railroad. So the number of residents is significant that it impacts. And then it obviously allows our system to to flow in in in the way it's supposed to flow. Mhmm. Especially now that the Pines development's going in. It was critical that we made that upgrade because it really was triggered by the increase of flow that we're gonna get from the Pines development. If we it was functioning just fine without it, but now that we have those additional residences and they're gonna start contributing to the flow, That would have been a critical issue if we hadn't upgraded.

So there's a big upstream tributary, but the Pines development pushed us over the edge.

Thank you. Thank you.

Any further comments from staff members?

Alright. Let's move on. Another project I wanna highlight is the Sunni Santa Fe Avenue Street Rehab project. So what you see on your screen are before and afters of the same street. This project reconstructed two deteriorated residential cul de sac streets, Sudine Avenue and Santa Fe Avenue.

These are located West Of Raymond, South Of Commonwealth. The project scope included your typical repairing damaged curb and gutters, sidewalks, cross gutters, along with a this was actually a full removal and replacement of asphalt. So this was in total, it was four inches of AC and six inches of base material that were removed and replaced. So as you can see, the left picture, you can see how very poor condition the street is. That's a PCI score of 23.

So you could see the before and after the the significant improvements in the roadway condition. Combined, these two cul de sacs are roughly about a quarter of a mile of roadway. The rehab of the street was actually followed up by a separate water main project. That was much larger scale, but the water main did get replaced in these two cul de sacs along sewer was just fine. No issues there.

So the project was awarded in August. It was completed early late last year. Cost just for construction wise was roughly 395 k. Just note that that's just construction cost, not overall cost. Funding from this project actually came from a grant, community development block grant, which city received or was granted, about $303,125,000 dollars, but the remaining funds coming from general fund, from our streets program home project. So it's a neat it was a neat, small, but needed project at this location.

So just one of the frustrations I have. You know, we got federal money. It's great. $350,000 of federal funds that and we use it specifically at this location because it's low income area, and we followed it from a utility project. The time it takes us to get through the paperwork and authorization to use federal funds to bid it, award it is multiple months, and I think they built it in three weeks.

It's very frustrating the amount of time it gets us to construction, and construction is like that. I wish we could speed up the process, but it is what it is.

Alright. So from this list, not much has changed, but I just wanna give a purview that next month, I do plan to bring back to the committee, several storm drain projects, emergency projects, actually, that we faced in the last, storm events from last year. So I'll be bringing that back next month, show a little bit more highlights on the storm drain side side of things. On this next list of projects, I actually want to focus on parks, parks and trail projects. We actually completed several, projects here in the city of Fullerton that are related to parks and, and trails.

But before I even get to the projects, I just wanna get started with just a note that park and trail projects priorities and CAP park improvements is not under NREC's purview, but actually under parks and rec commission. This is I'm bringing it in front of you just more of a FYI, since the division engineering division does manage these projects, and since they are CAP projects. So before we get into the project specific, specific projects, I just wanted to go over how parks and trails are funded, actually. So so the majority of it or the funds actually come from park dwelling, funds. These funds are restricted, to only parks and trail, and they're based on private development and collected via permit fees.

And, obviously, it's based on the time of development and associated impacts. Revenue could vary dramatically every year, depending on how much development is occurring in the city. Another another source is through grants, when available and and and if awarded and selected. General funds is another funding source, but are very limited, to parks and parks and rec, at least for CAP projects. So with that, let me jump into a few of the parks and trail projects that we were recently completed.

So the first project I wanna highlight is Union Pacific Trail Phase 2. This is a multiuse recreational trail that was built along a former a former railroad spur that the city acquired to create a continuous connection between Independence Park, Union Pacific Trail phase 1, and providing a direct access to the Fullerton Train Station. The project includes a new asphalt paved trail. Parallel is a decomposed granite path, landscaping irrigation improvements, a 176 new planted trees, solar lighting, and new fencing throughout the quarter. So how was this project funded?

So the project was funded through a combination of park dwelling funds and a state grant. The city received and secured approximately 1,780,000.00 of, state of a state grant, which is the California Natural Resources Agency Urban Graining grant. It's a long name for a grant. But we secured it, and the remaining costs were covered by the by park dwelling funds. So with that, I actually wanna show you a few, drone images, of before and after.

Let me see if I can share my screen. So here, this is what the trail actually looked like, before construction. As you can see, I needed some love to say the least. There you see actually oh, you probably can't see it, but, so this is, heading eastbound towards, Richmond. There's mister Grantham right there. And so as you can see, it's obviously it's a no man's land here, overgrown landscaping.

Yeah.

But you can see it it it needed some love here. So now

let me show you Just a little background while he flicks over. Yeah. This project has been on the approximate book for many, many, many years. I think it was the started design about ten years ago, And trying to get funding has been an ongoing battle for the city, but we managed to obtain it and actually put it to good use.

So now I wanna show you the after. So this is starting from Independence Park heading eastbound. So this is one of the trailhead at Independence Park. So you can see the AC pathway, the DG pathway. It's probably probably see some dots there, but you see all those different trees.

So there's a total of a 176 new trees. I believe that was part of the grant requirement that we needed to meet a certain number of trees to be planted. We you could see this hopefully, you could see the solar lighting on here. We're reaching the crossing at Richmond. And as we head eastbound, we're gonna reach Highland. This project started in July, pretty much wrapped up by the end of this year.

Very nice.

So, you know, it's it's definitely a different look Yeah. From the before and after. And, hopefully, the public is putting it to use. It is open. So if you feel free, take a jog out there or try to stop by. You might guess. Actually, this is this video actually continues on, and it's gonna lead to my next project, which is the UP Park Rehab. So they were actually doing construction while the other project was pretty much wrapping up.

So I'll give Juan credit. He was a project manager on the UP Trail, and I think he did a fantastic job of very, very, very minimal change orders on the project. So I'm gonna give him kudos for that because the contractor was a good contractor. Don't get me wrong. Good contractor, but they always want their change orders. And I think Juan did a did a good job of keeping those all in check. And our inspector did a great job as well. Thanks.

So moving on to the next project, Union Pacific Park. So just some background on this project. The park the park itself is 1.4 acre square footage. It's situated along Union Pacific Trail Corridor located at the Northwest corner of Harbor And Trustlow. The park plays an important role in connecting the surrounding neighborhood in Fullerton's trail system, and the Fullerton Train Station.

So the trail actually goes through the park, and then it ends up at the train station. So the the this project actually represents phase face it was a phase two of a multi phase improvement effort. Phase one focused on preparing the park for a new playground equipment, which was, installed through a kaboom cramp. Kaboom, we we got a we got a playground through kaboom. Phase two was to complete the full renovation of the park and enhance the access between the park and the UP Trail.

So these improvements included new concrete ways, DG pathways, upgrades to the basketball existing basketball court, two new pickleball courts, which is I think are these the first ones?

First outdoor pickleball.

Yeah. First first outdoor pickleball courts in Fullerton. Accessibility improvements throughout the park. Also, it added a huge a large area of turf, perimeter fencing, landscaping, and a space that's designated for a future community garden. So how was this project funded?

Right? Always comes down to funding. So this was another community development block grant, CDBG funded project along with park dwelling funds. The city received approximately a 150 k in CDBG funds, which were used $3.50. $3.50. Maybe I said something different. I thought you said one. And that $3.50, of CDBG and, funds that we received, and the rest was covered by park dwelling funds. The park is fully open to the public. The ribbon cutting happened was last Saturday.

So it's a brand new park. And with that, I wanna show you some before and after pictures as well so you get an idea of what the site looked like before. So this was the existing basketball court with missing concrete pieces. One of the key elements here that actually worked out was that there was already existing street lighting, or lighting in the park, so we didn't have to worry about that. As you can tell, it was pretty much closed off.

So now let me show you I show you an image of Boris, what it looks now. And I have drone shots, video, but I do have an image. So this right here is Trezlo. Here's the parking lot that got resurfaced, restriped, ADA accessible. The DG pathway got connected.

Concrete work, a lot of hardscape. Here's the new playground with the play pit, new green area, the two pickleball courts, outdoor pickleball courts, and the finished off basketball court, on this end. Community garden, is intended to go in this area right here.

So

Just to touch on your previous comment about coordination with different departments. This was actually designed in house. There was a lot of communication with Parks and Rec as to the layout. There's a lot of exhibits done, feedback from parks and rec as to what they wanted. That's why there's big open turf area so, you know, families and kids can run around as opposed to kinda cutting them off. Our landscape maintenance was huge in this with the irrigation system, the and the plants and the plant materials. So there was a lot of coordination put together and a lot of money saved by doing it in house rather than having a consultant do the design.

I had a question on your turf. Is it more financially sound to do real turf, or is artificial turf a better alternative?

Well, in in a neighborhood park like this, we're not gonna do artificial turf, so it's gonna be natural turf. I think the only place we're gonna do artificial turf is a sports field, which is Lions Field, which we just redone, or in a location where it's called nonfunctional turf, possibly. A park is considered functional, so we wanna go with natural sod.

So I'll get to Lyons Field on my next on my next slide. So any other

of the water consumption that versus if you have artificial turf.

Well, yeah. Obviously, there is water consumption. We have new efficient irrigation, but, absolutely, we're using water.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You're taking comments now

Yeah.

Yeah. Go ahead. The staff committee wanna start.

For both of of these amazing projects. I was able to come out for the opening ceremony for the trail and was over this last weekend at the park. And it's you in your first drone shots, like, there's no people there. Right? Everybody's hiding inside these buildings. In the last weekend, this green space was full of people who were were on the playgrounds, playing pickleball, playing basketball, but also using just that general green space. It's a wonderful place that not only brings the community out, but does connect to some of these other green spaces. Mhmm. With Independence Park on the other side and then being able to to be connected to the train station, you'd you'd literally feel that there are there are businesses and other places that are that we're connected to. So these two projects are something you guys should really feel proud of.

Thank you for delivering these to the city. A lot I think a lot of the infrastructure projects that you finish up, it gets buried and covered up, and then we just you know, we spent the money and we've moved on. And here, we can drive by and and look at it with pride and see the effect that you're having on the community.

Definitely.

Thank you very much.

Any further questions from anybody on okay.

Alright. Moving on.

Moving on.

So the last and final project, that I'll be highlighting is, Lions Field turf replacement. So this one does have artificial grass. So this this this project is located adjacent to Hillcrest Park. It's one of the city's most heavily used athletic facilities. It serves youth sports, schools, adult leagues, and community programs year year round.

The project replaced the original synthetic turf, which had exceeded its, service life with the new modern turf system, to improve safety, durability, and playability. The project also included related field improvements and amenities such as new scoring boards, dugout improvements, site improvements to support the continued high level levels of use. This project was funded through park dwelling funds, approximately close to, I think final number, probably, like, 1.7 including everything. That includes everything all inclusive. So there is actually a if you're not aware, there is a the city is hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony this Saturday at 10AM at Lions Field.

Any members of the public are welcome to come or committee members, chair and vice chair as well. You guys are welcome to attend. I actually wanna share a few other pictures other than the one I have, which shows you before, and after. So what you see on your screen right here, this is what the field looked like before. As you can tell, it's it it aged, so it was well used.

And so now I wanna show you this is another angle. Let me show you the after picture. So as you can see, difference from before and after. You know, we got the Fullerton logo here, city of Fullerton. Number of fields still remain the same.

You got your soccer and football fields here. Me see. This is another angle. But all in all, I think this is a great project for the community and all the different, programs and residents that use this. Here's another close-up of what the field looks like from the area. I haven't gone to the Hillcrest top to see how it looks from the from the top, but I'm sure it'll look neat.

And just another example of us coordinating with the divisions. I, I requested our streets division go out and freshen up all the striping in the parking lots and around there, so it's all looks brand new for the opening.

Our

facilities department went in, did a lot of updates and cleaning to the restrooms and just the area in in and around. And our landscape division went in and took care of some tree work and a whole bunch of new planting and irrigation repairs.

And that occurred for actually for all three projects. We we coordinated with them to tighten up things, to make the things look nice. Alright. So with that, I'm gonna move on just for our last slide, which is staffing updates. Unfortunately, the civil engineer candidate didn't work out for us. So we're back to the drawing board. We're considering assistant associate level to under field the position. We didn't gain anybody, and we didn't lose anybody. So we stayed the same, which is better than yes. Overall.

So with that, that wraps up my presentation for today. I'll be happy to take any further questions, if you have comments or concerns.

Any comments from anybody? Alright. Munish? I don't wanna miss him. I missed him twice. I don't wanna miss him again.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't see

I would like to make a couple comments. I wanted to basically talk to the committee tonight. I spent a great deal of time at the airport doing some studies with all the manager of the airport. Spent some time with the in the tower. And I would like to invite you guys. I know people are busy. They can't go. But it would be really beneficial to us in the future when we get into budgeting and talking about what operations we have at the airport. I was amazed. I spent four hours there with them.

And it's it's a very important facet of this city, and we should know what's going on in there. We've got a lot of people in there with helicopters. We're we're strong. I mean, we are a strong supplier for the helicopters and the rescue people. We're a major asset for that. So people should go in and look at that. It's more than just the white planes flip flopping all over at 900 feet and should be at a thousand. I mean, it's just sit in that tower for an hour with these guys, and they're amazing. They're just amazing people. The the whole thing is good. I just encourage anybody, if you have some time, go there, have lunch. It's fantastic. We were there. It was an amazing visit. Other than that, I just want to suggest that to the members in possibility. And for that, I guess we're that's it.

Belief at that point, it's in the forecast or if?

I'll just make a comment. We're gonna stop into if you remember from last year, we're gonna start stepping into the budget. So part of the reason Michael was here today, just give you some background on traffic. So when you see the budget, makes a little more sense to you. So we'll hit next year, next month. Just a recap of where we got our funding from, what our prioritization is, but you will be deciding where to use street money, which part of town. I won't be here, so give one a break.

That it? Mister chair, before we adjourn, can I ask that item five, Michael's presentation, be added to the public file? Yes. It's not available online right now.

Yes. Thank you.

Motion to adjourn.

Okay. Since that that's the final thing, would say I will call for adjourn. A motion to adjourn.

And I second.

Okay. Thank you.