From Betsy M regarding City of Santa Clara council meeting the evening of Tuesday, May 17 16, 2017.

There’s a council meeting tomorrow night in Santa Clara (which is a schedule conflict with the Plan Bay Area meeting in San Jose’s King Library).

There’s a creek trail extension in item 13. B. 3. in the consent agenda. It is the evaluation only (no shovels or asphalt yet) of remaining portions of the Saratoga, Calabazas, and Hetch Hetchy trails in Santa Clara. Follow the attachment link from the city’s website to see the lengthy PDF.

http://sireweb.santaclaraca.gov/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=1978&doctype=AGENDA

Things on the consent calendar usually just get passed, which is fine. If there’s anything to do here, it’s to remind the council and the consultants to talk to their own BPAC, to the bicycle community, and to SVBC while planning these trails. The other thing I see missing in the document is anything about connection and continuity. The J.W. Christian Greenbelt runs along the Hetch Hetchy corridor in Sunnyvale. Calabazas creek is the shared border between Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. VTA has a bike plan, which I don’t see mentioned in this document, but which is directed at intercity connectivity. (Santa Clara’s own bicycle plan dates to 2009 and has so far been all but ignored.)

I also see no mention of improving connections to these trail corridors on adjoining city streets, or of the various agencies which might someday collaborate or provide funding (Open Space Authority, Air Quality Management District, MTC, etc.).

Further down in the council agenda, there’s also yet another information item on the San Tomas trail closure, with not a lot of detail on what information might be presented. For all this item has been discussed, there doesn’t seem to have been much effort to reach out to SVBC or to the trail users to identify a better alternative.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 4 PM with a closed session, reconvening with a public meeting beginning at 5 PM. The public presentation portion begins after the consent calendar so my guess is you can probably show up around 6 and still be on time to give your comments.

Speaking of San Tomas Trail closures, the trail will close to the public at 1 PM on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 for the U2 Joshua Tree Tour. Does Bono still ride a bike after his serious crash in 2014?