Share Your Feedback: Please help us to Reimagine Sebastopol's Downtown Core!

We need your input to re-envision and transform our downtown into a safer, more accessible, and vibrant place for everyone. This survey will help the project team to ensure that our plans reflect the needs of the whole community.

The survey includes some socio-demographic questions to make sure we're reaching all voices in the community. If you decide to answer this portion of the survey, you will be entered into a raffle to win a gift card to a local business downtown!

The survey will be open until December 31, 2024. Find the survey HERE!

The Sebastopol Downtown Plan was first created in 1990. State Route (SR) 116 and SR 12 have always been a core part of the Downtown area. As development has blossomed, freight has grown, and commuting has become a part of our everyday lives, the City sees a lot more traffic through their downtown area. For many years, there has been a longing to re-envision Sebastopol's Downtown.

In 2013, community members spearheaded a grant-funded effort to have the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Sustainable Design Assessment Team visit Sebastopol and make recommendations for improvements. Since then, over 10 years have passed, and the way we think about the downtown space may have changed - there is a renewed focus on safety for people walking and biking, and creating areas that are comfortable and connected.

In 2022, the City applied for the Caltrans Sustainable Communities Grant to reevaluate the downtown segments of SR 116 and SR 12 to address multimodal transportation, safety, sustainability, accessibility, and economic development.

The Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant program is intended to encourage communities to plan for climate-related projects that includes zero emissions vehicles planning, sea level rise studies, evacuation studies, heat resiliency studies, sustainable transit studies, vision zero and safety studies, vehicle miles traveled (VMT)/greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction studies, complete streets, and managed lanes.

This project fell under the Sustainable Community Grant, which encourages communities to support the state goals identified in the Regional Transportation Plan's (RTP) Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCS), and to ultimately achieve the State's GHG reduction target of 40 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 2050, respectively.

The grant's objectives for this project include:

• Enhancing Multimodal Safety, Accessibility, and Comfort
• Encouraging Mode Shift and Support Greenhouse Gas Reductions Goals
• Mitigating Negative Impacts of Regional Through Traffic
• Engaging Downtown Business Community for Revitalization

A series of maps was developed to show the existing multimodal infrastructure and services within the study area, including walking, biking, key destinations, transit facilities, parking locations, and crash history. This section also includes key plans and guidance documents that will help to guide the development of recommendations for this study.

A list of figures you'll find linked here include:

• Project Area
• Land Use Context
• Vehicular Access & Circulation
• Roadway Lane Configurations & Traffic Controls
• Bicycle Access & Circulation Facilities
• Pedestrian Access & Circulation
• Transit Service & Facilities
• Parking Facilities
• Crash History & High Injury Network

A list of plans and guidance documents include:

• Caltrans DIB 94 (2024, Caltrans)
• Sebastopol Connect (2013, American Institute of Architects (AIA) Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT))
• City of Sebastopol SR 116 Safety Study (2021, W-Trans)
• Local Road Safety Plan (2022, GHD)
• Sonoma County Active Transportation Plan | Draft Plan (2024, Fehr & Peers)
• Transportation Concept Report: SR 116 (2016, Caltrans)

The City and consultant team (Project Team) will hold meetings and workshops throughout the course of the Project. Please see the dates and times below to join the next event!

The Project Team is also engaging with a group of community members that include business owners, residents, and City committee members.

Meeting minutes from previous stakeholder meetings are linked here.