All right, it's 1 0 3. I'm going to go ahead and kick us off again. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. I am Naveen Habib. I am the associate deputy director for the solutions for congested corridors program here at the California Transportation Commission.
If you are joining us today, you're here for the solutions for congested corridors program guidelines hearing for the Northern California and San Joaquin Valley.
I am joined today by our chair, Commissioner Clarissa Falcon, who will be chairing this
meeting.
And I'm also joined by Paul Golozowski, who is our chief executive director, no chief
deputy director.
I'm sorry.
I get titles mixed up.
But Paul is here today with us.
And then we also have Matthew Yoscott, who is the deputy director of Senate Bill 1 programming.
As a reminder, anytime we say we or us, we are referring to commission staff on today's
call.
I will now turn it over to our chair to kick us off.
Thank you, Naveen.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome.
Thank you for joining us at the Northern California
and San Joaquin Valley Public Hearing
on the proposed 2026 guidelines
for the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program,
or commonly referred to by its acronym, SCCP.
Today's hearing is being held in accordance
with Streets and Highways Code, section 2396A,
which requires the California Transportation Commission
to conduct one public hearing in Northern California
and one in Southern California
before the guidelines go before the Commission for Adoption.
Today's hearing fulfills the Northern requirement,
which also includes the San Joaquin Valley.
We will be holding the Southern hearing
at our August 20th commission meeting in San Diego,
my home region as part of the hearing agenda.
So why are we here and why SCCP?
California has some of the most congested transportation
corridors in the nation.
This program exists because congestion is not
solved by any one agency nor any one mode or any one project.
It is addressed when regions come together
to plan comprehensive multimodal corridors,
understands how people actually travel
and deliver integrated transportation solutions.
The legislature created this program through Senate Bill 1,
the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017,
and it invests approximately $250 million each year
to help regions deliver exactly that kind
of collaborative multimodal investment.
Over the first four funding cycles,
the commission has programmed 33 projects,
representing more than $2.5 billion
in solutions for congested corridors program investments.
In the most recent cycle alone,
approximately $482.9 million in state funding
leveraged more than $13.5 billion in local, regional,
and federal investment supporting more than 180,000 jobs.
numbers are important. But what matters most is what they make possible across
California. For example, we are extending commuter rail to Healdsburg in Sonoma
County, supported a corridor program in Santa Cruz County that pairs bus on
shoulder service with coastal, bicycle, and pedestrian connections, and begun
modernizing train control across San Francisco's entire Muni metro system.
Different regions, different modes, one common goal, delivering a safe and accessible transportation
system shaped by the people who rely on it every day.
Today, we are focused on the program's fifth cycle.
The proposed guidelines establish the rules for how the next round of funding will be awarded,
and they are the product of seven months of public work, seven workshops,
workshops, 30 office hour sessions, and consultation with the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee.
The California Department of Transportation, the California Air Resources Board, the California
Department of Housing and Community Development, the California Workforce Development Board,
regional agencies, advocates, and stakeholders across the state.
The guidelines were developed in close coordination with agencies and individuals who build these
corridors and the people who travel on them.
Many of the meaningful improvements reflected in this draft came directly from those conversations.
Today's hearing is another opportunity for us to listen and receive additional feedback
before the Commission considers adoption on August 20th.
So before turning the hearing back to Naveen, I would like to take this opportunity to express
on behalf of my colleagues on the Commission our respect and gratitude to the staff of
the California Transportation Commission and most notably our SB1 team led by Matthew Yosgott,
Deputy Director of SB1 Programming, as well as our SB1 Program Managers Naveen Habib,
whom you will be hearing from in a moment. Beverly Newman-Burkhardt, Loshara Ward, and
and Kayla Giese, as well as the rest of the SB1 team,
for their dedicated efforts to prepare all of the updates
to the SB1 program's guidelines.
And they are now out for public review.
So finally, I would like to thank all of you
who have participated in our workshops
and taken advantage of our staff's office hours
to provide input that have informed the development
of all the cycle five guidelines.
So thank you.
And with that, I will stop talking
I will now turn it over to our Associate Deputy Director Naveen Habib.
Thank you Chair. I appreciate your comment and we will dive into the solutions for congested
corridors program guidelines presentation at this point. Before I do, I'm going to cover
a few housekeeping items. In the chat, I have shared a few links. One, the first link is to
the hearing materials that are included with this agenda and the presentation that you're sharing
projected onto your screen. These are both posted on the Commission's website today.
All materials and recordings for all previous SCCP workshops are posted on the program webpage
on the Commission's website under the Workshops drop down menu. And then all materials and
recordings for all CTC workshops, including all SB1 workshops we have hosted that Chair
Falcon just covered with you all, are posted on the Commission's website as well under CTC
Workshops page. So those links are up there in the chat. If you have not had a chance to review them,
please go ahead and do so at your convenience and I will cover a few additional housekeeping
items before we dive into the presentation. As a reminder, this is a virtual hearing and it is
being recorded. Each attendee is registered with a unique webinar access link. Please do not share
that link. It is associated with your individual registration and sharing it may cause access
issues and create confusion for commission staff during this session. There are two icons in your
webinar control panel you may use the raise hand feature to make a public comment. Use the Q&A
feature to submit a written comment and commission staff will read your comment aloud during the
meeting. Public comment will be taken during the hearing segment that follows my presentation.
You will have two minutes to make public comment if your comments are oral comments.
If your comments are submitted using the Q&A feature I will read them out loud so that we
may respond to them live. If you plan to make a comment or ask a question please begin by stating
your full name and your organization. If you have more than one question please share them one at a
time so that we may address each question in full. We will address all comments in the order that they
are received. This presentation and the recording will be posted on the Commission's website after
the hearing. So one quick note at the top this is the Northern California hearing which also covers
the San Joaquin Valley for the proposed 2026 Solutions for Congested Corridors Program
guidelines. Because we are hosting it virtually, it is open statewide. A Southern California hearing
will be held at the August 20th commission meeting, where I will present a condensed version of this
presentation before the commission considers the guidelines for adoption. Before we turn to the
proposed changes, here is a brief refresher on the program. The Solutions for Congested
corridors program is a competitive program established in 2017 by Senate Bill 1.
250 million dollars are appropriated annually from the state highway account to fund projects
that reduce congestion in heavily traveled corridors. Regional transportation planning
agencies, county transportation commissions, and the California Department of Transportation,
or Caltrans, are eligible to nominate projects. To be eligible, a project must be included in a
comprehensive multimodal corridor plan and in a regional transportation plan. Within
metropolitan planning organization boundaries, the project must also be consistent with an
approved sustainable community strategy. This program funds only the construction phase of
a capital project, and every nomination must demonstrate independent utility, environmental
clearance, and a complete and committed funding plan. Projects must deliver measurable performance
improvements that balance mobility, community, and environmental outcomes.
Across the first four cycles, the Commission has programmed 33 projects and more than $2.5
billion in program funds.
The 2026 program is the fifth cycle and will provide two years of funding in fiscal years
2027-28 and 2028-29 for a total of $549,555,000.
The Commission develops program policy
through a public guidelines development process.
Program guidelines establish the policy, standards,
and procedures for the development, adoption,
and management of the Commission's programs.
They address statutory requirements,
incorporate stakeholder input,
and include Commission procedures
for programming and project delivery.
Once adopted, the guidelines govern project selection
and program implementation for the cycle.
Staff develop these proposed guidelines
through an open public process and in consultation
with the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee,
the California Department of Transportation,
the California Air Resources Board,
the California Department of Housing
and Community Development,
the California Workforce Development Board,
regional transportation planning agencies,
local agencies, advocates, and other stakeholders.
Pursuant to Senate Bill 1,
the Commission must provide proposed guidelines
to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee
and to the Transportation Policy Committees
the Senate and the Assembly at least 30 days before adoption. We submitted these draft guidelines to
the legislature on July 20th. This is the proposed timeline for the fifth cycle. If you have joined
us at previous workshops, this is not your first time seeing it. We held a kickoff workshop in
November 2025 followed by four additional workshops through May 2026. Two of those were
program specific and two were standalone sessions on workforce development and on advancing equity
and community engagement across the Senate Bill 1 programs.
We then held two additional stand-alone workshops on July 15th, one on delivery methods in the
morning and one on efficient land use and housing in the afternoon.
We also hosted 30 virtual office hour sessions from February through May, 2026 to provide
technical assistance on project nominations.
All workshop materials and recordings are posted on the Commission's website, which
I also posted in chat just earlier.
We are now in the summer 2026 phase on this timeline.
Following today's hearing and the Southern California hearing, the commission will consider
adopting the proposed guidelines at the August 20th meeting, which also initiates the call
for projects.
Project nominations are due in fall this year, on November 19th I believe, and program adoption
is anticipated in summer 2027.
As noted on the slide, the timeline and the program period are tentative and may be subject
to changes.
A brief reminder on the comprehensive multimodal corridor plan requirement, or CMCP, which
is unique to this program.
A nominated project must be identified in a comprehensive multimodal corridor plan prepared
in accordance with the Commission's 2025 comprehensive multimodal corridor plan guidelines.
The Commission adopted the updated guidelines in December 2025 and they are posted on the
Commission's website.
must also submit a comprehensive multimodal corridor
plan self-certification form with each project nomination.
The form is provided in Appendix B of the 2026 program
guidelines.
And we made minor clarifying updates this cycle
to align it with the 2025 comprehensive multimodal corridor
plan guidelines.
Agencies are responsible for determining whether their plan
is current and consistent with the commission's guidelines.
We generally recommend revisiting a plan every four to five years
to assess whether an update is warranted.
If corridor conditions or assumptions
have changed meaningfully,
the agency should evaluate whether an update is appropriate.
Please contact us directly
if you have any specific questions.
I will now turn to the proposed updates.
I will cover these changes broadly
because each update was already presented
and discussed in detail at a public workshop previously.
We will begin with sections 12 and 13,
which address delivery methods and project segmenting.
We presented these updates at the July 15th, 2026 workshop
and the slides and recording are available
on the commission's website.
The proposed updates do two things.
First, they clarify the process for projects
using alternative delivery methods,
including design build, progressive design build,
and construction manager, general contractor, or CMGC.
Second, they establish a consistent project segmentation
standard across all the Senate Bill 1 programs.
We refined the language after the workshop
based on stakeholder feedback.
The updates confirmed that projects
using alternative delivery methods
follow the existing programming and allocation process,
and that a final engineer's estimate is provided
before the construction phase allocation.
I will not read the following slides,
which illustrate the proposed updates to the delivery methods
and project segmenting sections in bold red.
Only one reminder, as noted in the first sentence
on this slide, this is slide 10,
We note that projects may use alternative delivery methods
in accordance with the statutory authority applicable
to the implementing agency and the mode being delivered.
Please note that these guidelines do not grant
or restrict contracting authority.
Each implementing agency is responsible for confirming
and operating under its own authority for its project.
This is slide 11.
Again, changes are in bold red.
Next slide 12, which covers project segmenting.
Again, changes are in bold red.
As presented at the July 15th, 2026 workshop
and pursuant to the June 26th, 2026 executive order
and 726 order number five,
we amended the accessibility evaluation criterion
in section 17.2.2 to emphasize the delivery
of first mile and last mile connectivity
to transit infrastructure.
The criterion continues to ask applicants
address current accessibility issues in the corridor, how the project improves accessibility
and connectivity for residents and non-residents, and how the project provides access to multimodal
choices. The amended question now asks whether the project will close an existing gap in transit and
active transportation, or promote first-mile and last-mile connectivity to transit infrastructure.
The remaining elements of the criterion are unchanged. Again, you can see the change in bold
dread on the slide. This is slide 13. Moving on to slide 14 section 17.2.3 addresses community
engagement. We hosted a standalone workshop on advancing equity and community engagement in
April 2026 and the slides and recording are posted on the Commission's website. There were two focus
areas. First the community engagement evaluation criterion where we added sub-questions that help
applicants describe collaboration with community-based organizations and identify targeted community
benefits. Second, the Senate Bill 1 program's transportation equity supplement where we added
a tribal engagement resources section and additional examples of engagement strategies
and equity benefits. We collaborated with the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee
to make these changes. All revisions are reflected in the draft guidelines that were posted in June.
no additional changes were made to this section. Moving on to slide 15, section 17.2.4 addresses
economic development and job creation and retention. We hosted a standalone workshop
on workforce development and job quality in March 2026, and the slides and recording are posted on
the commission's website. We collaborated with our commissioners, the Interagency Equity Advisory
Committee, the California Workforce Development Board, and our stakeholders to expand the criterion
language that already exists in the Senate Bill 1 guidelines. The criterion is now organized in
two parts. The first part addresses workforce development and outreach during project
development and construction. The second part addresses outcomes and community impact after
construction. All revisions were reflected in the draft guidelines posted in June. No additional
changes were made to this section. Moving on to slide 16. Section 17.2.6 addresses
efficient land use and housing. We presented these updates at the July 15,
2026 workshop in the afternoon, and the slides and recording are posted on the commission's website.
Commission staff worked with the California Department of Housing and Community Development
on two items. We updated the land use efficiency and pro-housing supplement, which is now Appendix
E to provide clearer indicators of efficient land use, current examples of transportation-focused
pro-housing policies, and updated resources to support applicant responses. And on slide 17,
which you see projected right now, we clarified and reorganized the existing
criterions that aligns with the supplement. The bold red language in the criterion
continues to ask applicants to describe how projects support and advance transportation
efficient land use and per housing policies. Moving on to slide 18, consistent with Commission
Resolution G2531, we incorporated strategy 2.4 of the Climate Action Plan for Transportation
Infrastructure, or CAPTI, into section 18, which is programming funds. The language states that
the program will target a vehicle miles traveled neutral suite of investments by continuing the
existing practice of prioritizing projects that reduce vehicle miles traveled.
Please note that this addition does not change how individual projects are evaluated and
this program will continue to prioritize projects that reduce vehicle miles traveled as it does
today.
This update was reflected in the draft guidelines posted in June.
No additional changes were made to this section.
And moving on to slide 19, we amended the submittal requirements in Appendix A. Project
Nomination packages, including all attachments and appendices, must be submitted as remediated
PDFs that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA and fully accessible
to users of assistive technology, including screen readers.
Nominations that are not submitted in an accessible format will be returned to the applicant
for remediation and resubmission.
Failure to remedy accessibility issues by the deadline established by commission staff
may result in a nomination being deemed incomplete.
We have provided resources to support you, the intent is straightforward, everyone who
interacts with these documents, including members of the public living with disabilities,
should be able to access them fully.
This update was reflected in the draft guidelines posted in June.
Now additional changes were made to this section.
Finally, please note that we are now closing guidelines development.
This hearing is one of your final opportunities to provide feedback before the Commission
considers the guidelines for adoption in August. If you have comments please submit them as soon as
possible. You may email them to me directly or to the program inbox at sccp.ca.gov. As I mentioned
earlier the Southern California hearing will be held at the August 20th commission meeting where
I will present a condensed version of this presentation before the guidelines are recommended
for adoption. All hearing and workshop materials will be posted on the Commission's website.
This presentation is the result of seven months of workshops, work groups, office hours, and debriefs
where Commission staff collaborated with stakeholders to prepare these guidelines
responsibly. My thanks to the Senate Bill 1 program team, to our colleagues on the planning,
engineering, and executive teams, to the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee,
and to our partners at Caltrans, the California Department of Housing and Community Development,
the California Workforce Development Board and the California Air Resources Board,
and to every stakeholder who joined a workshop or an office hour to share feedback, thank you.
This concludes the presentation of the proposed 2026 Solutions for Congested Corridors Program
Guidelines at the Northern California Hearing, which also covers the San Joaquin Valley.
I will now turn it back over to Chair Falcon. Thank you Naveen, now you can take a breath.
We will now open the hearing for public comment. This time of the hearing is yours.
When you are acknowledged, please begin by stating your name and organization for the record.
Now, if you are experiencing technical difficulties, please email commission staff at
sccp at c-a-t-c dot g-c-a dot g-o-v. Let me repeat that. S-c-c-p at c-a-t-c dot c-a-dot g-o-v.
and with that we'll give it a moment for folks to raise their hand if you choose to make any
comment and welcome to those who just jumped in. There are no questions in the Q&A and no raised
hands as of now. We can give it another minute or two otherwise we will move to close. Sounds good.
Chair there are still no questions or comments received and no raised hands in the attendees
list. Okay, very good. Well, with that, I'm going to thank everyone again who joined us today and
shared your perspectives. I would also again like to thank Commission staff for the tremendous work
that has gone into developing these proposed guidelines and facilitating this very robust
public process. Today's hearing does not conclude the public comment process. Written comments may
continue to be submitted to ccp at catc.ca.gov. And just to reiterate what was mentioned earlier
that we will also hold the Southern California hearing in San Diego on August 20th before the
Commission considers adoption of the proposed guidelines. And with that, this concludes the
Northern California and San Joaquin Valley public hearing on the proposed 2026 solutions for
congested corridors program guidelines. And thank you all for your participation.
Have a great summer and we'll see some of you in San Diego on August 20th and 21st. We are adjourned.
Thank you, Chair.