SMART advancing 2-mile segment of bike path in Rohnert Park

A bikeway planned in Rohnert Park as part of the Sonoma-Marin commuter rail project is starting to gather momentum.

An official with Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit said the agency obtained $4 million in federal highway funds to construct the multi-use path from Golf Course Drive in Rohnert Park south to the Cotati station, a distance of more than 2 miles.

On Tuesday, the Rohnert Park City Council is expected to approve the rail agency’s request for an easement onto city-owned property that includes a 3,500-foot section of the planned bike path.

“It’s pretty significant,” said Paul Klassen, manager of the pathway project for SMART. “It goes through the majority of urbanized area along the railroad for both Cotati and Rohnert Park.”

The bikeway was a key element of the 70-mile SMART project when voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax to pay for it. But bike advocates in particular have expressed dismay that the pace of construction on the path has lagged far behind the rail project.

Slumping sales-tax receipts during the recession and other funding shortfalls forced SMART officials to scale back plans for both the pathway and the commuter rail line. Their focus now is on completing the first phase of the rail project, from Santa Rosa to San Rafael, to start service by the end of 2016.

Farhad Mansourian, SMART general manager, has said that more path will be built as the agency uncovers new sources of federal, state and local funding.

“SMART has a bowl of money,” he said in a recent interview. “Everything we do comes out of this bowl. And that includes bike money. There is no pot set aside saying 80 percent goes to rail, 20 percent goes to bike and 10 percent goes to security. We need to do everything. If this pot grows, we do more. It’s just that simple.”

Jake Mackenzie, a Rohnert Park councilman and member of SMART’s board of directors, lamented the setbacks, saying that if he “had his druthers,” the bike path would be built in conjunction with construction of the commuter line.

But he said he’s happy that the bikeway is at least moving ahead in Rohnert Park.

“It’s a benefit, as far as I’m concerned, to the citizens of Rohnert Park and citizens of Sonoma County, who will have the ability to use this as a way to recreate, to walk and to commute by bicycle,” he said.

One influential cycling advocate expressed measured enthusiasm over the latest developments.

“While we remain skeptical of SMART’s commitment to building the trail, we still celebrate any progress that’s made,” said Gary Helfrich, executive director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.

Klassen said the rail agency received two federal grants for construction of the bikeway in Rohnert Park, one covering Golf Course Drive south to Copeland Creek along the railroad right-of-way.

The second grant covers construction of the 3,500-foot section from Copeland Creek south to about 850 feet north of East Cotati Avenue. Rail project managers are seeking the easement onto city property in that location in order to move the bike path farther away from the tracks.

The Sonoma County Water Agency also has an easement on the property for use as an aqueduct and for drainage.

The section was previously identified in planning documents the rail agency submitted as part of the proposed commuter line’s environmental impact report, approved in 2006.

“It’s not a change from anything that was planned before,” Klassen said.

Path users will be able to access it from existing roadways that cross the railroad tracks, as well as from the Copeland Creek trails.

The easement request is on the consent calendar of Tuesday night’s Rohnert Park City Council meeting, which means council members will vote on it without discussion unless someone requests that the item be pulled from the agenda. Mackenzie said he does not anticipate that happening.

Klassen said construction of the pathway could begin in late 2016 or early 2017.

Very little of the overall pathway has been constructed to date in Sonoma and Marin counties. The city of Santa Rosa finished 0.3 miles of the path from West College Avenue to Eighth Street, and Caltrans has completed a section along Highway 101 from Olompali State Historic Park north of Novato to the Redwood Landfill overpass at San Antonio Road, part of the agency’s work widening the highway from Novato to Petaluma.

If the pathway is completed, it will be one of the longest so-called rails-with-trails systems in the country.

Staff Writer Matt Brown contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.