Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

This article was contributed by Hollister Program Manager Mary Paxton.

The City of Hollister is excited to announce the award of a $259,768 Sustainable Communities Strategy transportation planning grant through Caltrans to develop a Complete Streets Study for Buena Vista Road, Santa Ana Road, Meridian Street and Memorial Drive. Complete Streets are designed and operated to enable safe access of the transportation network by all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders regardless of age and abilities.

“We are grateful for commitments from local organizations and look forward to working with the community to develop plans to make out local roads safer for everyone that walks, bikes, rides transit, drives on four roads near Calaveras School/Accelerated Academy, Gabilan Hills/Dual Language Academy, Marguerite Maze Middle School and Sunnyslope Elementary School,” said City Manager Bill Avera.

The planning grant is expected to examine safe movement of freight on Buena Vista Road, Santa Ana Road and railroad crossings at Meridian and Fourth Streets. The plans are expected to be used to develop context-sensitive solutions that take into consideration the unique setting of the community. This includes improvements such as bicycle lanes, pedestrian crossings, safe routes to school components, placement of shade trees, place making and elements that address overall safety on the four corridors.

The city has released a Request for Proposal to retain a consultant to assist with development of the corridor study, and expects to host the first of three bilingual stakeholder and community workshops in June of this year. A walking audit will also be performed to assess barriers for users of the corridors.

The City of Hollister invites community members of all ages and abilities to participate in the planning process, which will help set a design vision for these roadways. Art will be integrated into the community engagement. The city has commitments from the following community partners: San Benito County Arts Council, REACH for San Benito, Hollister School District, Council of San Benito County Governments, San Benito County Transportation Agency, elected officials from the Hollister City Council and County Board of Supervisors, and Caltrans.

If you would like to be notified of future bilingual community workshops or participate as a stakeholder, please contact Mary Paxton, City of Hollister Development Services Department at (831) 636-4316 Ext. 16 or by email at mary.paxton@hollister.ca.gov. If you know someone that speaks Spanish and would like to be notified of future bilingual community workshops or participate as a stakeholder, please contact Socorro Zendejas with the City of Hollister Engineering Department at (831) 636-4340 Ext. 26 or email at socorro.zendejas@hollister.ca.gov.