Summary
May 13, 2024
Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District
Attn: District Secretary – Draft Final 2024 Strategic Plan
P.O. Box 29000, Presidio Station
San Francisco, CA 94129-9000
Dear District Board of Directors,
On behalf of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, we appreciate the opportunity to share with you some comments on GGBHTD’s Draft Final 2024 Strategic Plan, and we hope that you take them into consideration in the final adoption of the plan during your May 24, 2024 Board Meeting.
Supporting public transit in our communities, and especially that which serves low-income residents and high transit needs such as students, older adults, and people living with disabilities is a critical priority of our Board. It is also an important component of our climate and housing goals: safe, reliable, well-coordinated public transit is to both reduce single occupancy vehicle trips – and meet our Regional Housing Needs Allocation commitments without increasing congestion.
There were many components of the GGBHTD’s Draft Final Strategic Plan we were pleased to see GGBHTD taking such a forward-looking approach. This included aligning service models to post-pandemic ridership trends, focusing on service to low-income communities, and emphasizing developing concrete “fleet greening” goals.
We also respectfully request that you consider some changes in your Final Strategic Plan as outlined in the comments in this letter. Our comments center on two broad themes:
- Commitment to coordination: In light of the ongoing Marin-Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service Analysis (MASCOTS) planning effort, we urge the Bridge District to utilize the outcomes of the study to optimize resources for the Marin riders and communities that GGBHTD, Marin Transit, and SMART jointly serve. We feel that the Strategic Plan is the ideal opportunity to strengthen North Bay transit partnerships, service coordination, and integration.
- Land use: We understand the critical nexus between housing, transit, and climate. The goals of one cannot be achieved without strong support for the other two. We applaud GGBHTD’s consideration of how to support housing in the communities it services, however, we also feel that as a transit agency, GGBHTD must also prioritize ensuring that the holistic transit needs of the region are met.
Commitment to coordination
While our Board is strongly committed to equity in transit services and resource planning – we share the concern outlined by Marin Transit in how equity is currently addressed in GGBHTD’s Strategy #5.
#5. Prioritize equity as a criterion when planning and implementing transit service, with a focus on providing robust service within equity-priority communities that have significant concentrations of underserved populations.
Intra-County, local transit has long been the role of Marin Transit – which is dedicated to providing robust and cost-effective service to those with transportation needs within Marin County. We feel that this item should be changed to emphasize instead that Golden Gate Transit will coordinate with Marin Transit to identify the need in these communities for intra- vs inter-County trips, and coordinate service delivery accordingly.
Furthermore, we suggest replacing “equity-priority communities” with “low-income, historically marginalized communities”. In their 2024 EPC Update – MTC has proposed to remove Marin City as an Equity Priority Community due to 2020 Census data. While our Board remains strongly opposed to that change, it is important that the language in the GGBHTD Strategic Plan will apply to all underserved communities in Marin – whether they are formally designated an EPC or not.
We also want to uplift the importance of Strategy #8. Many other strategies in the Plan have a nexus with other transit service providers; including responding effectively to the evolving, post-pandemic needs of our residents and commuters, and will require strong regional collaboration. This includes integrating and complementing routes and services provided by other Marin-serving agencies.
#8. Work with partner agencies to develop a comprehensive service plan for the Highway 101 Corridor. Evaluate where there is duplicative North Bay service between SMART, GGT, Marin Transit and Sonoma service providers. Design transit service based on current and future customer needs. Support the Regional Network Management goals.
We suggest adding language to #8 which would underscore GGBHTD’s commitment to strengthen its collaboration and service planning with other North Bay agencies. We would also suggest taking first and last mile connections into account when planning for current and future customer needs.
Land use
Strategies #18 and #19 address housing and land use:
#18. Explore opportunities and possible mechanisms to support efforts to jointly develop housing at District property to the extent that it’s consistent with local zoning and planning jurisdictions and within the District’s Mission.
#19. Work with local jurisdictions implementing transit-oriented developments for opportunities to provide transit service that is aligned with the District's mission and local agencies' efforts to build housing in their communities.
We know that our region’s housing crisis takes an “all hands on deck” approach, and that includes thoroughly evaluating every corner of our community where we can add more housing. Our Board appreciates the complexities and considerations of this process, as during the update of the County’s Housing Element last year, our Board went through the process of identifying possible sites for more than 5,200 residences in unincorporated Marin.
Nonetheless, as our County plans to welcome thousands of new residents in the coming 8year cycle, it is imperative that we have the robust transit networks needed to serve them. We feel that Strategy #19 addresses the coordination between transit and housing development needs well. However, we do request that GGBHTD add language to this strategy emphasizing coordination with local jurisdictions on their Housing Elements and long-term planning efforts.
Furthermore, in some cases, meeting increased regional transit needs from additional residents will also mean expanding the current footprint of in-County transit facilities such as maintenance yards. We are especially aware that the transition to green bus fleets will require expanded facilities in Marin with the ability to park, charge and repair transit fleet vehicles. Marin Transit faces an acute need today for expanded fleet-serving facility space in Marin in order to expand their electric fleet – and so we request that Strategy #18 be changed to reflect that the needs of other Marin-serving transit providers will be prioritized as GGBHTD considers offloading surplus property, as opposed to solely for housing development.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide this feedback. We look forward to continuing our partnership, and in supporting the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District as you move into the implementation stage of the 2024 Strategic Plan.
Sincerely,
Dennis Rodoni, President
Marin County Board of Supervisors
Cc: Marin County Board of Supervisors
GGBHTD General Manager Denis J. Mulligan
Marin Transit Board of Commissioners
Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) Board of Directors
Transportation Authority of Marin Board of Commissioners
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