Capital Improvement Project

Project Status: The City of Santa Rosa is preparing a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed Jennings Avenue bicycle and pedestrian crossing over the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) rail line, just south of the future SMART station at Guerneville Road. The document is evaluating the environmental impacts of constructing an at grade rail crossing. The crossing would be constructed to make the connection across the rail line where Jennings Avenue currently terminates on either side of the tracks.
To construct a rail crossing at Jennings Avenue, the City would need to obtain permission from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the State agency that regulates railroads and rail transit. CPUC staff has suggested that Santa Rosa close one or two other rail crossings within the City, namely at Sixth, Seventh, or Eighth Streets, so that the total number of permitted rail crossings in the City would stay the same. Such a closure would be consistent with CPUC policy to reduce the number of rail crossings in general and is intended to support the efficient transit of trains through the City. Therefore, the City has decided to evaluate in the EIR the potential closure of one rail crossing at either Sixth, Seventh or Eighth Street, in the event that the CPUC would not approve a crossing at Jennings Avenue without a simultaneous closure of another crossing.