Updated: Bike Master Plan Approved

The Redondo Beach City Council voted Tuesday to approve the —but instead of calling it a 20-year plan, councilmen decided they wanted to complete it in 12 years.

The vote was 4-0 in favor of the plan. Councilman Bill Brand was absent.

• Previously:

The councilmen also voted unanimously to support the , including the creation of a separate Class 1 cycleway on the western side of Harbor Drive.

The South Bay Bicycle Master Plan covers seven South Bay cities, including the three beach cities. Currently, Redondo, Manhattan and Hermosa beaches have 14.1, 3.2 and 5.1 miles of existing bikeways, respectively. The plan calls for a total of 36.7 miles of bikeways in Redondo Beach at a cost of $1,881,250; 27.4 miles in Manhattan Beach for $1,089,350; and 8.3 miles in Hermosa Beach for $256,850.

It is the only multijurisdictional plan of its kind, consultants have said.

According to Marissa Christiansen, the South Bay Initiative Director for the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition, Redondo Beach already has more than $1.5 million in funds to dedicate to improvements.

The city has also dedicated 10 percent of its Measure R funds—or about $58,000—to making the city more bicycle friendly.

During Thursday night's meeting, which was far shorter than the nearly six hours it took members of the Harbor and Planning commissions to make a decision on the same proposals in September, almost everyone spoke in support of the plan.

"I think this is an amazing step," said Mayor Mike Gin. "[The effort] to get us to this point has been extraordinary."

South Bay Bicycle Coalition Board Member and occasional Patch contributor Joe Galliani commended the Council for "showing leadership and courage" in its decision to commit the Measure R funds.

"I couldn't be prouder," he said.

Todd Loewenstein, a member of the Redondo Beach Board of Education, also expressed support for the plan, though he noted that he wasn't at the meeting in an official capacity.

"The school district has programs that we have put into place for walking to school, biking to school … so we think that the Master Bike Plan will actually help in our efforts in terms of fighting childhood obesity," Loewenstein said.

The only sticking point of the evening concerned the proposed cycleway along Harbor Drive. The cycleway would be a Class 1 bike path, meaning that it is a two-way bike path separated from the street by a physical barrier. In this case, the physical barrier would be a five-foot median and a row of parked cars.

Dean Francois, a member of the South Bay Bicycle Coalition, was vehement in his opposition to the proposed path.

"We want to make it clear that there's just a lot of cyclists that don't think really that's the right way to go," he said, later adding, "I'm trying not to make it into a battle. I support the master plan. I think it should be changed in this fashion … these are serious issues."

Francois was the only person to speak out agains the cyclepath on Harbor Drive.

"Don't fall for fear-mongering and don't fall for claims that this is so unsafe and so dangerous because those claims have no validity," Galliani said during the public comment portion of the Vitality City Livability Plan hearing. "The Harbor Drive plan by Vitality City may not be perfect, but … [it] is a good idea."

City staff also noted that there have been no reported collisions within the past five years at any of the driveways that cross the two-way cycletrack along Catalina Avenue.

The Vitality City presentation also included a recommendation that the city remove the stop signs along the North Redondo Beach Bike Route—an action that some of the councilmen weren't comfortable with.

Nevertheless Councilman Steven Diels reminded his colleagues that they weren't approving a specific series of new projects; rather, they were approving a conceptual plan. Specific projects will have to go through the various commissions and get City Council approval.

The Hermosa Beach City Council will consider the plan next week.