Templeton-Atascadero Pathway

Atascadero, California

Atascadero, California is home to almost nearly 29,000 residents, making it the second-largest city in San Luis Obispo County. Its open space, trees and hillsides, and large lot sizes make this city, and the nearby community of Templeton, an ideal place for outdoor activities.

Currently, there is no continuous off-road connection between Templeton and Atascadero. Cyclists and pedestrians must use disjointed pathways and cross heavily traveled roadways such as the busy Highway 101 – creating risks to both pedestrians and motorists.

The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments needed to create better connectivity and safer conditions for non-motorized forms of transportation – and an optional route for those seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. But the solution, the Templeton-Atascadero Pathway (TAP) project, carried a price tag of well over three million dollars.

Michael Baker’s grant writing team assisted the Council of Governments with research to discover if TAP met the requirements of any grant funding programs and determined that Caltrans’ 2017 Active Transportation Program provided a strong possibility.

The Michael Baker team worked with the Council of Governments to create a strategy, write the grant, develop an engineer’s checklist, and coordinate letters of support to procure the funds from the Program. As a result, Caltrans selected the TAP project for capital funding in the amount of $3,288,000.

The project is currently in the final design and engineering phase. Soon, residents and visitors in San Luis Obispo County will enjoy jogging, walking or biking on the idyllic Templeton-Atascadero Pathway.