Transportation Commission hosts workshop on 2027 ATP Submittable portal; staff walk applicants through account setup, forms and deadlines
March 25, 2026 | Transportation Commission, Agencies under Office of the Governor, Executive, California
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The California Transportation Commission hosted a webinar-style workshop to walk applicants through the 2027 Active Transportation Program (ATP) application on the Submittable platform, staff said.
CTC program manager Alica Changenizi led the presentation and introduced Rebecca Light and ATRC staff as the session’s presenters. The workshop covered account creation, portal navigation, the screening form that verifies application type, the three-part application (Part A general questions, Part B narratives, Part C attachments), and operational details for collaborators and submissions. "If you submit your application before the application deadline, you can submit a request to commission staff and we will kick the application back to you and you can add or update whatever it is that you need," Changenizi said, explaining the pre-deadline edit request process.
The guidance matters because the Submittable rollout introduces branching fields, embedded tables and formula-driven fields that many applicants must complete accurately. Rebecca Light told attendees: "The scoring rubrics will be available on the Submittable page as well as the CTC and Caltrans websites by the end of this month." Staff emphasized that required fields (marked with a red asterisk) and certain table cells must be completed to avoid formula errors and submission failures.
Staff recommended that applicants create individual Submittable accounts rather than share a single login and use the platform’s "manage collaborators" feature when multiple staff or consultants will edit an application. The user who initiates the application remains the only account that can submit; collaborators can edit and save but not submit. Changenizi warned that simultaneous edits can overwrite others’ work and advised drafting narrative answers in the Word templates posted on the ATP site, then pasting into Submittable.
On attachments, staff said the download feature returns the application form only; uploaded attachments must be downloaded individually. Letters of support should be combined into one PDF under the designated attachment field. For supplementary materials that do not fit a specific question, applicants may use Attachment K, staff said.
Applicants asked several eligibility and technical questions in the Q&A: consultants may create accounts; scoring rubrics will be posted by month-end; the application went live March 19; autosave runs frequently but applicants should also save manually; and the application deadline is June 22. Staff also confirmed that resubmitting a cycle 7 application requires copying responses into the cycle 8 Word templates (there is no duplicate/resubmit function).
On disadvantaged-community screening, Changenizi advised applicants to try the four main qualifiers included in the application first (median household income, CalEnviroScreen, Healthy Places Index and free/reduced-price meal data). The "other" option may be used to supply alternative federal or regional designations, but applicants receive fewer points via that route and must provide attachments and explanation to support the claim.
Applicants were reminded that Submittable’s technical help center is the first stop for platform troubleshooting; commission and ATRC staff can answer application-content or eligibility questions but will not provide individualized text edits or draft reviews after the call for projects is released. For California Conservation Corps (CCC) requirements, staff said cycle 8 uses a single CCC/LCC form that applicants must complete and attach proof of outreach; failure to show outreach may reduce points.
The commission also invited applicants to serve as ATP evaluators. Staff said evaluator duties include a mandatory three-hour training and five to six weeks of review work, with typical assignments of about nine to 12 applications. At a recent CTC meeting staff shared a fund estimate of roughly $619 million for cycle 8.
The workshop materials — presentation slides, Word templates and the recording — will be posted to the commission’s ATP website; staff said they expect to have the recording and slide materials available by next week. The session closed with staff contact information and guidance on where to find application checklists and prior successful applications for reference.
CTC program manager Alica Changenizi led the presentation and introduced Rebecca Light and ATRC staff as the session’s presenters. The workshop covered account creation, portal navigation, the screening form that verifies application type, the three-part application (Part A general questions, Part B narratives, Part C attachments), and operational details for collaborators and submissions. "If you submit your application before the application deadline, you can submit a request to commission staff and we will kick the application back to you and you can add or update whatever it is that you need," Changenizi said, explaining the pre-deadline edit request process.
The guidance matters because the Submittable rollout introduces branching fields, embedded tables and formula-driven fields that many applicants must complete accurately. Rebecca Light told attendees: "The scoring rubrics will be available on the Submittable page as well as the CTC and Caltrans websites by the end of this month." Staff emphasized that required fields (marked with a red asterisk) and certain table cells must be completed to avoid formula errors and submission failures.
Staff recommended that applicants create individual Submittable accounts rather than share a single login and use the platform’s "manage collaborators" feature when multiple staff or consultants will edit an application. The user who initiates the application remains the only account that can submit; collaborators can edit and save but not submit. Changenizi warned that simultaneous edits can overwrite others’ work and advised drafting narrative answers in the Word templates posted on the ATP site, then pasting into Submittable.
On attachments, staff said the download feature returns the application form only; uploaded attachments must be downloaded individually. Letters of support should be combined into one PDF under the designated attachment field. For supplementary materials that do not fit a specific question, applicants may use Attachment K, staff said.
Applicants asked several eligibility and technical questions in the Q&A: consultants may create accounts; scoring rubrics will be posted by month-end; the application went live March 19; autosave runs frequently but applicants should also save manually; and the application deadline is June 22. Staff also confirmed that resubmitting a cycle 7 application requires copying responses into the cycle 8 Word templates (there is no duplicate/resubmit function).
On disadvantaged-community screening, Changenizi advised applicants to try the four main qualifiers included in the application first (median household income, CalEnviroScreen, Healthy Places Index and free/reduced-price meal data). The "other" option may be used to supply alternative federal or regional designations, but applicants receive fewer points via that route and must provide attachments and explanation to support the claim.
Applicants were reminded that Submittable’s technical help center is the first stop for platform troubleshooting; commission and ATRC staff can answer application-content or eligibility questions but will not provide individualized text edits or draft reviews after the call for projects is released. For California Conservation Corps (CCC) requirements, staff said cycle 8 uses a single CCC/LCC form that applicants must complete and attach proof of outreach; failure to show outreach may reduce points.
The commission also invited applicants to serve as ATP evaluators. Staff said evaluator duties include a mandatory three-hour training and five to six weeks of review work, with typical assignments of about nine to 12 applications. At a recent CTC meeting staff shared a fund estimate of roughly $619 million for cycle 8.
The workshop materials — presentation slides, Word templates and the recording — will be posted to the commission’s ATP website; staff said they expect to have the recording and slide materials available by next week. The session closed with staff contact information and guidance on where to find application checklists and prior successful applications for reference.
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