Sausalito officials are considering redesigned parking and pedestrian amenities around Caledonia Street.<\/p>\n
The focus emerged during the City Council meeting on Tuesday after staff proposed expanding a traffic study on how to offset the removal of 22 parking spaces. Assembly Bill 413, a law that bars parking spaces within 20 feet of most crosswalks, took effect on Jan. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n
The discussion began with\u00a0a staff proposal to add $30,000 for a design consultant to augment a $34,860 traffic study that was approved last July but not undertaken.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaledonia Street has parking on both sides, which will be impacted by the strict implementation of AB 413,\u201d said Kevin McGowan, the public works director.<\/p>\n
Parking could be reconfigured on Pine Street and Bonita Street to offset the losses on Caledonia Street, he said.<\/p>\n
A string of speakers, including Caledonia Street business owners and local architects, urged the council to put urban designers in charge \u2014 not traffic engineers \u2014 even if the near-term solution is painting intersection curbs red and adding diagonal parking spaces on nearby streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s take this one opportunity that we have to do it right,\u201d Mayor Steven Woodside said. \u201cWe would miss an opportunity if all we did was an engineering solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever plan we support isn\u2019t going to be necessarily implemented overnight,\u201d Councilmember Ian Sobieski said. \u201cBut if we have phase one of such an effort be the parking mitigation, and we have a plan for how we could evolve \u2026 then we can have a Caledonia Street and its environment that is improved for the residents, the businesses, visitors, and is safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Council members asked if other controls, such as flashing crosswalks or lower speed limits, could satisfy the state mandate. The city attorney said no.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Sausalito has been resurfacing, restriping and upgrading pavement and crosswalks on Bridgeway. Numerous commenters said those improvements are unappealing and urged the council to take a different approach to Caledonia Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we can all agree that Bridgeway is somewhat lackluster, the design and overall experience,\u201d said Terry Lang, owner of Tivoli Decor on Caledonia Street. \u201cCaledonia is different. It has character, charm and a real sense of community. And this is an opportunity to build on that, not destroy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in favor of public safety and a safer Caledonia Street,\u201d said Joseph Roland, owner of the J. Roland Salon on Caledonia Street. \u201cI\u2019m here to voice and urge the City Council to expand the staff\u2019s current \u2026 proposal and vote for a more comprehensive architectural landscape urban design study.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA larger plan that incorporates the entire neighborhood, the traffic flow, beautification, everything involved that engages all stakeholders would be in our best interest,\u201d said Adam Driver, owner of Driver\u2019s Market and Deli at Caledonia and Turney streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just paint red in one corner and then expect that it doesn\u2019t ripple through,\u201d said Alex Bleyleben, a member of the Sausalito Economic Development Advisory Committee. \u201cI really appreciate the staff bringing in the proposal to bring in a landscape architect, urban design firm. It still reads a little bit like a traffic engineering study.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Smiley, a landscape architect who lives nearby, said, \u201cI also urge you to prioritize community design as a key component of the effort by making a qualified urban landscape architect the team lead with a traffic signal engineer providing technical support and guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn overly technical design could unintentionally disrupt that balance and harm the various businesses we\u2019re trying to protect,\u201d said Fred Moore, a planning commissioner.<\/p>\n
A handful of commenters chastised the city for not implementing the parking restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to see it studied with an urban design lens, but there\u2019s a stark reality,\u201d Kieran Culligan said. \u201cThere is a state law that we have failed to implement.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGowan suggested he could return in two weeks with drawings and plans to modify parking on nearby streets, which the council members endorsed.<\/p>\n
The panel also authorized $30,000 for the consulting team to redesign the area\u2019s parking and amenities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not delaying making it safer,\u201d Woodside said. \u201cWe\u2019re taking the opportunity to make it safer and much better in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sausalito officials are considering redesigned parking and pedestrian amenities around Caledonia Street. The focus emerged during the City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,181,23,992,100,180,993,266,2426,101,103,102,3624,3625,104,106,105,821],"class_list":{"0":"post-285950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-marin-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newsletter","14":"tag-north-bay","15":"tag-northern-california","16":"tag-parking","17":"tag-san-francisco","18":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","19":"tag-san-francisco-news","20":"tag-sausalito","21":"tag-sausalito-city-council","22":"tag-sf","23":"tag-sf-headlines","24":"tag-sf-news","25":"tag-traffic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}