Multi-use pathway moves forward
By Jessica Mullins
Published: Tuesday, July 6, 2010 5:49 PM PDT
The
Sausalito City Council pushed for a
resident public workshop after receiving a progress report on multi-use
pathway plans.
Soon officials will be creating the first draft of
a plan detailing how a multi-use pathway could make its way north
through
Sausalito, extending from downtown to Gate 6 Road.
A
multi-use path is an off-road hard-surfaced path separated from car
traffic by an open space or barrier, which has been designated for
public use for human-powered travel or movement — mainly, pedestrians
and cyclists. There are different pathway options that separate cyclists
from pedestrians and provide different widths for each right of way.
How wide the path would be, and its configuration, haven’t been decided
yet.
The City Council’s update last week on the status of the
project was meant to also serve as a public workshop, but the council
said it wanted something with more resident involvement. There were
about a dozen people in the council chambers attending the discussion at
the June 29 meeting.
While the idea of creating some kind of path through northern
Sausalito has been around for decades, a federal grant for the
Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program supplied the impetus needed to
begin planning.
A $25 million grant was first awarded to Marin
County in 2006 for the pilot program. After six months of review, the
Marin Board of Supervisors awarded
Sausalito $100,000 to develop a plan
for a multi-use path between the ferry landing and Gate 6 Road.
The
Sausalito City Council awarded a contract to Alta Planning in March
2009, stressing that Alta should focus on routes along
Bridgeway instead
of shoreline routes going through the
Marinship.
Last week,
planning officials pointed out problematic areas they have been
studying, and changes that may be necessary, such as decreasing the size
of Parking Lot 4 (to which the council had a cool reaction).
The
council had approved a stakeholder advisory committee, with appointed
members including
Sausalito residents and a representative from the
Marin County Bicycle Coalition. City Engineer Todd
Teachout said some of
the committee’s members have not been attending the regular meetings.
Council
member Carolyn Ford asked what the city could do to control those who
travel too fast on pathways. The council could adopt laws, such as a
speed limit for bikes.
During discussion, council member Herb
Weiner said it’s
essential to continue the pathway effort because “we’re going to see
more and more bikes and pedestrians.”
Mayor Jonathon Leone said
Sausalito obviously needs a pathway because “there’s no safe place to
ride.” He said he has to take his children to
Tiburon to teach them how
to ride their bikes.
Local architect Michael Rex spoke in support
of the project and asked the council to consider scheduling a public
workshop.
Resident Pat
Zuch said she was concerned about the fate
of many old trees on
Bridgeway, but that she wasn’t opposed to creating
a pathway.
David Hoffman,
MCBC director of planning, said what’s
been accomplished so far shows what could be done in
Sausalito despite
many constraints and limitations.
Resident Bob Mitchell, who
attended all the advisory meetings, said he felt the advisory committee
had been “overtaken” by bicycle advocates, and felt he hadn’t been shown
all the data.
Resident Bonnie
MacGregor, who was one of the
Sausalito residents appointed to the stakeholder advisory committee,
said the plans had all been discussed in great detail at the committee’s
meetings. “I have seen almost every diagram presented tonight. I don’t
know whether Mr. Mitchell was so busy interrupting the meetings he
didn’t see it.”
Contact Jessica Mullins at
jmullins@marinscope.com.
