The Mill Valley City Council this month gave the unanimous green light to a $2 million overhaul of downtown sewers, sidewalks, storm drains and streets, emphasizing the need to work with the MV Chamber and downtown businesses and residents to minimize impacts, particularly those on parking and access for downtown businesses during the most critically important time of the year for retail sales.
The Council approved Phase 1 of the Downtown Project, a multi-year effort that seeks to upgrade the infrastructure in the Downtown area, including roads, sewers, drainage, curb, ramps and more. City officials delayed the project in 2019 in response to serious concerns from business owners about the project’s adverse impact on downtown retailers’ critically important fourth quarter sales. City officials have thus targeted an earlier start to the project in 2020, with work scheduled to begin before the end of May and, with approximately 100 scheduled working days, wrap up by end of August.
At a Jan. 28th community meeting on the project, Daniel Wilkins of Harris & Associates, who has been involved in a number of municipal projects in Mill Valley over the years, explained that the downtown sewer system is “more than 67 years old, and over that span of time, “I&I, or infiltration and inflow of water and debris,” gets into cracks and joints and overloads the system to the point of overflows, one of which occurred in 2008 and caused the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin to pay $2.6 million in fines and fees and mandatory reporting to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Wilkins also noted that the vast majority of the City’s curb ramps don’t comply with ADA regulations and that the roads “have surpassed their expected life and require rehabilitation.”
As described in the diagram above, the sewer system overhaul will occur in different ways on different streets, varying from the most intensive method of open trenching to least impactful “cured in place” pipe installation, or trenchless (indicated with dotted lines in the image below).
A second community meeting on the project is expected in the April/May time frame, around the time the City awards the project to a contractor, Aly said.
"We have to upgrade the infrastructure and the streets and the sewer but we do have to take into account the needs of the businesses and the residents," Councilmember Sashi McEntee said. "It's the downtown – it's a heavily used area and we have to be mindful of that."
MV Chamber Co-Director Paula Reynolds lauded the City's prior meeting on the project, noting that the presentation "was at a granular level that really mattered to our business community."
Project Manager Ahmed Aly noted that the City is exploring alternative parking options to account for the loss of as much of 25 spaces at a time during the project. Those options could include having City employees parking in the Employee Parking spaces on Miller Ave., as well identifying private parking lots that could be used during the project.
"Parking is the major issue for us," Aly said. "We're committed to work with the community and the Chamber and to keep the project moving."
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The Council approved Phase 1 of the Downtown Project, a multi-year effort that seeks to upgrade the infrastructure in the Downtown area, including roads, sewers, drainage, curb, ramps and more. City officials delayed the project in 2019 in response to serious concerns from business owners about the project’s adverse impact on downtown retailers’ critically important fourth quarter sales. City officials have thus targeted an earlier start to the project in 2020, with work scheduled to begin before the end of May and, with approximately 100 scheduled working days, wrap up by end of August.
At a Jan. 28th community meeting on the project, Daniel Wilkins of Harris & Associates, who has been involved in a number of municipal projects in Mill Valley over the years, explained that the downtown sewer system is “more than 67 years old, and over that span of time, “I&I, or infiltration and inflow of water and debris,” gets into cracks and joints and overloads the system to the point of overflows, one of which occurred in 2008 and caused the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin to pay $2.6 million in fines and fees and mandatory reporting to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Wilkins also noted that the vast majority of the City’s curb ramps don’t comply with ADA regulations and that the roads “have surpassed their expected life and require rehabilitation.”
As described in the diagram above, the sewer system overhaul will occur in different ways on different streets, varying from the most intensive method of open trenching to least impactful “cured in place” pipe installation, or trenchless (indicated with dotted lines in the image below).
A second community meeting on the project is expected in the April/May time frame, around the time the City awards the project to a contractor, Aly said.
"We have to upgrade the infrastructure and the streets and the sewer but we do have to take into account the needs of the businesses and the residents," Councilmember Sashi McEntee said. "It's the downtown – it's a heavily used area and we have to be mindful of that."
MV Chamber Co-Director Paula Reynolds lauded the City's prior meeting on the project, noting that the presentation "was at a granular level that really mattered to our business community."
Project Manager Ahmed Aly noted that the City is exploring alternative parking options to account for the loss of as much of 25 spaces at a time during the project. Those options could include having City employees parking in the Employee Parking spaces on Miller Ave., as well identifying private parking lots that could be used during the project.
"Parking is the major issue for us," Aly said. "We're committed to work with the community and the Chamber and to keep the project moving."
MORE INFO.