Marin County Bicycle Coalition reps take residents on a tour of the then-new Miller Avenue Streetscape in 2017.
The Mill Valley City Council is set to make a final decision on March 4 on how best to configure a section of Miller Avenue, and it's got plenty to consider: parking, safety, emergency access and a quintet of possible choices.
At the conclusion of the 18-month Miller Avenue Streetscape Project in 2017, the City Council decided to create a pilot project around how best to configure the roadway's Parkway section between Millwood and Willow streets, the area between the Mill Valley Lumber Yard and Mill Valley Music and Critterland Pets.
While the Miller Avenue Streetscape Plan, which the Council adopted in 2011, called for two car lanes in each direction through the Parkway, the segment was re-striped to one lane on each side during construction to allow for additional parking in the area. That decision was driven by the significant impact on available parking during construction, and the extra space on the road for bicyclists with one less lane for cars. The one lane pilot project provided 65 parking spaces in the Parkway, counterbalancing the overall loss of 65 parking spaces on Miller as part of the Streetscape project.
In weighing all of the options, City staff is giving the Council five choices for the Parkway configuration, ranging from turning the road back to two lanes in each direction and completely eliminating parking on both sides to keep it exactly as is. Staff's recommendation seeks to split the difference, maintaining one lane of travel on each side but eliminating all of the outbound parking – 37 spaces – gained in the pilot setup.
The City's environmental analysis has determined that there are no significant impacts associated with the one lane configuration, and its transportation study concluded that, for daily use of Miller Avenue, the one lane configuration has not negatively impacted traffic congestion, safety, travel speeds or cut-through traffic. The City public safety officials have advised that the one lane roadway configuration accommodates emergency and potential evacuation operations, and that the one lane configuration is wide enough to accommodate two streams of traffic in the same direction.
The city's study of parking within the Parkway section concluded that parking in that section is occupied 82 percent during the day and the outbound curbside spaces that would be removed by the recommended option are occupied 73 percent during that time.
The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors weighed in on the issue, encouraging the Council to maintain the existing configuration for a variety of reasons, including the potential unintended consequence of driving employee parking into the local neighborhoods and discouraging consumers from coming to lower Miller Avenue and downtown.
"Additionally, we encourage you to consider restricting most of the 37 outbound spots to those with Employee Parking stickers, whose owners we can track if necessary," The Chamber noted in its letter to the Council. "We note that at this time neither the former funeral home/childcare center on Miller nor the restaurant at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard are open.
The 411: For more info on this issue, read the staff report here. Send your comments to cityclerk@cityofmillvalley.org.
At the conclusion of the 18-month Miller Avenue Streetscape Project in 2017, the City Council decided to create a pilot project around how best to configure the roadway's Parkway section between Millwood and Willow streets, the area between the Mill Valley Lumber Yard and Mill Valley Music and Critterland Pets.
While the Miller Avenue Streetscape Plan, which the Council adopted in 2011, called for two car lanes in each direction through the Parkway, the segment was re-striped to one lane on each side during construction to allow for additional parking in the area. That decision was driven by the significant impact on available parking during construction, and the extra space on the road for bicyclists with one less lane for cars. The one lane pilot project provided 65 parking spaces in the Parkway, counterbalancing the overall loss of 65 parking spaces on Miller as part of the Streetscape project.
In weighing all of the options, City staff is giving the Council five choices for the Parkway configuration, ranging from turning the road back to two lanes in each direction and completely eliminating parking on both sides to keep it exactly as is. Staff's recommendation seeks to split the difference, maintaining one lane of travel on each side but eliminating all of the outbound parking – 37 spaces – gained in the pilot setup.
The City's environmental analysis has determined that there are no significant impacts associated with the one lane configuration, and its transportation study concluded that, for daily use of Miller Avenue, the one lane configuration has not negatively impacted traffic congestion, safety, travel speeds or cut-through traffic. The City public safety officials have advised that the one lane roadway configuration accommodates emergency and potential evacuation operations, and that the one lane configuration is wide enough to accommodate two streams of traffic in the same direction.
The city's study of parking within the Parkway section concluded that parking in that section is occupied 82 percent during the day and the outbound curbside spaces that would be removed by the recommended option are occupied 73 percent during that time.
The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors weighed in on the issue, encouraging the Council to maintain the existing configuration for a variety of reasons, including the potential unintended consequence of driving employee parking into the local neighborhoods and discouraging consumers from coming to lower Miller Avenue and downtown.
"Additionally, we encourage you to consider restricting most of the 37 outbound spots to those with Employee Parking stickers, whose owners we can track if necessary," The Chamber noted in its letter to the Council. "We note that at this time neither the former funeral home/childcare center on Miller nor the restaurant at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard are open.
The 411: For more info on this issue, read the staff report here. Send your comments to cityclerk@cityofmillvalley.org.