City of Mill Valley's Community Meeting on the Downtown Project on Jan. 28, 2020.
What’s the road map for a $2 million, much-needed overhaul of downtown Mill Valley sewers, sidewalks and streets, all while doing everything possible to avoid adverse impacts on parking and access during the most critically important time of the year for retail sales?
City of Mill Valley officials and its consultants at Harris & Associates sought to outline their plan at a Jan. 28th Community Meeting at the Mill Valley Community Center, and while it was clear that there were myriad potential obstacles for the project to finish on schedule, all agreed that sustained, robust communication about the project’s progress and impacts was vital.
The City is readying its plans for 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.
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 below, 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).
City of Mill Valley officials and its consultants at Harris & Associates sought to outline their plan at a Jan. 28th Community Meeting at the Mill Valley Community Center, and while it was clear that there were myriad potential obstacles for the project to finish on schedule, all agreed that sustained, robust communication about the project’s progress and impacts was vital.
The City is readying its plans for 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.
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 below, 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).
Ahmed A. Aly, the City’s project manager, said City officials are pursuing a number of options to identify temporary parking to supplement the parking that will be lost during the project, including private lots like Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, the Lee Lum lot behind Playa, and the 37 new Employee Parking spaces along the Parkway portion of Miller Avenue.
“We would want the city to step up and offer free parking to keep people coming into town during this time,” Famous4 owner Larry “the Hat” Lautzker said.
City officials said they were exploring the community’s appetite for some low-noise work at night-time downtown to shorten the project’s timeline. The project’s Design Advisory Committee will meet again in mid-February, and the City Council is expected to review the contractor’s bid for approval on Feb. 20.
“This is a very complicated project and there are definitely going to be unforeseen conditions,” Public Works Director Andrew Poster said. “We ask that you exercise a little bit of caution and a dose of reality that this is going to be a challenge and there may be some parking impacts.”
“We request that we are notified about any changes in the schedule, as soon as possible, as the schedule changes,” said Donna Seager, co-owner of the Seager Gray Gallery on Throckmorton Avenue.
MORE INFO ON THE DOWNTOWN PROJECT.
“We would want the city to step up and offer free parking to keep people coming into town during this time,” Famous4 owner Larry “the Hat” Lautzker said.
City officials said they were exploring the community’s appetite for some low-noise work at night-time downtown to shorten the project’s timeline. The project’s Design Advisory Committee will meet again in mid-February, and the City Council is expected to review the contractor’s bid for approval on Feb. 20.
“This is a very complicated project and there are definitely going to be unforeseen conditions,” Public Works Director Andrew Poster said. “We ask that you exercise a little bit of caution and a dose of reality that this is going to be a challenge and there may be some parking impacts.”
“We request that we are notified about any changes in the schedule, as soon as possible, as the schedule changes,” said Donna Seager, co-owner of the Seager Gray Gallery on Throckmorton Avenue.
MORE INFO ON THE DOWNTOWN PROJECT.