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Ann Becker
Special Community Meeting: Eliminating auto lanes on Magnolia Avenue in Larkspur
250 Doherty Drive
Larkspur, California
6:30 PM PT
If you’ve recently traveled Magnolia Avenue between Bon Air Road and Dartmouth Drive, you’ve seen new pavement and markings. This is the first sign that most of us have had that Larkspur is planning to reduce that section to one vehicle lane in each direction, in order to make the median wider.
Right now, Magnolia Avenue is not busy. But as soon as school resumes, it will be very congested in the morning and afternoon, when students of Redwood High School, Hall Middle School, Marin Primary, St. Patrick’s, etc. travel this main artery. And that’s not all. Starting next year, Sir Francis Drake Boulevard will be torn up for reconfiguration, repaving, and an MMWD pipe replacement, so drivers from Ross and Kentfield will use Magnolia as an alternate route. This looming area-wide traffic snarl is exacerbated by multi-year roadwork on Bon Air, which will include three periods of total closure. Narrowing the one remaining two-lane section of Magnolia down to one lane in each direction adds unnecessarily to the coming gridlock.
Thanks to Kevin Haroff, Vice Mayor of Larkspur, there will be a special meeting to inform the community about Larkspur’s plans to narrow Magnolia Avenue.
Come one, come all! This is your chance to speak up!
| Official post from Larkspur: The meeting will share information about the Magnolia Avenue Water Quality Facilities Project’s proposal to eliminate one of two existing travel lanes in each direction on Magnolia Avenue between Bon Air Road and Dartmouth Drive/ Skylark Drive. Staff will also provide an update on the Bon Air Bridge Replacement project, for which the Magnolia Avenue project is a mitigation measure. The Bon Air Bridge Replacement Project’s Section 401 Permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board includes a requirement to compensate for the impervious surfaces on and around the new bridge with low impact development facilities on Magnolia Avenue. The Project Team investigated and designed a series of improvements to Magnolia Avenue to meet this requirement, including replacing the second travel lanes with landscaping. A traffic analysis was completed to assess the impact the lane reduction would have on traffic. The Magnolia Avenue project is scheduled to take place next year. With the recent paving work on northbound Magnolia Avenue to improve the road, the City paved only the one lane scheduled to remain after next year’s Magnolia Avenue project so as not to spend money paving a lane scheduled to be removed. Next week, this northbound segment of Magnolia will be striped for one travel lane between Bon Air Road and Dartmouth Drive/Skylark Drive, but the ultimate removal of the second lane of asphalt is not scheduled until the Magnolia Avenue project begins next year. Until work begins on the Magnolia Avenue project, the City proposes to use temporary traffic paint in lieu of permanent thermoplastic striping on this segment, and monitor traffic conditions under the one northbound lane configuration, including a follow-up analysis of traffic in the fall when school resumes. Staff will continue to engage the public and solicit feedback on performance of the one lane configuration before ultimately finalizing the project plans for bid next year. The City will be adding information and details on the project to the City of Larkspur website (www.cityoflarkspur.org) ahead of the meeting. Residents with questions can contact the City at 415-496-2401, or email communications@cityoflarkspur.org |
- For info: http://bonairbridge.com/key-elements/
- To sign up for updates: http://bonairbridge.com/sign-up-for-updates/
| From Julian Skinner, newly appointed Public Works Director (jskinner@cityoflarkspur.org): The Magnolia lane reduction is part of the environmental impact mitigation for the Bon Air Bridge project. Because we are widening the bridge, one of the environmental impacts of the bridge project is that it will create more impervious area. As a mitigation of this impact, the Regional Water Quality Control Board required Larkspur to identify areas for stormwater treatment similar to the project area. Staff worked with the Board to identify areas where stormwater treatment could be implement to mitigate the bridge project impacts. The Magnolia Avenue corridor was identified as the only viable candidate for this mitigation. The mitigation includes reworking existing green spaces and ditches along the Magnolia corridor; however, these areas were not sufficient to fully mitigate the bridge impacts, and removal of existing asphalt paved area was needed to meet the mitigation requirements. This proposed asphalt removal on Magnolia requires elimination of one of the travel lanes in each direction on Magnolia between Bon Air Road and Dartmouth Drive. As part of the project development for this mitigation project, a traffic study was conducted by Parisi Associates that concluded the two lanes provided little benefit to the movement of traffic. [Editor’s note: Parisi Associates are also working on the controversial Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Rehab. Project.] |
Organization: City of Larkspur