Oct 1

Oct 1 The Gualala Town Plan, Part 3

For two decades, the Gualala Town Plan promised to make Highway 1 a “scenic element” of the historic downtown. Yet over the past year, the Streetscape planning process has devolved into a confusing and divisive mess that some say could transform Gualala’s Main Street into a strip mall.

The good news is that it’s easy to fix this right now—if enough people choose Streetscape options that fit within the Town Plan at an upcoming Caltrans Town Hall. The truly horrible news is that if they choose options outside the plan, they could easily trigger another decade of divisive debate over Town Plan amendments. That would delay long-awaited safety improvements.

Caltrans has tentatively scheduled the virtual Town Hall for Wednesday, October 28, though that may slip into November. To get a link to the Gualala Town Hall (or a paper ballot), readers must contact Caltrans now at (707) 445-6600 or email Bonnie.Kuhn@dot.ca.gov whether they live in Gualala or any neighboring area.

The agency has dropped a controversial plan to send post card notifications to 2,288 Sea Ranchers but to only about half of Gualala and to no other neighboring communities. The reversal came after the Lighthouse Peddler reported on the draft plan last month.

Caltrans has remained tight-lipped on the options it will present at the meeting, but it has hinted in emails that some choices may stray from Gualala Town Plan requirements. At last fall’s Town Hall, Caltrans offered similar options without making it clear they would likely require amendments to the Gualala Town Plan.

For example, if Town Hall attendees choose to include a fourth lane for on-highway parking, or to move a bike lane from the shoulder so that it shares a traffic lane, they will, in effect, be asking to amend the Town Plan. And the Town Plan is very, very difficult to amend. It took Mendocino a decade to amend its plan.

Easily Avoided Delay

Amending the Gualala Town Plan would require time-sucking hearings by the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG), Gualala Municipal Advisory Council (GMAC), Mendocino County planners, county Planning Commission, county Board of Supervisors, and the famously restrictive California Coastal Commission. The same panels took many years to approve the current Town Plan in 2002, and it would likely take at least as long to change it.

Again, this worst-case scenario is easy to avoid right now. The two sides on Streetscape have relatively minor disagreements, mostly about whether there should be two lanes of on-highway parking through town, or just a single lane that could be used for turn-pockets and interim parking. Keep in mind, almost all motorists park off the highway already.

Obviously, that difference clearly isn’t worth a decade of debate. In August, GMAC urged Caltrans to apply a three-lane design as required by law. It also advised MCOG to honor its existing agreement to provide interim parking at the Surf Center while its owner builds an off-highway parking lot.

7 Simple Steps

While Caltrans hasn’t revealed exactly what it’ll be asking at the Town Hall, we can make some educated guesses. Here are seven easy things all of us can do to fix this very broken process:

1. REGISTER FOR THE TOWN HALL. Right now: send an email to Bonnie.Kuhn@DOT.CA.GOV and tell her you want to participate in the Gualala Town Hall, either online or by mail. Feel free to share your opinion on the project with Caltrans. Then be sure to attend the meeting or fill out forms.

2. CHOOSE THREE LANES, NOT FOUR. The Town Plan requires three lanes, but the last Town Hall resulted in calls for a fourth lane for parking through town. That is not only unneeded, but very expensive—probably upwards of $15,000 per space. Because it violates the Town Plan, a fourth lane would trigger the lengthy amendment process.

3. INSIST ON SEPARATED BIKE LANES. Bike lanes on shoulders mean that kids and seniors won’t have to share a traffic lane with cement mixers and timber trucks. “Sharrows,” or shared lanes, would sustain current dangers. The Town Plan requires a “Bike Lane/Shoulder.” Sharrows would maintain hazards and require an amendment.

4. REQUIRE LANDSCAPED SIDEWALKS. If you put a concrete sidewalk next to the asphalt roadway, you have nothing but pavement from businesses on one side to those on the other—like a strip mall. The Town Plan requires landscaped sidewalks. You should, too.

5. WHAT ABOUT RETAINING WALLS? Gualala is built on a slope, so some retaining walls are inevitable. Caltrans can minimize them by building three lanes instead of four. Native landscaping will reduce any visual impact. Trading off landscaping, separated bike lanes, or sidewalks over would add years of delay.

6. SIGN THE PETITION: Go to Change.org/SaveGualala to support the three-lane concept. While there, add a short comment. Caltrans and MCOG will read and consider every word.

7. TELL YOUR NEIGHBORS. Spread the news. Tell friends from Manchester to Annapolis to register for the Gualala Town Hall, to sign the petition, and to support the three-lane plan for downtown Gualala.

NOTE: image below shows 3-lane traffic design with bike lanes.

Tom Murphy is Vice Chair of the Gualala Municipal Advisory Council and a Member of its Gualala Community Action Plan (Streetscape) Committee. You can reach him at GMAC95445@Gmail.com to share your thoughts or volunteer to help.