Council Moves Forward With California Avenue Makeover

The Palo Alto City Council moved ahead with plans to beautify California Avenue with street-scaping, improved bicycle lanes and several new parking spaces, despite worries from many merchants that 18 months of construction will hurt their income. 

In a 9-0 vote Monday night, the council approved a "negative declaration" and started a $1.725 million capitol-improvement account to cover the cost of transitioning California Avenue between El Camino Real and the train tracks from four to two lanes, build close to 100 parking space and add 17 parking spaces. A Metropolitan Transportation Commission grant will cover $1.175 million. The study claims that the project's traffic impacts will be "negligible" as a result of the lane reductions.

Overall, the plan calls on similar designs to Castro Street in Mountain and Menlo Park's Santa Cruz Avenue.

With the study approved, city staff can move into the design and bidding phase. The council also directed staff to provide cost and time estimates for widening California Avenue's sidewalks.

Dozens of people, many from surrounding neighborhoods, spoke in favor of the project, comparing California Avenue to a 1950s street in dire need of a facelift. 

"I feel that California Avenue is in need of investment," said Peter Godfrey. " We should enthusiastically support this so we don't miss out on this chance to invest in California Avenue."

With some California Avenue merchants up in arms recently about the construction process, staff told the council Monday that there will be a construction mitigation plan ready before the bidding phase begins.

"We are going to work closely with the merchants to mitigate the impacts," said Tommy Fehrenbach, Palo Alto's director of economic development. 

Former Councilman Jack Morton told the council the plan could lead to serious traffic issues, because it has very few cross routes, such as University Avenue or Castro Street in Mountain View. Another California Avenue merchant, William Ross, said the council was forcing some merchants into a "position of opposition." A small group of them last week went to a Metropolitan Transportation Commission meeting to complain about the project and the grant.

"That's why we went to the (commission)," Ross told the council. "We weren't being heard."

The council first approved the project in 2009, and the transportation commission approved it last month.