By John Nickerson
Marin Independent Journal
A dustup over a traffic signal and new lanes at a commute-choked Marinwood intersection have prompted county officials to schedule a meeting to clear the air.
Trouble began during a recent discussion with civic and county leaders about Highway 101 commuters using Las Gallinas Avenue.
At the meeting, Supervisor John Kress and Farhad Mansourian, chief assistant director of the county's Department of Public Works, said a project to put new computerized signals at the Las Gallinas-Lucas Valley Road intersection was funded, designed and nearly ready for construction.
Kress said public support was in the offing for the project, which with re-striping adds another turn lane from southbound Las Gallinas and gives Lucas Valley two lanes running in each direction through the intersection.
But the intersection redesign came as surprise to Carol Brandt, organizer for Marinwood Associates for Sensible Planning.
After leaving the meeting, Brandt said she came up with a lot of other people who didn't know about the project.
One of those people was Fran Rowley, president of the Marinwood Association, who said he doesn't like the intersection redesign.
"We should have been informed that this thing was planned and we didn't get any word at all," said Rowley, who heads the 30-year-old watchdog group that he said represents 1,600 households.
San Rafael's Mont Marin Homeowners Association, which helps organize homeowners just south of the Lucas Valley Road-Las Gallinas intersection, also was left out of the planning and design loop. Association board member Katherine Miller said her group representing about 280 homeowners should have been notified.
"I think they could have done a better job at gathering community input for this job, particularly because this is a key intersection," Brandt said.
Supervisor Kress said he and county aides were engaged in "intense communication with established agencies and community representatives," and he rejected suggestions that the intersection redesign was already decided. "There's no such thing as a done deal," Kress said curtly.
Mansourian presented letters showing that public works officials notified the Lucas Valley Homeowners Association and Marinwood Community Services District. Ron Marinoff, member of the Lucas Valley Homeowners Association Zoning and Planning Committee, said Kress addressed 50 people at an association board meeting in early January and no one objected to the redesign.
The two associations support the project, so long as the four lanes at the intersection do not lead to the rest of Lucas Valley becoming a four-lane highway.
Kress also said a signal could be installed at Miller Creek Road at Lucas Valley around the same time, if the community wants it.
But adding one more turn lane onto eastbound Lucas Valley from Las Gallinas, which Mansourian said will move more traffic through the intersection and free up the morning traffic jam in front of Miller Creek School, struck Brandt as a curious approach to problems caused by commuters trying to avoid Highway 101.
"Once people get a clue that it is going to be faster on Las Gallinas, there will be more exit jumpers. We don't need to make it more convenient for bypass commuters, we need to discourage it," Brandt said.
But Mansourian said the decades-old configuration of the intersection, which leaves cars backed up beyond Miller Creek School, has done little to discourage commuters from coming down Las Gallinas, even though the street is bumper to bumper in the morning. Besides, he said, the two left turn lanes will force more people onto eastbound Lucas Valley and back to the highway.
"Our hope is to force them back to the freeway instead of going through the communities south of Las Gallinas," Mansourian said. "Should we do nothing and stick our heads in the sand? If that's what the community wants, we will do it. We are here to serve the public. We are not here to tell you what's good for you, or force an improvement on you," Mansourian added.
Brandt also objected to Lucas Valley becoming four lanes at the intersection.
"When someone says four lanes, it is always a precursor to something else," said Brandt, who fears that one day soon officials will try to widen Lucas Valley.
"The myth that we are widening Lucas Valley to four lanes is exactly that - a myth," Mansourian said.
The intersection design meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. April 4 at the Marinwood Community Center, 775 Miller Creek Road.
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Saturday, February 4, 2012