Third Street Rehabilitation – Project History

Third Street - Proposed Cross-sections from Marquard Avenue to Miramar Avenue

One of the major improvements the City would like to make as a part of this project is a separated bicycle connection from Marquard Avenue to Miramar Avenue, in order to achieve the complete street goals. This would fill a gap in the Cross-Marin Bikeway that is supported by the communities along the Miracle Mile corridor. To the west, this bicycle facility would connect to the existing Greenfield Bicycle Boulevard. To the east, this would connect to a future First Street Bicycle Boulevard/Safe Routes to School pathway.  This connection can be found in the San Rafael Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan as well. An unfortunate outcome of building the bicycle connection is the likely result in the loss of a few on-street parking on the south side of Second-Third Street from Marquard Avenue to Shaver Street. After receiving feedback from the community, the City revised the original concept that removed on-street parking with the concept that is linked below. This concept preserves several on-street parking spaces. The design team is still working through the construction details and the plans will be posted on this webpage as they are developed.

• Proposed Bike Connection
• 2nd Street Interim Connection to West End
• 2nd Street Proposed Parking

Third Street -  Lindaro Intersection

The intersection of Third Street and Lindaro Street is a four-legged, 90-degree intersection, except the north leg serves a city-owned parking lot driveway (versus being a typical street) and there is a stop-controlled side street (Lootens Place) just 60 feet to the west. Historical turning movement counts from 2016 and 2017 indicate 80 vehicles use the driveway during the morning peak hour and 110 vehicles use the driveway during the evening peak hour. In order to “standardize” the intersection of Third Street and Lindaro Street, the project proposal presented at the November 2, 2020 council meeting closed the north leg (parking lot driveway) to vehicles.

After the November 2, 2020 City Council meeting, approximately 13 letters were received and 40 residents and/or business owners signed a petition asking City Council and Staff to reconsider the closure of the Walgreens driveway. The main concern is that they would have to drive further to get to their destinations downtown, resulting in increased vehicle-pedestrian conflicts at adjacent intersections because of the additional turns. Staff met with several residents in the field and reviewed their concerns in detail.

After assessing the concerns from the residents and business owners, staff developed an alternative solution to make the north leg of the city owned parking lot serving Walgreens driveway “exit only”. This would partially or fully meet each of the goals for full closure. The north leg would be narrowed to only accommodate outbound vehicles (shortening the crossing distance for pedestrians) and would be upgraded with accessible ramps to be consistent with a standard street crossing. Both alternatives would move all vehicles destined for the Walgreens parking lot to Lootens Place, which is designed to accommodate trucks and vehicle volumes.

On February 3, 2021, public input for these two alternatives was discussed at the  Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee (BPAC) meeting and received via email to the City’s project contact in early February. Overall, there appeared to be support for the Exit Only approach, in what some BPAC members expressed was a good compromise between all modes of transportation. Currently City Staff plans to proceed with design based on the exit only alternative. We intend to bring this project and the exit only alternative as the recommendation as an Informational Report to Council prior to bidding the project in the Spring. Although this will be the Staff recommendation, the Council is, of course, free to make any changes or even return to the original closure plan should they wish to do so.

For a more detailed description of the alternatives, read the staff report on the Third Street Project for the February 3, 2021 BPAC meeting.