"OUR" Vision for Redwood Boulevard

Our Vision For Redwood Boulevard

There was an outreach meeting last evening at the Novato City Hall.  The public was invited—very refreshing idea.  The subject was –“Let’s Design Redwood Boulevard”.  Bob Brown was the moderator and gave a short dissertation on the purpose of our gathering.  There were a few other city officials but being new at this I neglected to jot down their names and I cannot find an agenda on line to refer to for this meeting—my apologies.

Mr. Brown clarified that we were not there to discuss money or how we planned to pay for any of the ideas presented.  Our mission was to come up with a vision of what we thought Redwood should look like.  The means to implement this “vision” would be another discussion at some other time.  The thought being that having a plan is far better than not having a plan—and allowing chaotic development to ensue.  Having put in a few years as a Scout in this town---I quite agree---“being prepared” is much preferred to being the victim of random events.

The floor was then given to David P. a “Street Scape Engineer”, with stellar credentials.  David and his power point took about an hour to shower us with pretty much every  possible option that could be incorporated in to a street design.  While this was very good as an education—it was a little overwhelming for some of the audience.  I considered it well presented and appropriate to the subject.  It was a “Helicopter” view of design possibilities.

Once David was complete, a questionnaire was handed out and Q & A ensued for a short while.  Some of the subjects voiced were—How are we going to pay for this?---Can we have a walkover?---Why don’t we just let the Developer of the parcels plan the design?---There are options to the Council’s opinion that a Grand Bus Station is needed at “Block 1”—we could make it “safe” now…

The questionnaire had about 10 subject’s  and a blank scale of 1 to 10—our job was to designate how important the subject was.  Some of the subjects were –“Pedestrians---Bicycles---parking---Lighting (written in).

Mr. Brown then wrapped up the meeting with—“Come to the next meeting in June and we will have a plan for you to see.—thank you –Good night.

Now I, being the novice here, thought that we were just getting started!  I had jotted down a few of David’s options that I thought should be incorporated in to the design.  I was prepared to discuss and defend or at least explain my preferences.  That didn’t happen--,  maybe next time.

So I am happy that I attended but left a little deflated with the process—I am asking myself if we, the citizens that care enough to show up, are not asked for our opinion on the menu of items that could be incorporated  or discarded then why are we there?  Every designer I have ever worked with sorely needed the input of the client—are not we the client?  David will surely need guidelines to wrap his design around.  Who is going to give him those guidelines if not the client?   The larger parameters of design need to be voiced.  I can only assume that if these decisions are not going to be shared with the public –then City Staff will dictate the design elements or leave it to the Engineer and then do a a ”yes” “no” procedure.

The questionnaire listed pretty much the items that were a given—pedestrians, vehicles, bikes, lighting---of course those elements will be in the design---how important do we think they are—we each checked a blank and I am sure they will be tallied.  The design elements that we were not asked about concern me the most—Shall the utilities be underground?  Where will the bike path be, edge of road or in the super wide median?—Should there be a hiking path? Should it be in the median?  Should we entertain roundabouts (Contrary to average opinion the statistics support them as safer and carbon/ green friendly).  What kind of pedestrian safety features should we employ?   Should the Grand bus station be eliminated and bus stops employed  (at a 4 million dollar saving)?  Should the Train Station location be revisited? (since the basis for the location decision has evaporated).  These and I am sure more salient decision I think could use a little citizen input.  We will be presented a plan in June—we have no idea what elements will take precedence.  Are we to have the designer design in a vacuum and then shoot down ideas or "hopefully" congratulate him? 

I guess my point is are we being manipulated to think we are in on the process when in fact the house will be designed without us and we will be instrumental in picking the paint color.