Mike Matsuoka leads discussion with neighbors on their ideas for the Castro Street Design Project
Wednesday evening, Castro neighbors poured into the Eureka Valley Recreation Center's auditorium, filling it to standing room only (with some people even sitting on the ground) to see and hear the latest from the Planning Department on the plans for the Castro Street redesign.
The workshop started out with Supervisor Scott Wiener introducing the team working on the project including Department of Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, Planning Department Designer David Alumbaugh, Project Manager John Dennis, and Project Lead and Urban Designer Nick Perry. The team spoke at length about the history of the project, including funding, the current state of Castro Street, the design that was put together back in 2008 and the timeline of the entire project.
The current issues with Castro Street that the team laid before the public were mainly related to the width of the sidewalks lining the street between Market and 19th. Nick Perry delivered a presentation that illustrated how in some spots along Castro, the sidewalk is essentially only 4-feet wide due to transit stops and news racks. The plan would widen the sidewalks from their current 12-foot width to 18-feet and to 22-feet at mid-block for the majority of the two blocks. This would shrink the street to just two lanes while maintaining parking spaces on either side of the street. Bulb-outs for Muni stops and shorter crosswalks were also suggested in the plan, most notably at the intersection of Market and Castro crossing East/West on the North side of Market Street and near Jane Warner Plaza where pedestrians have to go through the plaza to get to the crosswalk to cross Market Street.
Plans for mini-plaza's (mid-block bulb-outs) were also discussed, though at the expense of some parking spots. Perry also presented options for keeping the trees on the sidewalk in their current position and building the sidewalk out or moving trees to the edge of the new sidewalk. Perry noted that more discussion on landscaping would happen at the next meeting, but that the team was open to hearing feedback on expanding the greenery in the Castro.
After laying out the initial design and ideas, neighbors broke out into groups of 6-10 to go over renderings of the newly designed street that had been placed on tables. Leaders on the project were at each table and wandering the auditorium to facilitate discussion and answer any questions. Residents took green sticker dots and wrote what they wanted to see in the design and stuck them on the drawings. There were many suggestions including:
No turn on red
All pedestrian crossing or "scramble" (all lights are red and pedestrians can freely walk through the street to cross)
Angled parking
Removing newspaper stands
Bike racks
Way-finders (informational signs for Muni, landmarks, etc)
Sparkly cement (hello!)
Pavers in crosswalks
Residents even discussed benches and seating shown in the renderings, noting the recent removal of benches in Harvey Milk Plaza. Supervisor Wiener stepped in to note that the benches in Harvey Milk Plaza were removed because of the secluded nature of the plaza which allowed it to be a haven for the homeless indicating that seating at parkets and the like would not have the same issue.
Most concerns about the project came from people who were worried about the loss of parking and the bottleneck that may occur on the roads when they are transformed to one lane only each way. The concerned brought up valid points such as delivery trucks double-parking and getting in and out of parking spots. Each of these could potentially block the flow of traffic.
I caught up with Nick Perry to ask him what the solution to this is and he said that the Valencia Street redesign can be referenced as a model in this case. The planning department worked with local businesses and merchants associations to schedule delivery trucks at certain low traffic times of the day (early, early morning).
He also mentioned that the department was working toward a zero net loss of parking spaces by placing some parking above Market Street on Castro. The total loss of parking will not be known until the community decides how many mini-plaza's it wants along Castro Street, if any.
The mood and tone of the event was open and upbeat. I spotted Cleve Jones who noted how great it was to have open dialog about such an important community project. Neighbors were asked to fill out surveys that asked for their opinions and feedback on the project. You can download the survey here and fill it out and mail it to the Planning Department by February 8th.
Another community meeting will be held in February, with a final design completed by April. Construction is planned to start at the beginning of next year.
