Sonoma City Council: Broadway to remain 5 lanes

Broadway just got its fifth lane back.

That was the end result of the Sonoma City Council’s decision May 18 to abandon plans to narrow the vehicular traffic lanes from five to four along the stretch from West Napa to Andrieux streets to provide room for wider bike paths on the notoriously bike-hazardous road.

The council voted 3-2 via a public teleconference meeting on Monday to overturn its earlier decision to drop a single lane on the southbound side nearest West Napa Street. The earlier plan was pushed forward by Mayor Logan Harvey on April 20, when the council considered various options for a re-striping of the road that would take place later this year when Caltrans resurfaces Broadway as part of its Highway 12 revitalization project.

Harvey’s plan, however, was met with what he described as “broad criticism” from the community over its lack of public input, leading to the mayor’s request for Monday’s re-vote.

Though Harvey’s four-lane proposal passed 3-2 at the April meeting, it wasn’t among the options included in a recent community survey conducted by the city to gauge local appetites for re-designing the Broadway traffic lanes. The survey asked residents if they preferred keeping the thoroughfare as a five-lane road, or narrowing it to a three-lane configuration to increase bike and pedestrian safety.

Sixty-one percent of the 831 respondents favored the five-lane option, with 39 percent preferring an improved bike and pedestrian situation.

While Harvey described his four-lane design as a compromise, not everyone saw it that way. Opponents of any lane reduction said he’d ignored the survey results; while bike proponents argued that the council was ignoring the advice of traffic engineers and its own vision in the city “General Plan,” which calls for narrowing Broadway to three lanes to improve bike and pedestrian access.

After a barrage of negative feedback over the decision, Harvey asked that the council reconsider the four-lane Broadway design.

“I do not want to put something forward that the community feels was not considered, they were not noticed about and they broadly do not like,” said Harvey on Monday.

Reconsidering prior votes is rare in Sonoma – and the council had to jump through some procedural hoops earlier in the meeting, but ultimately voted to allow a revisiting of the four-lane re-striping decision.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Tom Conlon warned against setting a precedent by reconsidering decisions that align with what’s called for in the city General Plan “at the whim of residents who weren’t (involved) when the plan was developed.”

“I realize people weren’t happy with the decision that was made April 20, but it’s your guys’ job as representatives to set the city policy,” said Conlon. “It’s bad precedent for the city to set policy and then change it so quickly.”

Resident Jennifer Palladini said she and her family ride bikes regularly and that the city’s “inaction” on safe biking has put cyclists and pedestrians at risk. “I voted for each of you to make decisions on the issues that face our city by synthesizing your knowledge, input from experts, residents, businesses, nonprofits and our city goals,” said Palladini. “I didn’t vote for you to make decisions based on results of a city survey – this is poor decision making and poor leadership.”

Laura Havlek, however, said that Harvey’s four-lane design wasn’t a bad one – it just took people by surprise. “I think people’s brains just freezed,” Havlek said. “I actually think it was a reasonable compromise.”

Following public comment, the council voted 3-2, with councilmembers Rachel Hundley and Madolyn Agrimonti against, to void its decision for a four-lane design, leaving Broadway in its current five-lane configuration.

Hundley, the only councilmember to strongly favor a lengthy three-lane, bike-friendly design, chastised her fellow councilmembers for allowing the survey to take precedent over alternative transportation goals long sought by city leaders.

“People don’t elect people to govern by internet surveys, they elect them to be leaders because they like their vision,” scolded Hundley. “It just seems that at the end of the day this council is wholly lacking in forward-looking vision.”

But Harvey insisted changing his vote was the right thing to do.

“One of my reasons for coming on council was to restore faith and trust in government,” said Harvey. “And (with his four-lane plan) the opposite was the result.”

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.