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Redwood City adopts plan to improve El Camino Real

Beth Winegarner, The Examiner
2007-05-09 10:00:00.0

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -
Pedestrians and residents near two housing sites on El Camino Real
will soon have a safer, easier time walking to nearby transit after
plans and funding for updated crosswalks were adopted.
The first of a regional effort to turn El Camino Real into a "grand
boulevard" with enhanced transit access and mixed-use development,
the project, adopted Monday, includes updating crosswalks where
Madison Avenue and Maple Street cross El Camino Real. Places for
pedestrians to wait for green lights will be added and U-turns will
be eliminated to improve pedestrian safety.
Redwood City risked losing the $387,900 Metropolitan Transportation
Commission grant if it didn't adopt the plans by June 30, MTC
transportation planner Doug Johnson said.
Once finished, the $901,000 project will help residents at Franklin
Street Apartments and the nearly finished Villa Montgomery site get
to local SamTrans stops as well as Caltrain's Sequoia Station
one-third of a mile away.
El Camino's six-lane width makes it difficult for pedestrians to
cross safely. The regional grand boulevard plan is aimed, in part, at
making the thoroughfare more walkable and friendlier to public
transit, Community Development Director Peter Ingram said.
When it comes to funding the grand boulevard in Redwood City, "We're
going to be very opportunistic," Ingram said. "To get it built, it's
going to be incremental. [Having a plan in place] is a way to snag
some grant money."
Although Redwood City has secured the MTC grant, the city may need to
set aside an additional $501,047 to fully fund the project, according
to a report from Ingram.
Already, most cities along the El Camino Real corridor have gotten
their grand boulevard planning under way.
Millbrae has charged ahead, improving medians, landscaping and trees
on El Camino, creating better links between El Camino and downtown
Millbrae and adding a number of new housing developments that will
add more than 350 new units along the roadway, Millbrae Community
Development Director Ralph Petty said.
So far, Millbrae has spent $3 to $5 million on those improvements, Petty said.
As El Camino plans come alive, the region could capture even more
grant money, Johnson said.
"We'll try and keep folks moving on their projects," Johnson said.
"You can't do the Grand Boulevard $400,000 at a time, but pursuing
some large, meaningful sources of funding is going to be a challenge."
bwinegarner@examiner.com
Examiner

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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net
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