Safe AND Sustainable Routes INFO session!

Safe AND Sustainable Routes INFO SESSION :

Help our neighborhood group build Marin County's first "community built" GREEN street - AND give $900,000 to the Safe Routes to Schools fund -

1) County has proposed to build a 1.1 million a 2,000 foot long, raised impervious concrete sidewalk with curbs and gutters the entire length of Evergreen Avenue - from Whole Foods to Marin Horizon School -

residents never asked for this and do not want it - and we have repeatedly asked that it not be built.

2) Homestead & Evergreen Avenue residents propose to create "community built" off street parking to clear the natural paths and other eco - sensitive, ADA  improvements, where needed, to improve drainage and usability in the County Right of Way

All we are asking is that the County give the DPW some funding to collaborate with residents on a community built solution - at a fraction of the cost of the currently proposed project!

Why FORCE this concrete - when we aready have a GREEN street, that with a few minor improvements, can increase pedestrian usability??

Since July 2010 - there has been a majority community opposition to this project in Homestead Valley that goes against the TAM Plan and will :
- cover up green pathways, reduce the amount of open earth area that slows down and filters rain
- add storm water runoff and pollutants DIRECTLY to Reed Creek, which contains federally protected endangered Steelhead, and flows into the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio - one of only TWO streams in the Bay Area designated by the Dept. of California Fish and Game to be essential to the recovery of Coho Salmon
 - change the physical structure of Evergreen Avenue in Homestead Valley, which has a 100% safety record, to be more like the area near Whole Foods, where a child was brushed by a car
- reduce the amount of shared road space for wide strollers and bicyclists
- destroy our neighborhood's semi rural character.
 

The County has given this County project an exemption from CEQA - for "existing facilities" - when no concrete sidewalk with curbs and gutters currently exists!

Steve Kinsey, our current District 4 Supervisor, has stated that he wants this current sidewalk project to go forward,  because "that is the only way the County can be reimbursed for money already spent..." on this environmentally irresponsible, impervious concrete sidewalk!

Seriously? Are our kids and seniors worthy of street "safety" improvements ONLY when the improvements are reimbursed by a state or federal government grant?

Marin County is the Richest County in the state - with a BUDGET surplus  - why do we need to take this grant money for a project we do not want and NEVER asked for?

Help us convince our Supervisors to give our dedicated DPW staff the small amount of funding they need to work with our community!

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled vote to approve the project TOMORROW April 3rd - it is on the Consent Calendar - item #7.

If they approve the project, we will have no option but to engage in legal action to protect the health of Reed Creek, our citizens who currently travel safely along Evergreen and our semi-rural environment.
Does Evergreen really need a concrete slab that will destroy our semi rural environment AND damage sensitive creek habitat of endangered species?

Let's give $900,000 back to the Safe Routes to Schools fund !

DON'T POUR CONCRETE -

Preserve and improve OUR GREEN STREET!