Ryan Lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
The city council has approved the addition of a class 3 bike lane from Second Street West to Highway 12.
Despite resident concerns about potential parking and traffic problems, Sonoma’s City Council voted 4-1 Wednesday night to remove 91 parking spaces along the north side of West Spain Street and replace them with a striped bike lane.
“By golly, if it’s a total disaster we can always unstripe,” Mayor Joanne Sanders said, following a session that drew roughly twice as many public comments against the idea.
But Mayor Pro Tem Ken Brown noted that a neighborhood mail survey in March drew only 62 responses out of 286 property owners and residents with a bare majority favoring a bike lane. “I’m going to take that as a yes,” he said.
Sanders, Brown and councilmembers Stanley Cohen and Steve Barbose also argued that the lane would make the strip safer for bicyclists – especially children – and could eventually cut motor traffic in the downtown core. Casting the lone “no” vote was Councilmember Aug Sebastiani, who cited neighbor feedback as well as the importance of the automobile in western U. S. culture.
At issue was how to modify and implement one of the recommendations of Sonoma’s Bicycle And Pedestrian Improvement Plan, which the council approved at its Sept. 2 meeting and which – among such suggestions as more bike racks and better-marked routes – calls for two access options concerning West Spain Street between Second Street West and Highway 12: a striped, “Class 3” bike lane or a “Class 3” bike route that uses signs to mark the way. The former is estimated to cost $86,000, the latter $15,000 to $20,000, and the city has allocated a total of $280,000 to the entire bike-improvement package. None of the improvements have yet been slated for construction.
Sonoma’s dedicated east-west bike path between Highway 12 and Fourth Street West is designated as “Class 1,” and its existing use as a cross-town corridor was one of the points of Wednesday night’s debate – with Renata Bialy urging the council to pick “whatever [option] costs less for something we don’t need in the first place.”
Nickolai Mathison, who chairs Sonoma’s Community Services and Environment Commission – the panel which helped draft the bike plan – cited the 32-28 support among 62 survey respondents for a Class 2 lane but said that’s not reflected in the plan’s current draft.
“We caved under pressure with people saying, ‘not in my back yard,’ and said Class 3,” he said. “We really should have stuck to our guns and said Class 2.”
Others opposed said the removal of nearly four blocks of parking will have a bad impact on such big events as the Fourth of July and various festivals – as well as on day-to-day Sonoma living.
“Even if people choose to use their bikes in town, they’re still going to keep their cars,” West Spain Street resident Georgette Darcy said. “And they’re going to need someplace to park them.”
But bike advocate Chip Roberson said Sonoma only has four east-west options for wheeled travelers: the northern bike path, West Spain Street, West Napa Street and Andrieux Street.
“If most drivers were told to go up to the bike path to get from Basque [Boulangerie] to Longs Drugs … that would be absurd,” Roberson said. “People are going to use West Spain anyway. … It is a major artery for the bicyclists in town.”
