An alternative to DPW's Evergreen Ave. 6’-“0 wide sidewalk proposal

From: Charlessands
Date: August 19, 2010 10:11:38 AM PDT
To: hearus@googlegroups.com
Subject: Bob Cogswell Madrone Park Circle to S. Kinsey et al.
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Cogswell
To: skinsey@co.marin.ca.us; madroneparkcircle@yahoogroups.com
Cc: jarnold@co.marin.ca.us; sadams@co.marin.ca.us.com; hbrown@co.marin.ca.us; cmcglashan@co.marin.ca.us; fmansourian@co.marin.ca.us; bbeaumont@co.marin.ca.us; BCrawford@co.marin.ca.us; HEAR US ; madroneparkcircle@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, Aug 19, 2010 9:57 am
Subject: Re: [madroneparkcircle] An alternative to DPW's Evergreen Ave. 6’-“0 wide sidewalk proposal

Dear Steve et al,
I live on Madrone Park Circle as does Charles Sands, and while neither of us reside on Evergreen, the street where the sidewalk plan has been proposed, I frequently
travel up and down that street as it is the most traffic friendly street of the three that provide access to and from Homestead Valley for its residents and visitors. I, for one, was rather appalled to find out that such a sidewalk was, in fact, proposed and approved without any input from us, the residents, other than the one meeting of which I heard too late to make the time to attend. Hearsay from those who did attend tells of a meeting at which most of the speakers (in favor of the proposal) were not even residents of the neighborhood. As far as I can tell from that same hearsay, the plans had already been fully created without any process (that I am aware of) to seek input on all the elements of the eventual design from the residents of Homestead Valley.
I am opposed to the plan as it stands for several reasons.

1. The process was not open to the community. I can state categorically that I never
received any notification from the County that such a process was under way. I found
out that there was to be a meeting on July 14th from emails among us residents, and
that roughly a week before the meeting. Why was there no process around what the
plan would consist of before the plans were drawn up?
2. The plans as presented calls for what amounts to a total change to the look and
feel of the roadway and is esthetically out of step with the overall flavor of the Valley.
3. The principal beneficiaries of the plan, and the prime mover(s) in its creation, are the students and staff of the Marin Horizon School. While I am a supporter of schools in general, and have had a family member pass through the MHS curriculum from
start to finish, as well as having another family member employed there, I cannot
approve of the role played by the school in bringing this plan to its present state as MHS has not, to my knowledge, reached out to the community at the appropriate time
to promote a process which takes all the residents' input into account.
I could enumerate more reasons that I feel the way that I do, but for now, the above
will suffice to introduce my position.

I have one overriding concern for you to ponder: I want to know how it is that such an invasive plan that all of you should have known would generate strong responses from the community could go through a process resulting in a finished product before the community was even informed that it was under way? I can categorically state that I have never received, by any method, communication from Marin County notifying me that the process was underway and providing me with an avenue to comment at the appropriate time. What I consider appropriate is at the very start of the process, well before the design would reach its final form as it has now.
Parenthetically, hearsay also has it that claims were made that there are recorded
incidents of possible harm to pedestrians and/or cyclists resulting from the lack of
a sidewalk and possible other "traffic calming" measures underlying this plan. No one
who attended the recent meeting of residents (Tues. Aug 17th, 2010) could recall even
one such case.

Robert Cogswell