Ferry Landside Project: Good News but Warning Signs!
At the City Council meeting on April 23, councilmembers received a status update on the Ferry Landside improvement project.
The Good News: Estimates show the entire project can be done within the grant funding!!
Estimates for the project fall within the remaining grant funding. Without changing any significant aspects of the design, estimates are that the whole design can be built within the remaining $1.89 million in free grant funding. This is great news!
Actual bids from contractors, not estimates, will confirm the final cost. The next step is for the city to put together a formal solicitation of bids. Those can be structured as a base bid with additions or subtractions. If the bids come in differently than expected, the additions or subtractions can be used. As of now, though, there is a very good chance we can build the whole project in one shot!
The Warning Signs: Continued efforts to undermine the design.
Some members of the community are still fighting the project hard. And they will continue to do so. Also worryingly, some members of the City Council wanted to revisit the design plan that they approved back on February 6th. In particular, some were not clear that the plan they approved specifically included closure of Tracy Way as a means of improving the safety of the adjacent reworked sidewalks, and improving pedestrian circulation.
Along with improving safety, Tracy Way itself would become an important pedestrian circulation route. It would turn into a tree-lined promenade that people can walk along while potentially enjoying creative events such as music and art as well as flower, farmers and holiday markets.
The City Council deciding to revisit the design caused a lot of confusion in the audience as many had attended the city council meeting on Feb. 6th and witnessed the council members approve the plan, including the important safety and circulation feature of turning Tracy Way into a pedestrian promenade.
What to watch for: Delay that might kill the project; Bidding out a project that does not include all the elements.
We expect that there will be continued efforts to reduce or diminish this very modest, but also coherent plan. We need to watch out for this and defend the plan approved by the City Council in February.
Later next month, when the bid package comes back to the City Council for approval *before* being sent out to construction companies, there will be the threat of the project NOT being bid out in its totality…to preemptively cut out a portion of it without even seeing what construction companies say it will cost. Or perhaps to slow the project down as a means of increasing the chances that it never gets built.
It’s very important we stay on track to break ground in the fall. If we miss that, building will be delayed until spring costing us approximately $50,000 more (due to rising costs). It would also push the work into our busy tourist season which is an unnecessary threat to our businesses. We don’t want to impact our downtown businesses by reducing parking and having noise and disruption during the busy season.
Aside from that, the grant authority has told us that the $2 million in grant money is “on the cusp of being rescinded”. So we must act with all deliberate speed!
We Need Your Help!
To stop this project from being stopped or significantly diluted, we need to stay vigilant. Are you willing to help?!
Letter writing, public comments, self-education, all make a big impact on how the city council behaves and votes.
So when the time comes, can we count on you?
We need a team of people to be ready to write letters to the city council, show up to make public comments and rally friends and neighbors to do the same.
Please join our mailing list to learn more. We will send out updates on this issue, and other City projects, and will let you know when we need your help.
Thank you!
Positive People for Sausalito
P.S. To learn more about this project, you can find more details here: Ferry Landside Project Overview, FAQ, Parking Lot 1.
