Palo Alto planning panel backs permanent car‑free designations for parts of California Avenue and Ramona Street

The Planning and Transportation Commission on Feb. 12 recommended that the Palo Alto City Council consider environmental findings and adopt two resolutions to make portions of California Avenue and Ramona Street permanently car‑free.

City staff and consultants described the item as “a critical step in the potential permanent closure of portions of California Avenue and Ramona Street to vehicular traffic,” and recommended amending the Comprehensive Plan transportation element to reclassify the segments as car‑free streets and to add glossary definitions to the plan, staff said.

The proposal would reclassify the longer segment of California Avenue between El Camino Real and Birch Street as a “community street” restricted primarily to pedestrians and bicycles, with emergency, city utility and maintenance vehicle access and a process to allow commercial vehicles for special events. A short roughly 200‑foot segment of Ramona Street between University and Hamilton would be reclassified as a “pedestrian street,” where mounted bicycles would be temporarily restricted to…