Stakeholders urged to press for side‑street safety as Sebastopol downtown study begins

Public comment at the Sebastopol Climate Action Committee meeting focused on the downtown Main Street study funded by a roughly $280,000 Caltrans grant and urged consultants to analyze side‑street safety and truck bypass options.

A resident identified in the record as Steve urged that the study examine four priorities — a possible truck bypass, sidewalk widening, two‑way street conversion, and speed‑limit reductions — and asked that impacts on school corridors (Florence, Murphy, Valentine) be analyzed. "We have a lot of big trucks that come through town," Steve said, adding concern that changes to downtown traffic could divert unsafe traffic to neighborhood streets and affect pedestrian and bicycle access to schools.

Interim planning staff and John, the planning staff who briefed the committee, said stakeholder meetings are already underway and that the consultant team will consider the public's safety and circulation concerns. John told the committee the next stakeholder meeting is scheduled for July 16 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the police department conference room on Laguna Parkway and encouraged written comments for those who cannot attend. "These comments are absolutely appropriate and will be filtered in to the work of the consultant team," planning staff said.

Committee members pressed for transparency about how the grant funds are being allocated within the study and asked staff to provide a breakdown of how much of the $280,000 will be devoted to evaluating two‑way conversion versus other tasks. A public participant asked whether the study would quantify emissions from idling vehicles; planning staff said they could not answer immediately and offered to follow up.

Next steps: staff will continue stakeholder outreach, post materials and accept written comments; the committee requested additional visibility into the consultant scope and budget allocation for the two‑way conversion analysis.