The City of Larkspur hosted a community meeting on July 13, 2016, at 6:30 pm. A copy of the meeting presentation can be found here. The meeting shared information about the Magnolia Avenue Water Quality Facilities Project’s proposal to eliminate one of two existing travel lanes in each direction on Magnolia Avenue between Bon Air Road and Dartmouth Drive / Skylark Drive. Staff also provided an update on the Bon Air Bridge Replacement project, for which the Magnolia Avenue project is a mitigation measure. 

The Bon Air Bridge Replacement Project’s Section 401 Permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board includes a requirement to compensate for the impervious surfaces on and around the new bridge with low impact development facilities on Magnolia Avenue. The Project Team investigated and designed a series of improvements to Magnolia Avenue to meet this requirement, including replacing the second travel lanes with landscaping. A traffic analysis was completed to assess the impact the lane reduction would have on traffic. The traffic analysis can be found here. 

The Magnolia Avenue project is scheduled to take place next year. With the recent paving work on northbound Magnolia Avenue to improve the road, the City paved only the one lane scheduled to remain after next year’s Magnolia Avenue project so as not to spend money paving a lane scheduled to be removed. Next week, this northbound segment of Magnolia will be striped for one travel lane between Bon Air Road and Dartmouth Drive/Skylark Drive, but the ultimate removal of the second lane of asphalt is not scheduled until the Magnolia Avenue project begins next year.

Until work begins on the Magnolia Avenue project, the City is using temporary traffic paint in lieu of permanent thermoplastic striping on this segment. Staff will continue to engage the public and solicit feedback on performance of the one lane configuration before ultimately finalizing the project plans for bid next year.