By Christian Kallen
Healdsburg last week added an Active Transportation Plan (ATP) to its library of planning documents that outline future projects and growth in the city, after more than a year’s study, conversation and preparation. The final plan ATP was presented by Public Works Director Larry Zimmer and Senior Project Manager Michael Harrigan to the City Council on Jan. 21, and after some edifying discussion it was unanimously adopted.
Although the ATP was developed as a component of Sonoma County’s own 2025 Countywide ATP, the city’s ATP’s sharpest focus is on improving connections within the city that prioritize bicycle and pedestrian travel over an automotive solution.
Why a Plan?
That’s where the Healdsburg ATP comes in. As an official City Plan, it is a document that Healdsburg can use to guide implementation of local projects and policies, solicit grants and other funding, and keep the goals of a greener Healdsburg at top of mind.
“It guides the public and private investment,” Zimmer said. “It is a reference document that we use regularly… To know what the community wanted, what the council approved, what our stakeholders have said to us in the past.”
Zimmer emphasized, “This is not a plan that is going to sit on a shelf and gather dust.”
Its predecessor was the 2013 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, which many thought insufficient and outdated. Work on the ATP began in October 2023, and involved multiple public meetings and study sessions in the meantime. The official decision to locate the SMART station at the site of the historic depot was made during the period when the ATP was in development, and that too has influenced the final plan.
Another suggestion that made it into the final plan is the use of green paint, a widespread means of identifying bicycle lanes but one that Zimmer in the past seemed reluctant to embrace. At this meeting, however, he made no mention of his previous skepticism and accepted it as an element in the “engineering toolbox” for street projects.
“I want to acknowledge the eagerness of the community to get moving, get stuff done. We are, we’re doing quite a bit,” he said, then launched into the big-budget numbers for the active projects and those in the queue.
Key Projects
The closest to realization is the $2.4 million March Avenue Project, which will come before the council at next week’s Feb. 3 meeting. It would upgrade the avenue from the hospital at University Street to the Dry Creek interchange, add bicycle lanes, and provide improved pedestrian crossings at Lupine and Prentice streets. Once the council approves the design contract, work can be sent out for bid, after which construction could begin later this year, Zimmer said.
Another key plan is the most expensive, the $13.4 million Healdsburg Avenue Improvement Project, which calls for reduced traffic on the north-south transit from five lanes to three, with protected 10-foot-wide bike lanes and sidewalks. The extra-wide bike lanes will also allow for vehicle use in the event of an emergency requiring large-scale evacuation, a planning consideration that only recently became important.
A number of small parks, paths or waiting stations have been proposed that would dramatically change the character of the current stretch of road from Powell Street to the northern city limits beyond Enso Village.
This is one of the most impactful transportation projects the city undertakes, but one with a large amount of support. As Mayor Evelyn Mitchell enthused at the council meeting, “My feeling is that’s going to change Healdsburg in a very meaningful way when that gets done. We’re going to connect the City of Healdsburg from the north down, we’re going to have bike lanes, we’re going to have pedestrian sidewalks, all of that—it’s going to be really, really nice.”
Improvements on residential Grove Street are also close to implementation, with 90% of the design work done on the $3.27 million project. On the other side of town a pedestrian-focused Ward Neighborhood proposal is being prepared, at an estimated $1.4 million.
Rising in public attention is the South Healdsburg Avenue corridor, specifically from the Memorial Bridge to Adeleine Street, just shy of the intersection with the Central Healdsburg exit off Hwy 101. The uneven development of the corridor—30 new apartments becoming available next year at 3 Healdsburg Ave., continued development in the Kennedy Lane area and a daily traffic standstill at The Healdsburg School—makes improved pedestrian support necessary here, too.
Getting SMART
The coming of a SMART depot also adds a level of consequence to planning for this area, as does improved connectivity for the Mill District. As Councilmember Ariel Kelley pointed out, “That whole area is going to feel really different than it does now, just in terms of more people using that area of town, more people living in that area of town, the train station being down there and connecting to the businesses on Healdsburg Avenue.”
Also added is a policy to support “quick build” implementation, which uses efficient, fast-to-apply elements to achieve traffic solutions, without significant construction or tearing up of the road. Mayor Mitchell suggested a quick-build application at Healdsburg Avenue and Memorial Bridge, to accomplish a bike lane turning right off the bridge onto Front Street without undertaking significant construction.
Another added piece of the ATP puzzle: The painting of red curbs throughout town, because of the new state “daylighting” law AB 413, which prohibits parking within 20 feet of crosswalks. Public Works intends to begin such paint jobs this summer, but it will be deliberately rather than quickly rolled out, with priority intersections receiving the first treatment.
“This one isn’t a discussion; this is what we’re doing because this is the law,” Zimmer said.
The emphasis on street names and intersections is used because, given the auto-centric nature of present street planning, they define the geography. But the goals of the ATP are much more visionary. “Creating an environment that accommodates all ages and abilities and makes the first/last mile connections to transit is crucial toward promoting and enabling more walking, biking, and rolling for daily travel needs,” the Plan states.
Right now, only 4% of the town’s workers walk to work, and another 4% take public transit or use bikes—while fully 63% use single-occupancy vehicles.
Public Voice
During the meeting, Judy Fujita of Brown Street offered some endorsements, comments and cautions. As a member of the Move! Healdsburg group and Climate Action Healdsburg, she has been engaged with the Plan’s development since the outset, and addressed the city’s standing obligation under its own Climate Mobilization Strategy.
“The reality is that there is already a mandate to make Healdsburg more bikeable/walkable,” she said. Two initiatives she emphasized to accomplish those goals are dedicated east-west cycling corridors on March, Powell, Grant and Matheson streets; and a standing Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee to oversee the implementation of the ATP.
Another member of the ATP working group, Walter Niederberger, has been following this recent discussion via Zoom, as he is in Switzerland preparing to move there permanently later this year. He called out a couple of council members for being dismissive of the ATP, saying “it appears that the majority of the City Council do not have their hearts in the plan.”
He continued, “Especially from a European perspective it is truly bizarre to see that bike and pedestrian infrastructure still has to fight to be acknowledged to be as important as car infrastructure.”
The Active Transportation Plan can be found on the city’s website at healdsburg.gov/1147/Active-Transportation-Plan-ATP.
