SMART Plans Gain Steam in San Rafael

Despite some financial bumps, preparations for the SMART rail plan rolling through San Rafael are making headway.

City officials this month approved $525,000 in contracts for its first consultants in anticipation of the city's two proposed stations for the cash-strapped Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit proposal linking the two counties.

Consultant teams will focus on two distinct design plans for areas surrounding future rail stations at the Marin County Civic Center and downtown San Rafael, according to Rebecca Woodbury, a planning coordinator for the city.

The city's $400,000 contract for the downtown station area plan, located near the bus depot, is with Oakland-based Community Design + Architecture. Walnut Creek-based Fehr & Peers has been hired for $125,000 to oversee the Civic Center site.

Funding comes from a $528,000 grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission awarded to the city in May.

Nancy Mackle, deputy city manager, said the city is working on station area plans while SMART is doing all the work on stations/platforms as well as the whole rail line.

"We are looking at what happens around the stations," she said.

In addition to two citizen advisory committees (the Redevelopment Agency Citizens Advisory Committee and the Civic Center Station Area Plan Advisory Committee), a joint project team made up of staff from SMART, the county, city and transportation officials has been formed to oversee these efforts, Woodbury said. These oversight groups are scheduled to meet monthly.

"Right now, both consultant teams are working on the background reports for the two areas," she said. "A community workshop for the downtown plan will likely take place in November and the Civic Center workshop will likely be in late January or early February."

 SMART has missed out on funding that was directed to other projects. 

SMART is $155 million short in funding its 70-mile rail line and pedestrian pathway from Larkspur to Cloverdale.

In November 2008, voters from both Marin and Sonoma counties approved Measure Q, a 20-year, quarter-cent sales tax increase to help finance the rail line and adjacent pathways for bikers and pedestrians estimated to cost $1.1 billion over the period.

Economic woes have resulted in lower sales-tax revenue for the rail agency and a reduced ability to borrow funds.

An update on the downtown San Rafael station area plan will be presented to the Redevelopment Agency Citizens Advisory Committee at 7 p.m. Thursday in San Rafael. The meeting will be in the Community Development conference room on the third floor of San Rafael City Hall, 1400 Fifth Ave.