Review Design Concept for Willie Stargell Complete Street Project
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Commission on Persons with Disabilities
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Willie Stargell Avenue Complete Street project will construct safety and transit improvements between Main St and Mariner Square Loop by improving school crossings, providing active transportation facilities, slowing traffic, improving the safety of major intersections, installing landscape and green infrastructure, and adding new bus stops for AC Transit’s Line 19 that will be re-routed later in 2025. After multiple rounds of community outreach and refinement, the full concept plan includes pedestrian and bicycle paths, bus stops, roundabouts, and crosswalk safety enhancements.
Staff recommend that the Commission on Persons with Disabilities review and provide feedback on the concept plan. Staff will then bring the concept to City Council for approval and continue to detailed design.
BACKGROUND
Stargell Avenue between Main Street and Mariner Square Loop serves as an automobile, pedestrian, and bicycle connection between Alameda Point, the Alameda Point Collaborative, and the Main Street Ferry Terminal to the west; and the College of Alameda, Alameda Landing Shopping Center, and Webster Street to the east. Along the way, the roadway serves multiple low-income housing communities and Coast Guard housing. The corridor also serves as a school route to Ruby Bridges Elementary School and seven other West End schools, including for many families crossing the street on foot. West of 5th Street, it is a two-lane roadway with a sidewalk on the south side only, bicycle shared lane “sharrows” in the 14’ travel lanes (which are wide lanes but too narrow to add bicycle lanes), and a vacant right of way to the north. East of 5th Street, the roadway is four to six lanes, with left turn lanes.
The width of the Stargell Avenue right of way west of 5th Street was originally established to accommodate a four-lane arterial road connecting from Webster Street to Alameda Point, but the street was ultimately constructed as a 28-foot wide, two-lane street consistent with its Island Arterial designation in the General Plan at the time. As a result, the existing City-owned public right of way can accommodate additional improvements to support and improve bicycle, pedestrian, and transit access between Alameda Point and West Alameda.
Since the corridor in its current form was constructed, Stargell Avenue has been included in many planning documents as a multi-modal connection for the West End:
• 2023 Council Strategic Plan: Identifies project to Plan, Design and Construct Stargell Avenue bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
• 2023 General Plan Street Classifications: Designates Stargell as a Neighborhood Connector, which has a target design speed of 25 mph and should serve all modes between neighborhoods.
• 2022 Citywide Roundabout Analysis: Identifies Stargell/Mariner Square Loop as a high-priority location for roundabout implementation.
• 2022 Vision Zero Action Plan: Identifies Stargell as a corridor from Webster Street to Main Street.
• 2022 Active Transportation Plan: Designates Stargell for a shared-use path on the north side of the street, to provide enhanced bikeway connectivity and address the missing north-side sidewalk.
• 2018 Transportation Choices Plan: Recommends separated bikeway, walkway, and bus lanes on Stargell Avenue as a priority project.
Over the years, the City of Alameda (City) has received many complaints from the community regarding speeding along Stargell Ave; the difficulty of crossing and drivers not yielding to pedestrians at the Main St, Mosely Ave, Coral Sea St and 5th Street intersections; and the lack of dedicated bicycle facilities. Planning, concept design, and community engagement began in 2020. The project goals are:
• Improve safety for all roadway users, including by slowing traffic
• Improve safe routes to schools
• Improve transit service and access to transit
• Increase biking and walking connectivity
• Reduce flooding
The City conducted extensive community outreach for the project between 2020 and 2024. As a result of these outreach efforts, the previous design concept from 2022 has been updated to incorporate community feedback. The outreach has included:
• 2020-2024: Online community survey with 460 responses
• 2022: Virtual community workshop to present initial design concept
• 2022: Staff attendance at regular community meetings for Alameda Point Collaborative, and the low-income communities of Shinsei Gardens Apartments and Stargell Commons
• 2022-2023: Ongoing outreach, communication, and coordination with stakeholders including Shinsei Gardens, Stargell Commons, Alameda Point Collaborative, Bayport, Coast Guard Housing, Alameda Landing and AC Transit. Other groups included Ruby Bridges Elementary School, Island High School, ASTI High School, Nea/ACLC schools, and Bike Walk Alameda.
• 2024: Two dedicated meetings with residents of Dignity Village
• 2024: In-person community workshop on updated design concepts
A summary of outreach activities, participation, and key takeaways from all phases is summarized in Exhibit 1. Materials from past meetings can be found on the project web page: www.alamedaca.gov/stargell <http://www.alamedaca.gov/stargell>.
In 2024, staff submitted five grant applications for the Stargell project. Three proposals requested full funding: Active Transportation Program State and regional grants, and Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Safe Routes to Transit/Bay Trail grant. A proposal to the Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) 2026 Comprehensive Investment Plan requested funds for the planning/environmental and design phases only. In addition, a proposal to the MTC Active Transportation Technical Assistance grant focused on the planning/environmental phase only. These funding applications built off previous work on high-scoring but unsuccessful grant applications in previous years.
As of the publishing of this staff report, MTC staff have recommended awarding funds from the regional Active Transportation Program and the MTC Safe Routes to Transit/Bay Trail grant totaling $5.57 million. Final approval by the MTC Commission is slated for later this month.
DISCUSSION
The original Stargell Ave corridor design concept was developed in 2022. Since then, it has undergone revisions in response to community feedback and AC Transit service planning changes. Bus stops, roundabouts, and additional traffic calming features have now been incorporated into the full corridor concept plan, which is provided in Exhibit 2. It includes:
• Walking and Biking Paths: Separate walking and bicycling paths in the unused, City-owned right of way to the north of Stargell Ave, between Main Street and Bette Street, which will connect to the existing multi-use path between Bette Street and Fifth Street. Pathway lighting, trees, landscaping, and green infrastructure will be added.
• Traffic Calming: Narrow the travel lanes from 14’ to 12’, with a 4’ wide striped center median. Because of community input on speeding and observed increases in speed, the concept now includes a lane shift in the westbound direction approaching the Mosely and Coral Sea intersections. Staff will explore further traffic calming treatments during detailed design.
• Pedestrian Crossing Improvements: High-visibility crosswalks, concrete median pedestrian refuges and flashing beacons are included at Coral Sea Street and Mosely Avenue intersections. Crosswalk striping at the Main Street signal will be refreshed (the RESHAP/West Midway development will be upgrading the west side of the intersection and adding a fourth crossing leg in the 2025-2026 timeframe).
• Bus Stops: In October 2024, the AC Transit board approved the final Realign plan for bus service changes. The final plan will reroute Line 19 to serve Alameda Point, including new bus service on Stargell Avenue. Because of this new service, expected to start in August 2025, the design now includes two bus stop pairs with transit amenities at Mosely Avenue and Coral Sea Street. These bus stop locations were recommended by AC Transit.
• Separated bike lane: The path transitions to a separated bike lane in the westbound direction on Stargell between Fifth Street and Mariner Square Loop to improve the bike facility safety and to connect to the planned connection to the Webster Tube pathway that will be built in 2025 with the Oakland Alameda Access Project. During the detailed design phase, the staff team will investigate the possibility of extending separated bikeways in both directions, including eastbound to Mariner Square Drive/Campus Drive.
• Roundabouts: To further enhance safety at the major intersections of 5th Street and Mariner Square Loop, the updated concept includes single-lane roundabouts at these two intersections. Roundabouts manage vehicle speeds, eliminate red light running that can cause “t-bone” collisions, and provide opportunities to include green infrastructure. Only the roundabout for 5th Street is prioritized for near-term implementation, due to funding limitations. The consultant team from Kittelson Associates conducted an operations analysis at both potential roundabout locations (results provided in Exhibit 3). The analysis finds that at both 5th Street and Mariner Square Loop, a roundabout would not increase (and may decrease) average vehicle delays compared to signals.
Implementation Phasing
The current funding plan and work slated for 2025 focus on the first of a two-part phasing strategy:
Phase 1
The current funding plan is for Phase 1. This phase would include the Stargell Avenue corridor improvements from Main Street to the existing signal at Mariner Square Loop. The roundabout at 5th Street would be constructed using a quick-build design, with permanent elements on the corners but with temporary materials in the middle circle and median islands of the roundabout.
Phase 2
With additional funding secured at a future date, the City would pursue Phase 2. This second phase would complete full reconstruction of the 5th Street roundabout with landscaping and green infrastructure and construct the second roundabout at Mariner Square Loop.
Project Cost and Funding
The project cost for Phase 1 is estimated to be between $10-12 million. To date, the City has been notified that the MTC is recommending grant funding for the project from two sources:
$673,000 - Regional Active Transportation Program (MTC)
$4,896,000 - Regional Measure 3 (RM3) Safe Routes to Transit/Bay Trail (MTC)
$5,569,000 - Total Grant Funds
Final approval by the MTC Commission is slated for later this month.
Pending approval from the Alameda CTC, the City also expects an additional $4 million from the Measure BB Named Bus Project to support bus stop improvements and amenities, and a roundabout at 5th Street. The remaining project funds would come from local matching funds.
Next Steps
City Council is tentatively scheduled to consider approving the concept on April 15. Once approved, staff will continue work with the goal of finalizing design and environmental phases in 2025, detailed design (Plans, Specification & Estimates) in 2026, and construction for Phase 1 in 2027-2028.
Staff recommends that the Commission on Persons with Disabilities provide feedback and endorse the design concept for City Council consideration.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The total project cost is estimated to be between $10-12 million and will come from a combination of City and grant funding sources.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
The 2023 Strategic Plan includes Project #TIE11, to “Plan, Design and Construct Stargell Avenue bicycle and pedestrian improvements.” The 2022 Active Transportation Plan recommends a multi-use trail along Stargell Avenue. The 2018 Transportation Choices Plan establishes the “Stargell Avenue” project to install “separated bikeway, walkway and bus lanes” as a priority project.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The proposed project is categorically exempt pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines section 15301(c) Existing Facilities (Minor alterations to existing facilities including bicycle facilities) and Section 15304(h) Minor Alterations to Land and the creation of bicycle lanes on existing public rights of way. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, this project is a Categorical Exclusion under 23 Code of Federal Regulations 771.117(c): activity (c) (3) Construction of bicycle and pedestrian lanes, paths and facilities.
CLIMATE IMPACT
The Climate Action and Resiliency Plan found that transportation accounts for 70% of the City’s GHG emissions, and that moving people out of automobiles is paramount to reducing transportation-related emissions. Creating a new safe, separated bikeway and additional space for walking will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by allowing people to bicycle and walk to local schools and to major destinations like the College of Alameda, the Alameda Landing Shopping Center and the Webster Street transit corridor.
RECOMMENDATION
Provide input to staff on the Willie Stargell Complete Street Project.
Respectfully submitted,
Susie Hufstader, Senior Transportation Coordinator
Rochelle Wheeler, Senior Transportation Coordinator
Exhibits:
1. Community Engagement Summary
2. Willie Stargell Complete Street Corridor Concept Plan
3. Stargell Avenue Complete Street Roundabout Performance Memo
4. Presentation