Richmond officials promise to help mitigate parking and traffic issues in The Point

   POINT RICHMOND - A two-hour community meeting sponsored by the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council on parking and traffic issues Tuesday included a pledge from Lori Reese-Brown of the city transportation department that she would work collaboratively with Point residents and city departments to solve problems.
     "The city of Richmond has a lot of work to do," Reese-Brown said at the Community Center meeting.
     That work includes seeing how much city planners and others have considered the traffic and parking impacts of new residential developments - either constructed or in process.

Yellow and red striping near the closed El Tunel restaurant 

     Collectively nearly 600 residential units are expected to be built and occupied in the next few years: 27 units in the apartments already constructed adjacent to Mechanics Bank, 60 homes in the under-construction Shea Homes Shoreline development, 200 units at the city-approved Quarry Residential project, and more the 300 homes at Terminal One on Dornan Drive near the Richmond Yacht Club.
     Reese-Brown also pledged to talk with Richmond Police about a conspicuous lack of parking enforcement in The Point.
     In the last week, freshly painted yellow, blue and green curb striping - and a stop sign at on Park Place - appeared in the downtown business district. The restriping of existing parking spaces - which could include standardizing the size of each stall from the current mix of parking slot sizes - is also likely.
     Reese-Brown also suggested that the heads of various city departments - like planning - attend future community meetings to answer some of the many questions posed by the 25 or so persons who attended the meeting.
     The meeting was facilitated by Shawn Dunning who walked the audience through a series of exercises designed to elicit as many solutions to problems as gripes.
     Parking permits for residential, designated parking zones for merchants and spaces for additional parking on the perimeter of the downtown business district were all discussed.
     Reese-Brown and Denée Evans (also of the city transportation office) encouraged people to contact them directly with concerns.
    "If I hear one complaint, that sounds like 1,000 complaints to me," Reese-Brown said.
     PRNC President David Schoenthal indicated that in the wake of this meeting he would be setting up an online Google discussion group. He can be contacted about that here: Schoenthal email.

CITY OF RICHMOND PARKING CONTACTS:

Lori Reese-Brown
Phone: 510-620-6869
REESE-BROWN EMAIL

Denée Evans
Phone: 510-620-6869
EVANS EMAIL 

New stop sign on Park Place, heading north

Signage needs to catch up with new stripes in front of the Santa Fe Market