Kelsey Rogers

From:Sent:To:Subject:

Kelsey,

A commun ication for ton ight.

~Jim

Jim McCannCity ManagerCity of Mill Valley(415) 464-7085

Sent from my iPhone

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Jim McCannMonday, March 19, 2018 7:05 AMKelsey RogersFwd: Mille r Avenue and the proposed scope of work contract

City ofMill 'VaHey

From: John Palmer <jp@montgomerypartners.net>Date: March 19, 2018 at 2:38:31 AM PDTTo: Stephanie Moulton-Peters <smoultonpeters@aol.com>, "Stephanie Moulton-Peters"<smoultonpeters@gmail.com>, Jessica Jackson <jessica@dreamcorps.us>, Sashi McEntee<Sashi@pobox.com>, Jim Wickham <wickhamjames@comcast.net>, John McCauley<j.j .mccauley@comcast.net>Cc: Jim McCann <jmccann@cityofmillvalley.org>Subject: Miller Avenue and the proposed scope of work contract

Mayor Moulton-Peters and Councilmembers

One of the best assets Mill Valley has is an informed and skilled citizenry, an asset the Councilsquandered in its poorly-researched decision to cut Miller Avenue's traffic capacity in half through theParkway, which betrayed the dozens of people who put hundreds if not thousands of volunteer hoursinto the Miller Avenue Streetscape project. Now we have a chance to correct some of the omissions andmistakes made last year.

When I read the scope of the contract you are considering awarding to Parisi Associates, I became evenmore concerned that your research and planning is insufficient. Lastyear Mr Parisi came to hisconclusion without studying the question of whether constricting Miller Avenue would reduce itsefficiency in the event of a fire or earthquake emergency . It further appears that the Fire Chief didn'tstudy it adequately either, because he was not asked the right questions before he gave his blessing, as Ipointed out to you when I appeared before you last summer, and as Burton Miller detailed in his letterto you yesterday.

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Those missing lanes are like fire insurance - you buy it for years in hopes you won't need it, but when afire strikes, and we all know it's just a matter of when, not if, we will need to have every possible chanceto evacuate people and allow emergency vehicles unfettered access. You don't need insurance until themoment you do, and then if you don't have it, there's nothing you can do to turn back the clock.

What no one did last year, not the Council, who ignored the opinion of the only one among you withpublic safety experience, not the Fire Chief, and not Parisi Associates, was to measure whether thereconfigured Miller Avenue was sufficiently wide to permit emergency vehicles coming in from thesouth in a mutual aid response to passcivilian vehicles pulled over to the side, given the newly createdparking spaces. Nor did anyone adequately study whether it would be wide enough to permit safeevacuation. And it 's not wide enough, in several places through the Parkway, when the newly createdparking areas are factored in.

I did measure it, and found that the width of Miller in the Parkway between the median and the curbvaries by as much as 2 feet, so I measured it in 9 separate places. In 3 places inbound, the distancebetween the curbed median and the parking lane is not wide enough to allow an average sized local fireengine to pass a large sedan, truck, or SUV, no matter how hard the civilian drivers try to comply, if carsare parked in the curbside parking lane, as they would be on an average day.

For example, the average size of a common Type 1 fire engine is 98-102", not counting mirrors. Add inmirrors, and the average width swells to 120-124". A BMW 7 series sedan is 75" wide without mirrors,swelling to 89" including mirrors. A Ford F 150 truck is 83.5" wide without mirrors, 96.8" includingmirrors. Fire engine + Ford F 150 = 217-221", which is wider than Miller Ave in the Parkway in 3 separatesections (207" at 207 Miller, and 213" at 193 and 201 Miller) . Fire engine + BMW 7 Series=209-213",wh ich is wider than Miller at #207 and equal in width at #193 and #201.

To make matters worse, all the newly created parking spaces are substandard, varying from 7' 1/2" to 7'31/2". The standard width of a legal parking space is 9', and 8' is the standard fora compact space, sothe effect of the current striping is that some larger parked vehicles could actually stick out past theparking stripe, further restricting the already too-narrow roadway. Forget about fi re engines passinganoversize truck or a delivery vehicle like a UPS truck in those 3 places or the next narrowest at #295Miller. Precious seconds would be lost as the vehicle being passed limps to the next available place topull over further. And what if a downed tree or power line restricted traffic further on one of ourarteries? If a major catastrophe strikes, people will be trying to reach their homes to save children, lovedones, and their homes, and headed in to town aswell as out oftown, and it's not hard to imagine thechaos that could ensue, particularly if public safety personnel are not present in sufficient numbers.

Before the new configuration, outbound Miller Avenue conformed to FEMAguidelines for emergencyevacuation, and now it no longer does. Did Parisi Associates or anyone who pushed this throughresearch this or so advise the Council? Not in the public record .

And worst of all, the crowning proof of poor planning, is that in the "After Study" scope of work you areconsidering tonight, there is no mention whatever of studying emergency access or evacuation. Haven'twe learned anything from last fall's fires where we watched our neighbor's homes burn while theyscrambled to save their lives?

I have presented you with facts, simple mathematical calculations, not opinion, which your staff andconsultants should have made available to you last year, when the original decision was rushed through.No one has any idea of how a constricted Miller Avenue will perform in a fire or earthquake emergency;as a result of that unknown, the current configuration of the Parkway places the lives of Mill Valley'scitizens and their property at great jeopardy, and for what gain, exactly?

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My recommendation is to do the right thing and hire a truly independent consultant with experience inemergency evacuation procedure and modeling, someone with no history on this project or with currentcouncilmembers, and to add the most important change of all to your scope - to do a thorough study ofthe street's efficiency for both access and evacuation in event of emergency, with an analysis of actualflow in event of evacuation. At the very least, if you do hire Parisi Associates, as I'm afraid you will in anexample of intentional confirmation bias, do so in concert with hiring an independent fire safetyconsultant with the expertise to answer the necessaryquestions about emergency access andevacuation. Anything less is a roll of the dice with the lives of our citizens and their homes at risk, andwould be a great disservice to our City.

John Palmer

100 Shoreline Highway Suite 160B

Mill Valley, CA 94941

(415) 3324440 (0)

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