Healdsburg City Council looks to start roundabout construction

Healdsburg City Council pledged its support this week for building a roundabout at the five-way Healdsburg Avenue and Mill Street intersection through a joint undertaking between the project and the city.

There was no official vote on the matter at council's meeting Monday night, but  consensus was to move ahead with an intersection that took the planned SMART rail line into account -- even though  that project is years away from reaching Healdsburg.

“It makes perfect sense to proceed now,” said Councilmember Jim Wood. “Even if it is aix, seven, eight years before they run a train through here, the last thing we want to do is build a perfect roundabout and have them tear it up.”

Comments about overhauling the five-way were part of a broader discussion about several construction projects under consideration. In addition to the , improvements to the and an upgrade to the town's water distribution system were part of the discussion.

Of the three projects, roundabout construction at the  five-way received by far the most attention.

The project would involve a sizable investment.  Healdsburg would pay $500,000, while SMART would pony up $2.5 million to $3 million, according to Healdsburg Director of Public Works Mike Kern.

Financing hinges on SMART keeping up its end – The roundabout would intersect with the SMART train tracks.

All five councilmembers agreed to move forward with SMART to find a site architect, which Assistant City Manager David Mickaelian said would take up to three months. Councilman  Gary Plass also urged that money be set aside for the Purity Building project, although that particular topic got less play overall.

Also at this week's meeting, the Council heard a presentation from several representatives of the , who outlined some of their plans for the coming year.

Those include a job creation program through grants to small businesses and start-ups, and the addition of new signs along the freeway announcing the town of Healdsburg. Chamber also announced a plan to add mention of the Healdsburg Visitors Center on the Central Healdsburg Hightway 101 off-ramp sign.

Later in the meeting, Council became entangled in a protracted discussion about regulating the use of signs. What at first seemed like a simple subject soon morphed into an ever-widening debate.

At first, the issue was whether nonprofits should be charged to post signs in town, as commercial outfits are. Then the discussion veered to whether or not sign-posting had grown into a problem in Healdsburg, and then whether or not people had complained about it.

At first, it seemed that the issue had been sparked by complaints over signs, but then City Manager Marjie Pettus said complaints “were not so much about banners, but about enforcement.”

What followed was more debate about whether charges for signs should be levied per sign, once a year for unlimited signs or once a year for a specified maximum number of postings. Then, when The Council seemed to settle on the agreement that there would be charges for signs posted by any entity except for nonprofits, the question was raised about what actually constitutes a “nonprofit.”

“Let us just write something up and bring it back to you,” Pettus told Council.