The agenda for tonight’s city council meeting includes not only the future of fire protection services in town, as reported earlier in Patch, but a reopened discussion of the controversial Foss Creek Circle one-way.
Foss Creek Circle was turned into a following public complaints about the traffic conditions in the loop near Parkpoint Business Center following the relocation of the public U.S. Postal Service office to their one-time annex.
The long-standing Post Office in town burned to a total loss in August 2010, and the Postal Service decided not to rebuild it.
The City Council initially decided to turn it into a one-way street with traffic flowing clockwise from the southern entrance, which resulted in the post office’s mail drop boxes being awkwardly located on the left side of the street.
The City's primary reason for the clockwise direction was the accessiblity of loading docks at Silver Oaks Winery (140 Foss Creek Cr.), which would be inaccessible from a counter-clockwise traffic flow.
Residents continue to complain, however, that the wrong-way was set to go the wrong way, and a counter-clockwise direction would be more intuitive and practical. In Public Works Director Mike Kirn's report to the Council (attached), staff cites three formal letters, eight phone calls and 12 emails to the City, as well as several letters-to-the-editor of the Healdsburg Tribune "expressing concern on the direction of travel."
Drivers are frequently confused into going the wrong direction on Foss Creek Circle, and although Councilmember Gary Plass (who works at an office in Parkpoint) said at the City Council meeting on February 19 that drivers were becoming accustomed to the one-way direction, the issue was once again placed on the agenda for tonight’s meeting.
The meeting takes place at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall. The full agenda is attached to this article as a PDF and available online at the City of Healdsburg website.
