Healdsburg OKs Its 1st One-Way Street: Foss Creek Circle

Note: This story was updated on Monday, Aug. 6, 2012.

Healdsburg City Council unanimously approved a change to one-way Monday for Foss Creek Circle, making it possibly the first one-way street in Healdsburg history.

"We'll have to check with the [Healdsburg] Museum, but I think this is the first one-way street in all of Healdsburg's existence, since 1857," said Mayor Gary Plass.

"This was a long-time coming," Plass added. "I feel this will relieve any stacking at the north end from people turning left."

Speaking in favor of the change were Bob Fraser, owner of on Foss Creek Circle next to the Post Office, and PJ Lenz of

"I give my full support to having Foss Creek Circle be one-way," said Fraser, chairman of the "I have my trucks coming through and the drivers complain that people are flying by in and out of the Post Office.

"I think a clockwise [south to north] one-way direction will be a lot safer," Fraser said.

Lenz said she thought the one-way flow "would be a lot safer," she said.

But Post Office officials, including and Supervisor Bonnie Buckingham, said they wanted to keep the road two-way. Instead, they requested the city remove some street parking.

"I think you should red-line the curb near " Buckingham said. "One of our truck drivers said it was very unsafe to pull into the driveway with all the cars parked on the street."

Buckingham said the one-way pattern will be difficult for the carriers who drive the large post office trucks.

"It's safer for our carriers to exit on the south side," Buckingham said. The new one-way pattern would exit on the north side of Foss Creek Circle at Grove Street. "Postal vehicles have a lot of blind spots -- this could be dangerous."

Machado said he was not at all in favor of the one-way decision.

"Parking is what's causing the problem, not the two-way," Machado said.

Machado also balked at City Council's request that he move the drop-off mailboxes to the other side of the driveway to accommodate the clockwise direction.

He said there was not enough room in the drop-off driveway to move the mailboxes to the other side -- a statement that drew him a little heat from both City Councilman Jim Wood and Mayor Gary Plass.

"Let's face it," Wood said. "It was congested there before, but traffic was never an issue until the Post Office intensified its operation there.

"I'm not going to show a lot of love for the post office being there," said Wood, who was mayor during the time when the former post office on against moving the public Post Office services to the former U.S. Postal Annex on Foss Creek Circle. "It's the reason there's more traffic."

Plass, in voting for the one-way move, said he "was confident the Post Office could oversee this little hurdle and move the drop-off boxes to the other side."

As to parking issues, Wood suggested that businesses on Foss Creek Circle that have extra off-street parking cooperate and offer help to their neighbors who have employees who need to park.

"We know the Post Office is not willing to open up its parking area, but maybe other businesses will," Wood said.

City staff have been looking a making Foss Creek Circle, a well-used side street loop that fronts the busy  and other major public and private properties, one-way for at least a year.

The change to one way was requested at last month's City Council meeting by Harry Kaufman, president of the Foss Creek Condominums, a complex that also fronts Foss Creek Circle.

Kaufman, speaking during the public comment period at last month's meeting, said that traffic in front of the condo complex has become increasing troublesome since the

According to the staff report, the one-way loop would be clockwise, entering from Foss Creek Circle's south intersection on Grove Street and exiting on the northern intersection on Grove Street closest to West Grant Street.

To see a copy of the staff report, click on the PDF attached to this story.