June 15, 2026
San Rafael City Council Mayor Kate Colin
Vice Mayor Rachel Kertz
Councilmember Eli Hill
Councilmember Marybeth Bushey
Councilmember Maika Gulati
RE: June 15, 2026 San Rafael City Council Agenda Item No. 2.a.
Dear San Rafael City Council,
With regard to the proposed Starkweather Pathway lighting improvements planned as part of the Canal Neighborhood Active Transportation Enhancement Project, WTB-TAM has the following recommendations:
1. We agree with the recommendation in the Staff Report to modify the project so that there is no overhead lighting on any section of the Starkweather Path, only all waist-high bollard type lighting.
This is a sensible compromise that should alleviate some of the concerns expressed by neighbors about the impact of the lighting.
2. We recommend that the lights be turned on at 5 am each morning, and turned off at 12 am each night. These hours are in line with the hours when the Cal Park Hill Tunnel is open. This is late enough so that employees who work the night shift at Target can use the Path after the store closes at 11 pm.
As for the hours that the lights turn off each morning and turn on each evening, we recommend a dynamic timed system that adjusts throughout the year for the changes in day length. This is the most energy efficient solution. The recommendation in the Staff Report that the lights be on between 5 am and 8 am and again between 5 pm and 8 pm make little sense during summer when the sun rises at 5:45 am and sets at 8:30 pm.
We know that your inboxes are currently inundated with emails from upset neighbors in Baypoint Lagoons and Spinnaker Point who want the lighting completely removed from the project. We know that in times like these it can seem like these oppositional voices are so loud that they must represent the majority. We remind you that while they are vocal, they are not in fact the majority, but just a small fraction of the City’s population.
Please remember that many more people who support the lighting were not able to be here tonight or who do not have the time to write letters. We ask that you consider how much of this discourse is based in emperical truth and how much is based on emotion.
On June 12, 2025 you received a letter from a group MARSH. That letter states “Public participation should be evaluated based on the merits of the comments received.” We agree. When MARSH’s statements are evaluated based on their merits and the record of facts, they do not stand up to scrutiny.
MARSH’s main argument is based on a fundamental misunderstanding when they state that “the Starkweather Path is not a city street, sidewalk, or transportation corridor.” MARSH seems to be under the mistaken notion that a transportation corridor and a shoreline park are mutually exclusive. They are not. They they co-exist.
The Starkweather Path is a shoreline park as MARSH explains, but it is also a transportation corridor, as a voluminous amount of municipal and regional documentation demonstrates:
• The San Rafael General Plan 2040 Chapter 10 Mobility Element shows the Starkweather Path as an Existing Class I multiuse path (see Figure 1)
1 Figure 10-5:
Existing and Proposed Bicycle Facilities
Figure 1: San Rafael General Plan (2021)
• The San Rafael Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (2018) shows the Starkweather Path as an Existing and Planned Class I multi-use path (see Figure 2) San Rafael Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan, 2018 Update Gro
CANA
See Page 3 for descriptions of facility types and see Appendix H for full list of prioritized projects.
Proposed | 50
Group F
CANAL CONNECTIONS
Figure 2: San Rafael Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (2018) 2 • The San Rafael Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (2026 update - DRAFT) shows the Starkweather Path as an Existing and Planned Class I multi-use path (see Figure 3) San Rafael Citywide Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan 2026 Update | RECOMMENDATIONS | 51 vements to
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of Highway 101, including the Canal and Point San Pedro. It includes connections to the eastern and southeastern extents of the City, including McNears Beach, the RichmondSan Rafael Bridge, the Cal Park Hill Pathway, and other connectivity improvements to daily destinations throughout the area. Group C includes over 12 miles of bikeways and one quarter mile of sidewalk improvements.
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• The Marin County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan (2018) shows the Starkweather Path as an Existing and Planned Class I multi-use path (see Figure 4)
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CENTRAL MARIN COUNTY
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FIGURE 5.2
Figure 4: Marin County Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (2018) 3 • The Marin Countywide Transportation Plan (2024) shows the Starkweather Path as part of the Initial Phase of the Countywide Primary Active Transportation Network (see Figure 5) Figure 5: Marin Countywide Transportation Plan (2024)
All of the above plans, duly approved by the San Rafael City Council, Marin County Board of Supervisors, and Transportation Authority of Marin respectively, define the Starkweather Path as a Class I multi-use path. Class I multi-use paths are, in turn, defined as part of the active transportation network, which is itself a subset of the overall transportation network. The Starkweather Path is also part of the San Francisco Bay Trail, a regionallevel facility that expressly states amongst its uses “transportation” and “commuting.” Having established that the Starkweather Path is indeed defined by the City of San Rafael as a “transportation corridor” we must now turn our attention to another claim made by MARSH: That the proposed lighting is unnecesssary because the Path is closed from sunset to sunrise. We acknowledge that there is signage alongside the Starkweather Path that says “Jean & John Starkweather Shoreline Park Closed Sunset to Sunset” and “Entering City of San Rafael Open Space Open Sunrise to Sunset SRMC 19.10.060” (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Signage at the entrance of Jean & John Starkweather Shoreline Park 4 Setion 19.10.060 of the Municipal Code is specifically for “Open space regulations.” We interpret this to mean that the sunset to sunrise prohibition is specifically for “park uses” (such as relaxing or loitoring, sitting on the benches, birdwatching, etc), and not for “transportation uses.” In other words, the transportation use of the Starkweather Path should supercede any restrictions on the park use of Starkweather Park.
The City’s own staff report contains recommendations suggesting that the Starkweather Path is not closed at sunset every day. The Staff Report recommends that the proposed lighting be turned on from 5 pm and 8 pm allowing “residents to exercise before or after work when sunlight hours are limited.” This Staff recommendation stands in contrast to the MARSH claim that the Pathway is closed at sunset. If Staff are recommending turning on the lights from 5 pm to 8 pm during the short-lenth days of winter, that means the Pathway must be legally open for transportation use after dark.
If the Pathway were in fact closed at sunset each day, that is a major problem that needs to be fixed. It is a matter of transportation equity and spatial justice. All residents deserve equal access to the transportation network regardless of the transportation mode being used. That includes both the vehicle transportation network and the active transportation network. The City would not close down its vehicular transportation corridors from sunset to sunrise, so it should not close down its pathway transportation corridors either.
The census tracts with the lowest rates of car ownership in Marin County are located in the Canal neighborhood. There are many people who live in the Canal neighborhood who need to access services and jobs and who lack a private car to do. The City’s own policies encourage people to reduce car trips and increase active transportation modes, and to use the City’s active transportation network to do so. Relevant General Plan policies include:
• Policy M-3.5: Alternative Transportation Modes
Support efforts to create convenient, cost-effective alternatives to single passenger auto travel. • Policy M-6.1: Encouraging Walking and Cycling
Wherever feasible, encourage walking and cycling as the travel mode of choice for short trips, such as trips to school, parks, transit stops, and neighborhood services. Safe, walkable neighborhoods with pleasant, attractive streets, bike lanes, public stairways, paths, and sidewalks should be part of San Rafael’s identity.
• Program M-6.1C: Canal Community Based Transportation Plan (CBTP) Update the CBTP for the Canal neighborhood, including provisions to improve walking and cycling within the Canal and East San Rafael communities, explore water transportation, and better connect the Canal area to the waterfront, downtown, and the rest of the community. • Policy M-6.3: Connectivity
Develop pedestrian and bicycle networks that connect residents and visitors to major activity and shopping centers, existing and planned transit, schools, and other neighborhoods. Work to close gaps between existing facilities.
Target and Home Depot in East San Rafael are two of the largest employes in the area. As an example, let us assume an employee who works the night shift at Target lives on Canal Street near Pickleweed Park and does not have access to a car. The Starkweather Path is the clear winner when it comes to the safest, most direct route between this employee’s home and work (see Figure 7). This employee’s commute by foot or bicycle along the Starkweather Path is just 1.19 miles long and is fully separated from car traffic. Members of MARSH have written on NextDoor that there are other routes that Canal residents can use to get to Target besides the Starkweather Path. There is an on-street route, but it is nearly twice as long at 2.13 miles. Furthermore, the 5 1.19 miles via
Starkweather Path
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Target open
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Figure 7: Comparison of Trip Length from Pickleweed Park to Target via Starkweather Path vs On-Street Route on-street route is along a busy freeway frontage road with high-speed traffic and no bike lanes. The on-street route is clearly less convenient, less safe, and more indirect. If the City were to close the Starkweather Path after dark it would creating unjust, unsafe conditions for Canal residents who lack a car, and violating the goals and policies of encouraging active transportation as set out in the General Plan.
As part of the San Rafael Citywide Parks and Recreation Master Plan, published in 2025, a survey was conducted of city residents regarding top priorities for park improvements. One of the top-priority improvements identified (defined as support greater than 65%) was “Improved lighting for safety and pathways” with 72% of survey respondants indicating support (see Figure 8).
MARSH claims that the proposed lighting will negatively impact sensitive habitats. Our June 5, 2026 joint letter with the Marin County Bicycle Coalition already addressed these claims and demonstrated that the proposed lighting will not have the negative impacts that MARSH suggests. Furthemore, the project has already been cleared by CEQA. If any of the environmental impacts claims that MARSH makes were true, then they would have been identified in the environmental document.
6 Figure 8: San Rafael Citywide Parks and Recreation Master Plan (2025) n facilities are:
mber of
of Existing
the City’s
ng outdated
in restrooms and playgrounds, is evident. See Table 32 for a detailed list of the San Rafael’s priority park improvements.
Table 32. Priority Park Improvements
Priority Park Improvements Combined %*
Improved cleanliness including litter maintenance, restroom maintenance, refuse pick-up, playground maintenance, etc. 92% (PRC) Address and/or replace outdated equipment such as benches, playgrounds, barbecues, picnic tables, etc. 89%(PRC)
Address infrastructure maintenance i.e., surface improvements (sport courts, picnic areas, pathways, parking lots, etc.) 87%(PRC) More park amenities such as drinking fountains, shade structures, bike racks, and benches 80%(PRC)
Improved landscape maintenance 80%(PRC)
Updated irrigation system(s) for efficient water use 77%(PRC) Improved lighting for safety and pathways 72%(PRC)
More restrooms in City parks 69%(PRC)
Enhanced sports fields to meet demand i.e., lighting, artificial turf, improved maintenance 65%(PRC)
*Combined Fairly and Very Important = 65% or greater, Park and Recreation Community Questionnaire (PRC) Recreation Priorities in Pedestrian Access and Self-Directed Recreation
The community engagement process shows that community members prioritize recreation that supports pedestrian mobility and is self-directed in nature. The survey tools find that the most important recreation MARSH points to the Bay Trail Design Guidelines which on page 26 say “Direct trail lighting away from habitat areas, and do not install lighting in areas where it would impact sensitive species.” However, the lighting as proposed by the City is already “directed away” from habitat areas. The bollard style lighting fixtures specifically point to the ground to illuminate the pathway pavement, not the surrounding habitat. And as already explained above, MARSH has failed to provde that the proposed lighting would “impact sensitive species.” The CEQA clearance already determined that the lighting would not impact sensitive species.
Therefore, the specific citation from the Bay Trail Design Guidelines does not apply to this project.
A more relavent citation from the Bay Trail Design Guidelines is found on page 33. Where the Bay Trail corridor is defined for its transportation use (as we demonstrated above the Starkweather Path is designated as a transportation corridor), the Design Guidelines specifically recommend including “lighting to support commuting and use of the trail for transportation on winter days with fewer daylight hours” (see Figure 9).
Figure 9: Bay Trail Design Guidelines and Toolkit 2.0 (2025) MARSH expresses concern that the proposed lighting will obstruct the pathway. Staff has already clarified that this is not the case. The bollard style lighting will be installed just outside the pathway footprint, avoiding any obstruction of the pathway itself.
7 MARSH members have repeatedly made statements such as “No one uses the path after hours” that deny agency to an entire segment of the population and users of the Starkweather Path. The City’s own survey results show that in fact residents of the Canal, Baypoint Lagoons, and Spinnaker Point do use the Path after hours (see Figure 10).
Figure 11: Heavy use of the Starkweather Path after hours on June 10, 2026 Q5: Based on neighborhood, when do you typically use the path? Baypoint
Lagoons Bret Harte CanalNeighborhood
Downtown San
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Elsewhere Marin
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6AM-9AM 45 1 26 2 5 1 0 26 0
9AM-12PM 62 4 27 4 7 7 0 62 0
12PM-3PM 56 2 17 4 8 9 2 45 0
3PM-6PM 80 4 48 10 9 9 2 65 1
6PM-9PM 23 5 60 9 12 5 0 25 0
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Top 2 highest usage timeframes for
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Top 2 highest usage timeframes for
Canal Neighborhood in order are 1st
6PM-9PM and 2nd 3PM-6PM
*Respondents had the opportunity to select all that apply Figure 10: San Rafael Starkweather Path Lighting Plan Survey (2026) For Canal residents, 6 pm to 9 pm was the most common time indicated. During the winter, these fall fully outside daylight hours, clearly demonstrating the need for lighting, and that the Path should not be closed to transportation use after hours. WTB-TAM visited Starkweather Path on June 10, 2026 after hours and observed that the Path is still very much in use by residents after the sun sets (see Figure 11). 8 Half-mile radius
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Albert J. Boro Community Center
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ión de SMART
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A VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Suggested Routes to School
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¡Intersección concurrida!
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Busy Intersection
Use Caution!
¡Intersección concurrida!
¡Ten cuidado!
Busy Intersection
Use Caution!
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Figure 12: San Rafael Safe Routes to School Task Force Bahia Vista Suggested Routes to School Map The Starkweather Path is also shown as a “Primary Walking and Biking Route” on the Suggested Route Map for Bahia Vista Elementary School, as published by the San Rafael Safe Routes to School Task Force which is administered by the Transportation Authority of Marin (see Figure 12). Many students take part in after-school sports, tutoring, or other activities. During the winter, it is already dark by the time these activities end. This is yet another reason why lighting is needed on the Starkweather Path. Safe Routes to School routes need to be accessible, safe, and well-lit during all possble hours when students are expected to use it.
MARSH has claimed that the City’s survey shows that people mainly use the Path for recreation/excercise and to enjoy nature, and not for transportation uses such as commuting or running errands. MARSH is misinterpretig the survey results. The survey specifically asked “what is the most common reason you use the path?” (emphasis added). Note that the survey did not ask for all the reasons people use the Pathway, only the “most common” reasons. It is very possible that more survey respondants would have answered “commuting” or “running errands” if the survey language had been more inclusive.
As our June 5 letter already pointed out, the latest survey results overrepresent Baypoint Lagoons and Spinnaker Point while underrepreenting the Canal neighborhood. However, the Canal Community Active Transportation Improvement Project, including the proposed lighting improvements, already underwent a multi-year process of enagement and community participation, during which the need for community’s desire for lighting on the Starkweather Path was made loud and clear. The lighting is also explicitly endorsed by the Dominican University of California, the Canal Alliance, and Voces del Canal. 9 Our June 5 letter also made the point that MARSH’s claims of “light pollution” carry little weight considering the amount of light produced from the proposed project versus the amount of light produced from the existing conditions in East San Rafael. In their June 12 follow-up letter, MARSH continues to belabor this point, arguing that the impacts of light pollution are cumulative. Of all the claims made by MARSH, this is the most suspect of all. If MARSH’s claims were really true, then there should be no street lights, house lights, no building lights, or parking lot lights anywhere in East San Rafael. Clearly, that is an untenable position, as is MARSH’s argument.
Finally, many of the same neighbors who oppose the proposed lighting project on Starkweather Path also oppose a separate interpretive sign project on the same Starkweather Path by CanalArts and funded by the State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) via their “Coastal Stories” grant program. While we realize that this is a separate project and is not on tonight’s agenda, we know that many neighbors will use their public comment time tonight to speak against the sign project along with the lighting project, so we do want to take this opportunity to respond to some of the dubious claims that have been made about project.
First of all, let us emphasize that the funding for this project comes from the State Coastal Conservancy.
Opponents claim the signboards will amount to environmental degradation of the shoreline. We do not think the Coastal Conservancy would have given this project their blessing if that were true.
You may have seen an image circulating online that depicts huge, oversized signboards spaced closely together.
This image is an AI-generated image published on the website savestarkweatherpath.org (see Figure 13). This image is a propaganda image. It is not a realistic rendering of the proposed signboard project. This image makes use of exaggerated scale to make the signboards appear larger than what is actually proposed (24 x 36 inches). The AI-generated image does not properly adjust the size of the signboards for the scale or perspective of the underlying image, leading to the false perception that the signs are larger than they actually are.
Figure 13: San Rafael Safe Routes to School Task Force Bahia Vista Suggested Routes to School Map The AI-generated image on savestarkweatherpath.org not only exaggerates the scale of the proposed sign boards, it also exaggerates the spacing of the signboards. In reality, there are 22 sign boards proposed across a 2.2-mile long stretch of the Bay Trail. That is an average of one signboard every 1/10 of a mile or 528 feet.
The sign boards in the AI-generated rendering are depicted much closer together than 528 feet. This creates a misleading sense of the visual impacts that the signs will actually have on bay and shore views. Many of the people commenting tonight surely saw this image and took it at face value. Unfortunately, AI has made it much 10 more difficult to separate truth from fiction and to lie with images.
The exact planned locations of the 22 signboards can all be found in the project plans, which are publicly available. An excerpt from those plans is shown below (see Figure 14). Nowhere along the Starkweather Path would a scene such as that in the AI-generated rendering on savestarkweatherpath.org be found. Most of the sign boards are planned as one-off displays. At most, Pathway users would see only one sign at a time. In select locations, there would be 2 signboards located near each other. One example in the figure below is signboards 14 and 15. However, these signboards are located strategically next to an existing garbage can and bench, so they are not contributing to the “visual blight” that savestarkweatherpath.org claims they are. Instead they will fit in seamlessly with the existing pathway furnniture, and not create any new visual obstruction where it does not already exist.
11 Figure 14: CanalArts Peoples of the Canal Sign Exhibit Plans WTB-TAM conducted a field study with a life-size 24 x 36 inch signboard mounted on a post. We installed this signboard at various locations on the Starkweather Path on June 3, 2026 and photographed it from different angles and distances. The result of this field study is a set of images that give a much more realistic view of the visual impacts of the proposed signboards than the propaganda images on savestarkweatherpath.org. We found that one 24 x 36 inch signboard does indeed appear “large” when the viewer is standing directly in front of it (see Figure 15). However, Pathway users will only find themselves direclty in front of a sign for less than 1% of the length of the Starkweather Path. As soon as the Pathway user steps just a few feet away, let alone 10 feet or 20 feet or 50 feet away, the signboard immediately fades away into the Pathway user’s peripheral vision, or is minized to a point that it does not dominate or significantly impact the overall view (see Figures 16 and 17).
Figure 15: View when standing directly in front of a 24 x 36 inche signboard 12 Figure 16: View when standing 12 feet away from a 24 x 36 inch signboard 13 Figure 17: View when standing 25 feet away from a 24 x 36 inch signboard The website savestarkweatherpath.org also makes several disparaging remarks about the right of Coast Miwok to tell their story on this location. Members of savestarkweatherpath.org have made statements on NextDoor that essentially seek to erase the history of Native Americans from San Rafael, relying on pedantic arguments that “the Coast Miwok were not active on this particular shoreline because this shoreline was the result of mid-century bay fill.” We trust the City Council to see through the prejudice and the smoke and mirrors and allow the CanalArts project to go forward as planned.
Respectfully,
Patrick Seidler Matthew Hartzell
President, WTB-TAM Director of Planning, WTB-TAM CC:
Paul Navazio, San Rafael Acting City Manager
April Miller, San Rafael Public Works Director
Joanna Kwok, San Rafael Assistant Public Works Director San Rafael Parks and Open Space Director
Dennis Rodoni, District 4 Supervisor
Anne Richman, Transportation Authority of Marin Executive Director Derek McGill, Transportation Authority of Marin Director of Planning Jen Shriber and David Hoffman, Marin County Safe Routes to School Program Directors Nicola Szibbo, MTC Principal Engineer/Program Manager
Stephanie Moulton-Peters, MTC Vice Chair
Omar Carrera, Canal Alliance CEO
Rich Storek, CanalArts Executive Director