Marin County Board of Supervisors Listen To Public Comment On Parking Congestion on Muir Woods Road

By Bay City News Service, image via National Park Service website

The Marin County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning heard public comment on a proposal to alleviate crowded parking and traffic congestion on a road to the National Park Service’s Muir Woods National Monument, which draws 1 million visitors per year.

The remedies are included in a draft memorandum of understanding between the National Park Service and Marin County. The board will discuss any changes to the MOU at its June 30 meeting.

The MOU states that as many as 400 vehicles park along the shoulder of Muir Woods Road, also known as Franks Valley Road, during peak visitation periods.

Speakers at the hearing Tuesday morning said the number of parked cars and traffic on the road present a threat to public safety and an environmental threat to salmon and other wildlife in the Redwood Creek Watershed. Under the MOU, the National Park Service will create a reservation system for visitors in order to limit visitation levels, reduce peak attendance, traffic congestion and parking demand. Then over the next two and a half years, parking will be limited to 80 spaces south of the Redwood Creek bridge on Muir Woods Road, then to 40 spaces for the next two and a half years.

After that five-year period, there would be no parking spaces south of the bridge. Thirty spaces north of the bridge and park entrance will also remain available under the MOU.

Several speakers urged the Board of Supervisors to reduce parking along Muir Woods Road much sooner, suggesting only 80 vehicles within the next year, and they questioned if and how the parking reduction would be enforced. Some speakers also said the MOU should contain provisions for lower entrance fees to Muir Woods National Monument for lower-income visitors. One woman said eliminating, not limiting, parking along the road is the solution. Some speakers also were concerned about increased bus traffic in the Mount Tam Valley area and at Muir Woods. “Mount Tam Valley is locked down on any given sunny day,” one speaker said.

Supervisor Kathrin Sears said the MOU is a negotiated agreement and isn’t going to be 100 percent of what anybody wants. “But it’s a tremendously important step forward,” Sears said. Supervisor Steve Kinsey said he favors reducing parking along Muir Woods Road to 80 spaces by June 1, 2016.