Tonight’s City Council meeting includes the funding of a study and the development of plans for a boardwalk along the western side of San Pablo Avenue from John Muir Parkway to Sycamore Avenue. According to the design proposal, the boardwalk will be “10 feet wide minimum with areas extending to 15-20 feet wide to accommodate seating and bus shelters.”

A concern with any boardwalk over wetlands is the potential for littering and the subtle destruction of the underlying wetlands. Strict enforcement and aggressive clean-up will be required to keep the area clean, especially around the bus shelter. Maintenance of the boardwalk itself over time may become costly, but that is a reasonable cost for a pedestrian feature much nicer than a typical concrete sidewalk — and safer too, if the boardwalk is largely constructed away from the roadway, and not immediately adjacent (except where the boardwalk meets the bus shelter area), although no plans or schematics have yet been released.

The bus shelter will likely be located at the existing transit center entrance, albeit on the southern side of San Pablo Avenue. This may eventually be tied into the pedestrian crossing for access to the new Market Town at New Town Center, which will be built upon the existing park-and-ride lot across the street.

The proposal includes some confusing language. The boardwalk is presumably elevated and supported on a series of columns since the existing ground level is several feet below the adjacent San Pablo Avenue (and the elevation at which the boardwalk would seemingly rest). The proposal states however (emphasis mine), that the City “proposes to install a boardwalk at grade, directly behind the existing curb on San Pablo Avenue.” It is possible that the definition of “at grade” has changed, but probably not. Most likely, the intent is to match the elevation of San Pablo Avenue with the proposed boardwalk, which is to be made of composite decking. If the intent were to construct the boardwalk “at grade,” filling of the wetlands to create a level pad adjacent to the roadway would be required, but that would effectively rule out using composite decking.