"Holy smokes," Councilmember Ian Sobieski said at the Sausalito City Council meeting in July, as reported by the Marin Independent Journal. "To go from what we were looking at a few months ago to adding 30 spaces is magic."
Sobieski was talking about Caledonia Street. For more than a year a state law had been pointing toward fewer parking spaces on the six blocks that serve as Sausalito's everyday commercial street. The plan the council approved unanimously this summer moves the other way. It adds spaces, rebuilds the corners, and changes how the side streets work, especially for people who don't live there. The construction money came before the council this month, and on Saturday the whole street closes for a festival. This is a useful week to understand what is coming to Caledonia.
The arithmetic the state handed Caledonia
Assembly Bill 413 is a 2023 pedestrian safety law. It took effect on Jan. 1, 2025, and bars parking within 20 feet of most crosswalks, or within 15 feet of a curb extension. The idea is that drivers can see people stepping off a corner before they reach it.
On Caledonia, where cars park on both sides and the corners come quickly, a strict reading of the law would have removed 21 spaces along the street and its side streets, according to the Marin IJ's July coverage. The paper's April report put the number at 22. That is a real loss on a corridor the July article describes as already short of parking.
The council looked for a softer path. Members asked whether flashing crosswalks or lower speed limits could satisfy the state requirement, and the city attorney said they could not, the Marin IJ reported. The law leaves one real option. Red curbs can be shortened when a city adds other safety features, such as sidewalk corners that extend into the intersection. The rest of this story grows out of that provision.
Why the corners got a designer
Back in July 2025 the council directed staff to gather community input and look for safety improvements that might keep Caledonia's parking. A $34,860 traffic study was approved then. By this April it still hadn't been carried out, and staff came back proposing $30,000 more for a design consultant.
At that April meeting, a line of Caledonia business owners and local architects asked the council to put urban designers in charge of the project rather than traffic engineers. Terry Lang, owner of Tivoli Decor on Caledonia, told the council the street "has character, charm and a real sense of community," according to the Marin IJ's account. Joseph Roland of J. Roland Salon asked for a fuller study covering architecture, landscape and urban design. Adam Driver, owner of Driver's Market and Deli at Caledonia and Turney, asked for a plan covering the whole neighborhood, including traffic flow and beautification.
Mayor Steven Woodside agreed. "Let's take this one opportunity that we have to do it right," he said, according to the same Marin IJ report. The council approved the $30,000. That spring the city hired SWA Group, a landscape and urban design firm, to work with its traffic consultant, Parametrix.
With designers involved, the July proposal treats the corners as usable public space. Curb extensions can be built from paint and flexible posts or from raised concrete. They can also hold benches, planter boxes and bike racks.
What the council approved in July
SWA designer Zachary Davis and public works staff presented the options on July 21, and the council backed them unanimously. Here are the pieces, with the parking counts from the staff report and the consultants' figures as the Marin IJ reported them:
Element | Where | Effect on parking |
|---|---|---|
Curb extensions plus restriping, with slightly shorter spaces | Intersections along Caledonia | About 104 spaces, which gets back 18 of the 21 lost to AB 413 for a net loss of 3 |
Perpendicular parking on one side, with a 24-foot two-way lane | Bee, Litho, Locust and Turney | 40 or more additional spaces |
Pilot with perpendicular parking on one side and parallel on the other | One side street, not yet named | Possibly more spaces |
Put the first two rows together and the neighborhood ends up ahead of where it was before AB 413. That is how the council arrived at the "30 or more" figure. Councilmember Joan Cox called it "what I have been hoping for ever since AB 413 was passed," the Marin IJ reported. The council then passed a second motion telling public works to try the side-street pilot.
The trade on the side streets
The added spaces come with a pricing change. Parking for neighborhood residents stays free, and meters for visitors would go in on the side streets. "Residential parking will continue to be free," Cox said, as quoted in the Marin IJ. "And, indeed, parking should be more plentiful in light of the creation of more spaces."
Merchants spoke for the plan and added two practical requests. Adam Driver supported it and asked that it not take away the ability to have delivery trucks. In the Marin IJ's account, Yoshi Tome, owner and chef of Sushi Ran, called the corner work and side-street parking "perfect for now." He added, "Caledonia Street is going through a huge transition in terms of businesses," and asked the council to consider letting visitors park for longer.
Part of that transition is happening at 37 Caledonia. Notte Divino opened there on July 24 in the former Osteria Divino space. It serves until midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with the kitchen closing at 10 p.m. Our summer roundup of the Sausalito waterfront covered the opening.
Where it stands this week
The project has moved from approval to funding. The council's Oct. 6 consent calendar included an item to appropriate $160,193.60 from the General Fund Reserve "to Implement the Construction of the Caledonia Street Restriping Project." The same item supports Amendment 1 to SWA's contract so the firm can keep working on streetscape beautification design. You can read it on the Oct. 6 agenda. The amendment matters because it keeps the larger design work going alongside the striping.
Several details are still open as of Oct. 11:
- The vote. The item was on the Oct. 6 agenda. We could not confirm the outcome, because the city's archive had no minutes posted for that meeting.
- The pilot street. None of the public material we reviewed names which side street gets the mixed perpendicular-and-parallel layout.
- Timing. We found no published start date for striping, corner work or meter installation.
- Permits. The city's homepage has a notice dated Sept. 16 for residential parking permit renewals, due by Oct. 15. Nothing in it signals a change to how Caledonia-area permits work.
The council meets next on Oct. 20.
Saturday, the street runs without cars
On Saturday, Oct. 17, Caledonia closes to cars for a day, including the side streets the plan would restripe. A Toast to Sausalito runs from 1 to 5 p.m. on Caledonia between Pine and Bee. It is presented by the city's Parks and Recreation Department and the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, and entry is free. The festival has run before, with a 2024 edition on record. Tasting wristbands are capped at 1,000.
The closures run longer than the festival:
- Caledonia from Johnson to Bee closes from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.
- Litho, Turney and Pine close to through traffic between Bridgeway and Bonita for the same hours.
- Locust between Caledonia and Bonita closes to through traffic starting at 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, for stage construction, and reopens at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The city asks festivalgoers not to park in residential neighborhoods. Bike racks will be at Johnson and Caledonia, and a free shuttle runs between the Ferry Plaza and the event. Sausalito residents 60 and older can get a free ride from CARSS volunteers by calling 415-944-5474. The Caledonia Merchants Association will run a booth selling cocktails, beer and wine by the drink, and a water refill station will be set up near Locust and Caledonia. Dogs should stay home.
Three days later, on Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Sausalito Historical Society hosts "Growing Up in Sausalito" from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sausalito Cruising Club. Longtime residents will share memories of growing up in town between the 1950s and the 2000s.
Paul O'Neil is your local Southern Marin Real Estate Agent. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
