Adopting a corridor plan for 41st Avenue, Clares Street and Capitola Road

In plain English

The City Council is asked to adopt a long-range plan for Capitola's main commercial streets: 41st Avenue, parts of Clares Street around the Capitola Mall, and Capitola Road from the western city boundary to about 43rd Avenue. The plan, prepared by consultant SWA Group, sketches out conceptual street designs — green-painted bike lanes, removing some center turn lanes and midblock turns where crashes have occurred, new midblock pedestrian crossings on Clares Street, street trees, benches, public art, gateway signs and landscaping themes. A yes vote adopts the plan as guidance only: the resolution states it does not authorize construction, commit money, or approve any development application. Actual projects would still need engineering, environmental review, funding and future Council approval.

These are the streets most Capitola residents, shoppers and businesses use daily, and the plan sets the design expectations that future Capitola Mall redevelopment, capital projects and grant applications would follow — including a requirement in the recently adopted zoning that new projects provide a 20-foot minimum pedestrian area on private property.

Key facts

Adoption would be by resolution; the Plan was prepared under a professional services agreement with SWA Group authorized by the Council on March 27, 2025.
A survey open during August drew 807 responses: 40% residents, 28% visitors, 4% property owners, and 1.5% business owners.
After survey feedback, the plan was changed to keep two vehicle lanes in each direction on Clares Street and move the lane-reduction study to the appendix; 49.46% of respondents opposed the lane reduction and 34.87% supported it.
Other changes: close the southbound curb opening across from 2121 41st Avenue (police identified it as accident-prone), keep the southbound left-turn lane at 1440 41st Avenue open, and remove the emergency vehicle access across from Alameda.
Plan preparation is covered by existing appropriations; the staff report says future implementation will need significant additional funding over many years, with cost estimates in Appendix A.4, and that a possible development impact fee could be discussed in 2027.

Reasons to support

Capitola's 2026 Local Roadway Safety Plan found most injury collisions in the city happen along 41st Avenue, often from midblock turns out of a center turn lane; the plan targets those specific turning movements.
The plan went through extensive outreach — a survey with 197 respondents, an October 8, 2025 workshop with roughly 50 to 60 participants, stakeholder meetings, a virtual meeting, and an August survey with 807 responses — and was revised in response, including dropping the Clares Street lane reduction from the main document.
Adopting it creates a coordinated design framework for the city's largest anticipated redevelopment area at the Capitola Mall block, and gives the city a basis for grant applications and future capital projects without committing any funds now.

Reasons to oppose or change it

Business and property owner participation in the survey was low — only 4% property owners and 1.5% business owners, with just 11 business owners weighing in on landscaping — so the people whose frontages and customer access are most affected are thinly represented in the results that shaped the revisions.
Traffic and pedestrian safety was the top theme in open-ended comments, and Clares Street comments centered on congestion and traffic flow; the lane-reduction concept was moved to the appendix rather than dropped, so the Council could revisit it later.
Several specific changes reduce driver access — closing the curb opening across from 2121 41st Avenue, removing center turn lanes, and removing the left turn from the median into the mall — and survey support for removing center turn lanes was below half (48.61% in Section 01, 32.62% in Section 03).
The plan sets expectations, such as the 20-foot pedestrian realm on private property and a possible future zoning amendment requiring Clares Street redevelopment on both sides to dedicate frontage, that shift costs onto property owners when they rebuild.

Official wording

41st Avenue, Clares Street, and Capitola Road Corridor Plan Recommended Action: Adopt a resolution adopting the 41st Avenue, Clares Street, and Capitola Road Corridor Plan.

Official agenda

Summary written by claude-opus-5 from the agenda and the Staff report (agenda packet, pages 157-186). It can contain mistakes. The official documents govern.