High Hopes for Palmetto Avenue

The Palmetto Avenue is up for a makeover, and local business and civic leaders aspire to make it Pacifica's equivalent to San Carlos's Laurel St, a walkable, shopper-friendly attractive to both locals and tourists. 

Through joined efforts between the re-established Palmetto Business Association (PBA) and Pacifica city government, beautification of the Palmetto Avenue business district is anticipated to begin in 2012.

Only one obstacle stands in the way of this redevelopment, however: funding.

The city has not yet released an estimated date of when the Palmetto streetscape will be completed. Assistant City Planner Diaz says that the completion of the project is dependent on funding, without which current plans are subject to change. 

Diaz is currently in the process of searching for grant funding from state and federal government sources for which the City of Pacifica will qualify.

If funding is found and all goes according to plan, the re-designed Palmetto streetscape will be concentrated between Paloma and Clarendon Avenues, as this area is most heavily concentrated with businesses. 

The Pacifica City Council has approved the proposed Palmetto streetscape plans, said Diaz. Construction should be underway in 2012 following P.G. & E's scheduled undergrounding of utilities. 

"When the undergrounding is done, the sidewalks will be improved and widened and new streetlights will be installed," says Diaz. "The plan is to complete the project in phases."

Other prominent features of the streetscape will include "street furniture," such as benches and waste baskets, decorative planters and trees, and re-designed street signage.

The current models of street signage suggest a renaming of the district to the Palmetto Historic District. The city contracted Tanaka Design Group, a San Francisco-based landscape architecture and urban design company, to create artistic renderings of this signage, as well as the street design and other proposed elements within the district.

Chris Porter and Cheryl Yoes, co-chairs of PBA, were involved in the streetscape planning from its earliest beginnings.

Porter says that the recently re-established business association came about as as a result of the planning efforts to give local business owners a voice in the city government's plans for the district.

"The idea came from council person Mary Ann Nihart and the City Manager Steve Rhodes," says Porter. "The organization can hopefully be a conduit between P.G. & E. and the businesses, and just keep everything moving."

At the time of publishing this article, 68 businesses have joined the Palmetto Business Association and Porter expects continued membership growth. 

Membership is open to all business owners based on Palmetto Avenue, and no dues are required.

Yoes and Porter are also both on the Board of Directors of the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce. "That helps too," says Porter, "because we can bring that information back to our members."

When utility undergrounding begins, Porter anticipates that businesses will be required to file paperwork. One of the plans of the association is to work with businesses to streamline this process.

"With the undergrounding of the utilities, everyone is very excited," said Porter. "Any change or improvement benefits everyone."