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What’s happening: The Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) voted unanimously Thursday to nominate $453,000 for design work at Miller Avenue, Montford Avenue and La Goma Street. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) makes the final call between January and March. Money would reach the city in the second half of 2027 at the earliest. Mill Valley asked for $2.5 million to design and build a single-lane roundabout. The city has committed about 20% of the $3.2 million project cost, or $634,000.

Why it matters: Consultant Kittelson & Associates ranked this intersection the top priority in an 11-intersection corridor study, citing 31 crashes between 2015 and 2024. Councilmember Urban Carmel told fellow TAM board members the intersection links all of the city’s schools to downtown and the library, and feeds traffic toward Panoramic Highway, Muir Woods and Stinson Beach.
Until a permanent fix arrives, the city is running a temporary pilot that replaced the left-turn lanes with protected pedestrian buffers. It has been in place since Aug. 3. The city is surveying residents ahead of a three-month evaluation, after which it will recommend keeping, revising or removing the changes.
The context: MTC records reviewed by the Briefing show Mill Valley has received nothing from the One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) across the three cycles completed since 2012. TAM staff ranked this year’s application last of nine. The city’s application and MTC’s mapping place the intersection outside the priority growth zones OBAG weighs most heavily.
The award exists because TAM staff chose a “strategic” list over a straight top-down ranking. Under top-down, Mill Valley gets nothing. Under the strategic list, the $453,000 comes out of San Rafael’s Merrydale Road path, which drops from $2.4 million to $2 million.
Miller Avenue has had regional money before, just not from this program. TAM’s Measure A sales tax paid for the corridor’s rehabilitation, which its 2018 strategic plan ranked as the first-priority Major Roads project in southern Marin. Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters sat on the Mill Valley City Council and chaired TAM when it adopted that plan. She told the board Thursday that Measure A provided $15 million for the work, money not every city received.
The discussion: Carmel thanked staff for the city’s first OBAG allocation, then asked whether Mill Valley could be shielded if MTC trims Marin’s awards. “We just want to get going on this project,” he said. TAM Executive Director Anne Richman said MTC could drop a project outright, which TAM could not offset. If MTC orders across-the-board cuts, TAM could spread them as it chose.
Moulton-Peters, who also sits on MTC, moved that any Mill Valley reduction be no more than $50,000, with the rest taken from other projects. Richman said direction was enough, so TAM Chair and San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin did not call a vote on the motion. The direction: protect enough money to get the project started.
What’s next: Mill Valley’s $2.1 million construction gap sits fourth on TAM’s contingency list, behind Marin Transit, San Rafael’s Merrydale project and SMART’s pathway. That money exists only if other Marin projects win grants elsewhere and free up OBAG dollars. Those decisions may not come until the end of the year.