Carmageddon: Capitola City Council adopts 41st Avenue corridor plan

The 41st Avenue, Clares Street, and Capitola Road Corridor Plan is officially a go, with the Capitola City Council officially adopting the plan at its meeting on Thursday evening.

The plan has been in development since March 2025, when the city first authorized a professional services agreement to begin preparing the plan. Since then, the city has conducted numerous community outreach efforts, public workshops and a survey that included responses from nearly 200 residents.

Although the plan originally focused on just the 41st Avenue area, in late 2025, the council requested that staff expand the plan to include parts of Clares Street and Capitola Road in order to emphasize the need to plan the road improvements in conjunction with the Capitola Mall redevelopment area. Following the change in scope, urban design and planning firm SWA Group started analysis on the new areas. After more outreach efforts, the plan is now up for consideration.

The plan seeks to improve pedestrian safety, bicycle connectivity, traffic flow, public spaces and beautification. According to a staff report, it also supports implementing the new zoning to facilitate higher-density and mixed-use development as part of the Capitola Mall redevelopment. The changes include extended medians along parts of 41st Avenue, new signage and bicycle facilities along and around the corridor.

The Clares Street component that was added to the plan was the main point of debate and negotiation during the council discussion. It involved the removal of a lane, but Capitola Community Development Director Katie Herlihy said that the vision did not receive enough support to keep it in the main plan, so staff moved it to an appendix. Herlihy added that six out of nine business owners opposed it in the survey, along with 33 out of 57 employees, 133 out of 258 residents and 79 out of 191 visitors.

Councilmember Melinda Orbach took issue with this, saying that roughly just 3% of the city’s population making the decision is a mistake: “That is a very small percentage compared to the total population in our community who live and shop in this area.”

She further elaborated on her feelings later on, reiterating that the main goal of the plan is to create a more travelable corridor that supports the local economy, public spaces and future housing. She said she believes that making Clares Street into a more bikeable, walkable road is vital for that vision.

“We’re fumbling this opportunity away because less than 300 people don’t like the idea of an insignificant delay in their automobile trips,” she said. “If we want economic vitality in our commercial corridor — which is responsible for 82% of our sales tax revenue, by the way — we better start thinking about how we’re going to get people here safely to do their shopping.”

Orbach eventually offered a motion to adopt the plan, but to put the lane-reduction study back into the main plan and to seek out grant opportunities for near-term improvements. Councilmember Gerry Jensen offered an amendment to hold off on the grant process until the city’s future active transportation plan is set and the overall vision is confirmed. Orbach accepted the amendment, and the motion passed unanimously.

The city’s active transportation plan is expected to be completed in early 2028, and the 41st Avenue corridor plan will serve as the more granular plan for the city’s main artery.

Latest news

Here’s what’s happening this week on our roadways:

• Utility and shoulder work is shutting down one lane in various sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Those sections are between Fall Creek Bridge and Fall Creek Road, Ramona Drive and Stapp Road, Tin Can Ranch Road and Skyline to Sea Trail, and El Solyo Heights Drive and Graham Hill/Bennett Street.

• Paving is causing overnight closures of one lane of Highway 17 from Sims Road to Beulah Park/La Madrona, as well as the northbound on- and off-ramps at Sims Road from Monday through Wednesday between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

• The southbound Highway 1 off-ramp at Bay Avenue in Capitola is in the third month of a four-month closure that began Aug. 2, as crews reconstruct the ramp as part of the bus-on-shoulder facility. 

• Roadway excavation is shutting down the southbound Highway 1 on-ramp at Park Avenue in Capitola until Nov. 19.

• Bridge work is currently shutting down alternating lanes of Highway 9 between Pool Drive and Old County Highway and Riverdale Park and Monaco Lane until April 30, 2027.

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