The Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) has picked the Marin projects it will put forward for the fourth round of the One Bay Area Grant program, known as OBAG 4. Nominations were due to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) on Oct. 31. A nomination doesn’t guarantee funding; MTC makes the final picks between January and March.
The money
According to TAM’s Oct. 22 board packet, Marin has about $14.1 million to work with. That’s $11.83 million in OBAG 4 money, $938,000 in Transportation Fund for Clean Air bikeway money and $1.336 million in state CARE funds. Nine applications asked for about $35 million in all. Staff chose a “strategic” approach that spreads money across all nine, rather than fully funding the top-ranked projects first.
Who’s in line
- San Rafael Canal Crossing: recommended for full funding.
- Marin Transit: $4.07 million, the minimum plan, for electrification at its bus facility. The full request was $9.95 million.
- San Rafael Merrydale Road path: cut from $2.4 million to $2 million to make room for Mill Valley, according to the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce.
- Mill Valley: $453,000 to design a roundabout at Miller Avenue, Montford Avenue and La Goma Street. The city had asked for about $2.5 million to design and build it.
- SMART pathway: all $938,000 in clean-air bikeway money.
- CARE funds: $500,000 for a Marin City secondary access study, $279,000 for Novato’s North Redwood Boulevard corridor study, $200,000 for a Novato community transportation plan and $357,000 for a Canal neighborhood ADA pathway in San Rafael.
Backup list
If San Rafael’s projects win other state or regional grants, up to $6.958 million could be freed up. In that case the money would go next to Marin Transit, then Merrydale, the SMART pathway and Mill Valley’s roughly $2.1 million construction gap. Those other grant decisions may not come until the end of the year or early 2027.