Downtown Forestville has three separate road projects, run by two agencies, on about four blocks of pavement. Most of the talk at this spring's meetings treated them as one big change. They're actually scheduled as a sequence, and that sequence shapes what Front Street will look and drive like for several years. The county's safety work on Front Street is forecast first. The Mirabel Road corridor follows. Caltrans repaves the highway after that, and regrading the road itself is scheduled for later still.
So the painted lines are scheduled to move before the asphalt does.
The Order on Paper
Here's how the schedules line up, using each agency's own documents as of late October 2026.
| Project | Who runs it | Where | Status | Construction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front Street Active Transportation Project | Sonoma County Public Infrastructure, with a Caltrans permit | Front Street/Hwy 116, Mirabel Road to Covey Road | Forecast: Caltrans encroachment permit in spring–fall 2026 | Forecast start fall 2026–fall 2027, end fall 2027–spring 2028 |
| Mirabel Road Corridor Improvements and West County Trail | Sonoma County Public Infrastructure | Mirabel Road, SR 116 to River Road | Approved by the Board of Supervisors June 2, 2026; in design and right-of-way acquisition | Expected to begin third quarter of 2027 |
| Route 116 Capital Preventive Maintenance | Caltrans District 4 | SR 116, Church Street in Monte Rio to Mill Station Road near Sebastopol | Approved by Caltrans June 29, 2026 | Planned start summer 2029 |
The Front Street dates are the county's forecast, from a Sonoma County Public Infrastructure presentation. Its first milestone, finishing engineering design in spring 2026, has already passed. The public record doesn't yet show a permit, a bid or a start date. The fall 2026 window was a projection, and it's still just a projection.
Front Street First, and Most of It Was Forestville's Own Request
Most of the Front Street project is the part nobody argued about. The county's plan lists:
- Rectangular rapid flashing beacons at crosswalks
- Bulb-outs, ADA ramps and decorative lighting
- A dedicated eastbound bus pullout in front of Oaks Park
- New sidewalk along Oaks Park, plus shorter stretches elsewhere
- A 10-foot multi-use path
- Advance warning signs near Mirabel
At Covey Road, the turn lane goes away so the crosswalks can be realigned, which the Forestville Chamber of Commerce says improves crossings for schoolchildren. In an account for the Chamber, published by the Sebastopol Times on April 11, volunteer Dan Northern wrote that the Chamber asked for these changes in 2014. He also wrote that the work is funded with more than $4 million in local quarry fees and designed by the county. Front Street is State Highway 116, so Caltrans has to sign off.
That approval is where the disagreement started. According to the Chamber's account, Caltrans required the project to include Class II bike lanes, which are 5-foot striped lanes, in both directions between Mirabel and Covey.
Forty Feet of Highway, Divided Differently
Northern's piece gives the downtown highway as 40 feet wide. Fitting two bike lanes into that width means narrowing both travel lanes from 12 feet to 11. It also means removing all on-street parallel parking on the north side between Mirabel and Covey, except for a couple of spaces in front of La Rosa, plus a few other spaces. The Chamber estimates 15 to 20 spaces would go in total.
The Chamber has pushed for Class III routes instead. Those are sharrows painted in the existing travel lanes, which would keep the 12-foot lanes and most of the parking. Northern pointed to the West County Trail, which runs parallel to Front Street one block west, as the route for families and less confident riders. He also wrote that in a community survey last fall, 70 percent of more than 400 participants chose Class III over Class II.
Bike advocates see the narrower lanes as the safety feature itself. Eris Weaver, executive director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, told The Press Democrat that bike lanes and narrower travel lanes slow traffic and make the road safer for everyone using it. "Sixty percent of people say they would like to ride a bike more but are too afraid," she said.
Fifth District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins described the gap between the two agencies' views in the same Press Democrat report. "To the state, it's a highway," she said. "But to us, it's Main Street." The paper reported that the county was working with Caltrans on alternatives to the parking loss. The county's presentation still shows Class II lanes and 11-foot travel lanes. It lists the Class II versus Class III question and reduced parking among the public comments, but no revised design has been published.
The Four-Foot Gap Between Paint and Pavement
The order of the projects matters most here. Narrower travel lanes plus two bike lanes shift the highway's centerline 4 feet north between Mirabel and Covey. In the Chamber's account, the county's Front Street phase restripes the road but doesn't move the physical crown, the hump in the middle of the pavement. Until the crown moves, Northern wrote, a car in the eastbound lane would sit with half its body on each side of it. He wrote that Caltrans has scheduled the regrading for a later phase, in 2030 or later.
Caltrans also has a separate highway project that runs on an earlier schedule. Its Route 116 Capital Preventive Maintenance project covers paving, culvert replacement and widening for pedestrian and bicycle travel between Monte Rio and a point near Sebastopol. Caltrans' project page puts the start in summer 2029 but doesn't say whether that work moves the crown through downtown. The Press Democrat put the cost at about $34 million for the 16-mile corridor and reported that the state is proposing Class II bike lanes on Highway 116 from Monte Rio to Sebastopol. Caltrans approved the project on June 29, 2026, when it issued its Notice of Determination.
If Front Street construction lands anywhere in its forecast window, and the regrading follows on the timeline the Chamber describes, the gap between new paint and a moved crown could last several years. The exact length depends on schedules that aren't final.
One Block Over, a Bigger Budget
Mirabel Road meets Front Street at the west end of downtown. Its project is larger than the Front Street work and further along on paper. The Board of Supervisors approved the Mirabel Road Corridor Improvements and West County Trail project and its environmental document at its June 2, 2026 meeting. The staff report describes the scope:
- Widening Mirabel Road from SR 116 to River Road for Class II bike lanes
- Northbound and southbound left-turn lanes at the Davis Road and Giusti Road intersection
- An 8- to 10-foot Class I bike path, an extension of the West County Trail, along the east side of Mirabel from SR 116 to Davis Road
- Relocated drainage and utility poles, and upgraded curb ramps
The staff report estimates the full project at $10 million, with about $1.13 million spent so far. It identifies $3.8 million from Measure M and Go Sonoma grants and $3.7 million from countywide traffic impact fees, and lists $2.5 million as still being pursued. The report estimates the trail portion at $1,205,000. The county's FY 2026–27 Recommended Budget lists a separate figure for the 0.4-mile trail segment from Highway 116 to Forestville Youth Park: a $387,505 project budget, with $240,000 in new funding.
The trail extension ties the three projects together. In the Chamber's view, the West County Trail is where cyclists who want separation from traffic should ride. The Mirabel project carries that separation down to Forestville Youth Park, but construction isn't expected to begin until the third quarter of 2027. By the county's own forecasts, that's after the Front Street striping starts. Right-of-way acquisition, final design, bidding and award all still come first.
The Mirabel plan has also been through more public meetings than its Front Street neighbor. The staff report lists a Forestville Town Hall on March 27, 2025, an on-site meeting at Forestville Youth Park that May, the Youth Park Board of Directors, the River MAC in July 2025 and another Forestville Town Hall on February 5, 2026.
Front Street This Winter
For now, downtown's layout is the one Forestville already knows. The public comment period on Caltrans' environmental document ran through early May. The state project has been approved, and its construction is nearly three years out. The county's Front Street work is the only project whose forecast window is open right now, and it hasn't publicly announced a start.
The next large gathering on this stretch is already scheduled. The Forestville Holiday Faire is listed for Saturday, December 5, from 1 to 7 p.m., hosted by The Funky Forest at The Record Mill, 6566 Front Street. It will take place on the Front Street that has the north-side parallel parking, the 12-foot lanes and the crown where it's always been.
Changes like these show up in the day-to-day questions we hear about downtown Forestville, from parking near a Front Street storefront to how a property sits relative to the Mirabel corridor. If you'd like to talk through how these timelines might affect a home you own or are considering, Continuum Real Estate is glad to sit down with you and the county's documents.
