SANTA ANA : Traffic Control Plan Sparks Bitter Debate

At street corners and at the City Council meeting this week, both camps in a bitter debate over a northwest neighborhood group’s traffic-reduction proposal urged homeowners to vote in an informal advisory city election on the issue.

Proponents of the plan caused a traffic jam to make their point while opponents of the plan urged residents to vote down the proposal, arguing that the balloting procedure is unfair.

A ballot recently mailed to 3,500 homeowners allows them to vote on whether the city should adopt some or all of the Floral Park Traffic Committee’s proposal to restrict access to the area’s narrow residential streets. Those streets have been flooded with commuter traffic since construction began on the “Orange Crush” freeway interchange.

The plan calls for the construction of barriers at most of the entrances to the neighborhood bounded by Bristol Street on the west, 17th Street on the south, Broadway on the east and Memory and Sherwood lanes and the Santa Ana Freeway on the north.

On Monday mornings and evenings during rush hours, proponents of the plan carried signs saying “Commuter beware” and “Traffic plan--vote yes” and caused a traffic jam at the intersection of Santa Clara Avenue and Flower Street by repeatedly crossing the streets.

Committee members have said Santa Clara Avenue has seen 2,000 additional cars daily since freeway construction began. They support the plan because the faster and heavier traffic on residential streets has made them dangerous, especially to children.

Santa Ana Police Department spokesman Bob Helton said that stopping or delaying traffic unnecessarily violates the vehicle code and anyone doing so could be cited.

At the council meeting, opponents of the plan, including Flower Street resident Louis E. Anderson, decried the Floral Park members’ “childish” behavior in blocking the streets. Others said they oppose the way the balloting was being conducted, saying it excludes apartment residents who also use the streets. However, on Tuesday, city officials said ballots would be sent to those residents as well.

Many residents who live outside the Floral Park Committee’s boundaries have said the plan is a thinly disguised effort to increase property values by walling off the community and shunting traffic to the surrounding areas.

City staff will tally the votes Jan. 13 and report the findings at the council’s Jan. 21 meeting. The ballot breaks down the committee’s plan into 18 parts, ranging from reducing the speed limit on certain streets to the installation of traffic barriers and right-turn-only signs at some intersections.

At the council meeting, Tamy Lane resident Dan Oldewage said residents shouldn’t have to solve the traffic problems themselves. Instead, the city’s leaders should solve them. “The city has been irresponsible in turning it over to the residents. It’s accomplished only one thing: it’s taken a close-knit community and divided it.”