Costa Mesa council to consider plan for landscaped medians on Harbor Boulevard

Costa Mesa city leaders on Tuesday are expected to consider a project to build raised landscaped medians on Harbor Boulevard between Wilson and 19th streets, a proposal that has drawn scrutiny in the past from some residents and business owners.

Public Services Director Raja Sethuraman said while the project would enhance the look of the nearly 1-mile stretch of Harbor — where there’s currently an empty median — the main goal is to improve roadway safety.

Between 2008 and 2013, 84 midblock, or non-intersection, traffic collisions were reported on the stretch of road. Many of the crashes resulted in injuries, and one was fatal, Sethuraman said.

While the proposed raised medians wouldn’t eliminate crashes entirely, city staff expects it would reduce them by limiting where drivers can make left turns and slow traffic in the area.

“It would narrow down the wide appearance of the street and help bring speeds down, which will improve safety,” Sethuraman said Friday.

Medians along another stretch of Harbor, north of Wilson Street, were installed two years ago and provide the same benefits, he said.

If approved, the city plans to incorporate greenery, such as drought tolerant and Mediterranean-style landscaping, that is already present in the existing medians on Harbor.

However, some residents and business owners who attended community meetings in August 2016 and May on the topic questioned whether installing the medians might snarl traffic or make it difficult to access businesses along Harbor.

Some of those at the meeting in May said the project could harm local businesses because potential customers would have to make U-turns or plan alternate routes to get around the medians.

Others said the medians themselves could create a safety issue because the landscaping might block the view of oncoming traffic.

The city has made several tweaks to the project following the meetings — such as eliminating proposed medians in front of the 99 Cents Only store and the Maaco body shop and reducing the size of the proposed medians at Harbor and 19th Street and Hamilton Avenue and Bay Street.

The project, which is expected to cost more than $900,000, will be funded, in part, by a $423,100 grant from the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program. The remaining cost — roughly $500,000 — will be funded through the state gas tax, Measure M2 — a transportation sales tax approved in 2011 — and the city’s general fund, according to a city staff report.

If the council signs off on the proposal Tuesday, the city will launch its final design phase and request approval from the California Department of Transportation.

Construction, which is estimated to take roughly four months, could begin by next spring or early summer, Sethuraman said.

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