There are always transportation issues in...

There are always transportation issues in Orange County,

especially now that the population has grown to more than three

million people and counting.

Solutions continue to be sought, whether it’s by building a tunnel

through the mountains to travel between the county and Riverside

County or by creating a light-rail system that allows commuters to

leave their cars at home to go shopping or to work.

In Costa Mesa, the latter has been suggested and city leaders are

urging county transportation officials to consider putting the

Centerline rail system underground through the city. It’s an ongoing

issue that will continue to be discussed for years to come.

A transportation issue Costa Mesa officials would rather never

hear about again concerns bridges over the Santa Ana River at 19th

Street and Gisler Avenue. Both bridges were put in the county’s

master plan during the 1950s. Much has changed since then, including

the aforementioned population influx. Now Fountain Valley has

suggested that the Gisler option be studied and, again, Costa Mesa

leaders are more than hesitant.

On Tuesday, City Editor James Meier stopped by Costa Mesa City

Hall to discuss such issues and other construction projects with

Peter Naghavi, the city’s transportation services manager.

How many more times will we hear about proposals for 19th Street

and Gisler Avenue bridges before they’re formally erased from the

county’s master plan?

I hope no more, really, to be very honest with you. A final study

we started a few years ago concluded that these two bridges could be

deleted. Some mitigation would have to be done in its place, which in

fact would cost less than if we actually constructed the bridges.

So, it is very much possible to have a good transportation system

that’s well balanced without both of the bridges. I am hoping that

within the next couple of months that this issue will probably be

followed through with the [Orange County Transportation Authority]

and that they’re removed from the county’s plan.

In our traffic model, we show that the bridges are there, and

therefore we distribute future traffic using the bridges. In reality,

the bridges are not there and hopefully will never be there, but yet

we have allowed so much development because of them. That is why the

city wants them removed once and for all so that when we consider all

of these developments and traffic studies, we have a more realistic

view of what it will be like.

At some point about three years ago, I remember Banning Ranch was

going to have 2,400 houses there. This was assuming there was going

to be a 19th Street bridge. Without it, they probably would have

approved many less houses. So those are the types of problems we

have.

Just the notion of this coming up recently has actually moved the

two cities [Fountain Valley and Costa Mesa] further apart.

Just that just come out of the blue?

I received a telephone call from an individual and then I

contacted the city of Fountain Valley’s traffic engineer, as well as

the city clerk, to receive copies of the staff report and, sure

enough, it was there.

I couldn’t believe it that after 10 years of working cooperatively

to come up with a consensus to do something about this, all of a

sudden we hear that the city put it on the council agenda. In my

opinion, it’s just a waste of taxpayers’ money.

I was really taken with the lack of communication. I was hoping

that at least professionally they would give us the courtesy of just

contacting us to let us known it’s happening.

If you had to choose one, which would be better for Costa Mesa?

I wouldn’t choose either one. I don’t believe either one is

necessary.

The reason is that you have adequate crossings at different

locations. You have MacArthur Boulevard, the [San Diego Freeway],

which is a major connector, Adams, Victoria and then you have [Coast

Highway]. So you have more than adequate crossing at different

locations.

Particularly Gisler makes no sense at all. It really does not.

What Costa Mesa construction projects do residents have to look

forward to in 2003?

During 2003-04, they can look forward to the continuation of our

freeway projects. As you know, we have been in the process of

building offramps and onramps and building more bridge structures to

ease traffic congestion and Costa Mesa access entrances at Avenue of

the Arts, Bristol Street and Hyland Avenue. Some of them have been

completed and are open to the public now. Some are still under

construction and it’ll go through June 2004. So about a year and a

half to go.

Besides that, next year, you’ll probably see Harbor Boulevard and

Victoria intersection construction, where we’ll be adding right-turn

lanes.

You will see on the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway frontage road at

Victoria, we will add some lanes to get rid of some p.m. peak

problems.

We will be adding a traffic signal at Maple and Victoria.

We’ll hopefully be under construction at Harbor and Gisler and the

[San Diego] Freeway because that intersection’s service level is

almost “F.” If that bridge were there, we would be dead. That

intersection is already over capacity. It’s as simple as that.

We will start a lot of major projects, not with construction, but

in the design process. One of the biggest is the Fairview Road bridge

over the San Diego Freeway. We will be widening that to accommodate a

third southbound left-turn lane onto the southbound freeway. As a

result, we have to widen the receiving onramp. That’s a major project

as a result of Home Ranch development.

We will have a major project at the [San Diego] Freeway at Harbor

where we will add one more northbound lane to make it four lanes. We

will move the freeway walls back a little bit to make it possible,

much like southbound Harbor at the freeway that we just finished a

couple of years ago.

The entire intersection of Harbor at South Coast Drive will be

under construction next year to add right-turn and left-turn lanes.

We will add another lane on Harbor from South Coast to Sunflower

Avenue. The intersection of Susan Street and South Coast will be

under construction next year because of Home Ranch.

We hopefully will take on the environmental design process for

17th Street and Santa Ana Avenue, and 17th and Orange Avenue, if

grant applications that we just submitted are successful.

So there will be quite a bit of work going on. And there will be

little studies here and there. Hopefully, we’ll start the

environmental process for the Newport Boulevard widening between 17th

and 19th streets. That should hopefully be awarded by January. The

left-hand turn lane at Newport and 17th is the longest in the county.

When will Costa Mesans be able to use Centerline, in your

guesstimation?

If everything goes based on the plans we have today and the

schedule we have today, it could be operational in 2011. The OCTA

feels that it could be expedited two years. So if everything goes

well, it could be 2009 when systems are operational.

How realistic is that in your mind?

I think if we could stop the negative politics, it could be done.

All three cities are very interested. The city of Costa Mesa has

really been the only city through the entire 13 years that has never

asked for something from the OCTA, and we have always been 100%

supportive of this system.

So I’m hoping that this time around, it gets somewhere.

Now, you said Costa Mesa hasn’t asked for anything in the 13

years. Until now?

That’s right. This [undergrounding request through Costa Mesa] is

our first major request. And we think it makes sense because if you

assume that an underground system is warranted in a downtown area

like you see in major metropolitan areas, this area of Costa Mesa

[South Coast Metro] is considered the downtown of Orange County

because it has the highest intensity land use, highest employment

center, highest retail center. These are opportunities for ridership,

but there are also opportunities for a lot of congestion.

So, from the point of view of operation, with so many pedestrian

activities in that area and so much traffic congestion right next to

the freeway -- aesthetics and noise also being issues -- we feel that

this at least be studied -- we’re not asking for construction.

This does two things for a city. One, instead of asking this

question 25 years later to the staff, “You stupid staff, did you ever

even think about this?” you would find the answer. Secondly, this one

year of studying would provide us an opportunity to be able to sit

down with business owners and developers in that area to discuss how

we can form a joint venture to reduce the costs. And business and

property owners in that area are 100% behind this request to study

the underground option.

So, for the fee that it may cost to do this study, it is

definitely worth answering a question that 25 years later someone is

going to have. At the end of the process, if the study shows it’s not

a feasible thing, I’ll be the first person to back off. But at this

point, I will not.

So we will submit a letter from our City Council to the OCTA Board

of Directors in January to request the study.

Any final thoughts?

Well, I never thought I’d last here 13 years. I thought maybe a

few year, but it’s been such a great opportunity. There’s always some

serious matter happening or very exciting projects happening. And it

feels like home. It feels like I own the city and I want to do my

best.