Santa Ana : Planning Panel Urges Approval of Traffic Plan

The Planning Commission has recommended approval of a major traffic plan designed to protect the city’s mostly residential north-central neighborhood, which is heavily impacted by motorists--especially early-morning and late-afternoon commuters--seeking shortcuts to downtown.

The north-central area is generally bordered by the the Santa Ana Freeway and the Santa Ana River on the east and west, 17th Street on the south and the northern city limits.

The plan recommends 32 points of action and required seven separate commission votes, five of which were unanimous.

About 100 residents attended the three-hour hearing Monday night. Most of those speaking supported the bulk of the plan, which officials said is the result of hundreds of hours of work by residents, city staff and a traffic consultant.

The plan now moves to the City Council for final consideration April 15.

The portions of the plan that can be immediately implemented are expected to cost between $80,000 and $100,000, project director George Alvarez said. Other measures, such as the widening of a portion of Bristol Street, would cost “millions of dollars,” he said.

The purpose of the plan is to reroute traffic along designated thoroughfares to spare residential neighborhoods from noise, pollution and hazards associated with heavy traffic arteries, Alvarez said.

The plan is similar to one adopted three years ago for the northeast neighborhood. Implementation of the earlier plan resulted in a 30% reduction in the traffic volume in the area, officials said. A similar effect is anticipated from the north-central plan, Alvarez said.

Besides widening Bristol Street, recommended actions call for the effective widening of 17th Street by eliminating parking during peak hours, reopening the Broadway off-ramp of the southbound Santa Ana Freeway in July, closing the freeway’s Flower Street off-ramp, restricting turns at several intersections and installing stop signs at several others.

The commission decided not to go along with a staff recommendation for immediate installation of a stop sign at Flower Street and North Park Boulevard, opting instead to table the idea for three months until the effects of other stop signs are evaluated.