Orange : Council to Vote on Plan for 1.6-Mile Highway

The Orange City Council on Oct. 22 will decide on a controversial proposal to build a 1.6-mile highway connecting the Anaheim Hills to Orange after a 4 1/2-hour debate Tuesday attended by 180 residents.

The plan calls for a two-lane road within a roadbed that could be expanded to six lanes if needed. It would run from Loma Street in Orange north to Imperial Highway in the Anaheim Hills and is expected to eventually accommodate about 40,000 vehicles a day.

An alternative route that would extend Imperial Highway west, rather than south to Loma, was presented Tuesday by Ed Neis, chairman of a group of 3,000 homeowners opposed to the project.

Many residents told the City Council that the project would reduce property values and increase noise and traffic in the area. “Everybody purchased property there because of the quiet, serene atmosphere,” said Neis.

An environmental impact report prepared by the city indicates that the route has been part of the county’s Master Plan for roads since the early 1960s. Construction of a north-south artery is necessary, the report states, to improve traffic circulation in that section of the county and to provide access to a developing area.

Construction could be completed in about two years, said City Engineer Gary Johnson. He said the cost is estimated at $2.8 million.

However, Orange will have to bear only a small portion of the cost, he added, because Southern California Edison Co. will pay for a mile of the highway that crosses property belonging to the utility. Another quarter-mile outside the Edison property is within the city, but a developer building single-family homes and apartments on the land has agreed to pay for that portion, said Johnson. The remaining stretch is in Anaheim and would be covered by bond money collected from developers in that city.