Popular Shortcut Due for a Slowdown : Costa Mesa OKs Stop Signs, but Neighbors Ask for More

The Costa Mesa City Council last week came to the aid of a beleaguered neighborhood whose residents say they have been been overrun by traffic.

Federal, Monrovia and Placentia avenues, all in the Freedom Homes tract, are located between the Costa Mesa Industrial Park and the Victoria Street bridge, and are often used as shortcuts by commuters en route to the bridge. Aside from the Pacific Coast Highway, the bridge provides the only convenient access to Huntington Beach.

Thousands of cars a day are using these streets, the city says. Residents say the traffic is endangering children and pets and adversely affecting the neighborhood.

After an hourlong public hearing, the City Council on Monday night approved a motion to create four-way stops at Monrovia Avenue at both Oak and 20th streets. Some residents are not sure that that will be enough, however.

“I’ve really started to call it the Federal freeway,” said Linda Marshall, who has lived in the same house at the corner of Federal and 20th for 16 years. “It’s gotten considerably worse. Lots of animals have been hit and killed, and thank God no children have been killed, but it’s only a matter of time,” she said.

Marshall and many of her neighbors are requesting that Federal Avenue, which handles more than 6,000 car trips per day, be closed to through traffic.

“It’s the rush-hour traffic and especially the motorcycles we’re worried about,” said Vickie Findlay, who, with her husband Rick and their 5-month-old daughter Rachael, lives next door to Marshall.

Barricades have been proposed where Federal, Continental and Monrovia avenues cross 20th Street, thus preventing the three avenues from being used by through traffic, but no decision will be made until traffic engineers present a report to the council at a Sept. 16 meeting.

Reroute Traffic

Residents of the heavily traveled streets are hoping that the city will approve the modifications that would reroute through traffic to Placentia Street, which is a major artery.

“In the evenings, from 4:30 to 5:30, it’s just impossible to get in or out of the driveway,” said Larry Fierman, who lives at what he calls the “exact, geographic center” of the problem, on Monrovia between Victoria and 19th streets.

Fierman, who has 9- and 10-year-old sons, says his children are forbidden to ride their bicycles during the peak traffic hours and “riding bikes to school is totally impossible.”

Monday night’s council decision directs the city’s traffic engineering division to continue study of the problem, creating four-way stops at the corners of Monrovia and Oak and Monrovia and 20th, until a further assessment is made.

In September, the traffic division is due to report back to the council regarding the feasibility of creating cul-de-sacs on some of the streets. The city will also be monitoring the county’s progress in the construction of a 19th Street bridge that, when complete, should further alleviate the heavy traffic flow through Costa Mesa’s residential areas.

Never Discussed Problem

Councilman Dave Wheeler said that before Monday night’s public hearing, the council had never discussed the problem. But “there is a sincere desire to rectify it,” he said.

Wheeler said he believes that the council will ultimately approve the barricades, and attributed the problem to “increased growth and density in the commercial and industrial areas of Costa Mesa.

“Too bad for the motorists who are going to lose three minutes. We have to protect the residential quality of the neighborhood,” Wheeler said.

An environmental impact report on traffic conditions in the area may be prepared, but the council has not yet requested such a report, according to traffic engineer Herb Burnham.