Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Council OKs Widening Stretch of Victoria St.

About 270 people face displacement from their homes in a street widening project approved by the City Council. The project calls for expanding a 1.3-mile stretch of Victoria Street from two to four lanes.

The project, approved by a 4 to 1 vote of the council Monday, will cost an estimated $14 million and could take up to 12 years to complete, city officials said.

Councilman Dave Wheeler cast the only vote opposing the plan to widen Victoria between Harbor Boulevard and Canyon Drive.

Wheeler, along with about 70 Victoria Street residents who attended the council session, said his opposition was based on the belief that city staff members did not give enough consideration to alternatives to widening the street that he said would forestall the demolition of 63 single-family homes and 30 apartments and condominiums.

But City Manager Allan Roeder said that after four years of study, staff members had concluded that this section of Victoria Street had to be widened because the number of cars traveling along it in the next 20 years would nearly double, from 15,000 to 28,000 daily.

“This would be in excess of what a two-lane road could carry,” Roeder said. He said Victoria had become congested in recent years because it is used as a shortcut for commuters traveling between Huntington Beach and Irvine.

Costa Mesa will probably pay for the street widening with a bond issue. Roeder said the City Council is expected to consider this funding option at a meeting in about 30 days.