Gardena’s Cassidy Street Residents Object to Park-and-Ride Proposal

Some residents of Gardena’s Cassidy Street neighborhood feel surrounded.

On the west is a former toxic waste dump that they have tried for years to get cleaned up, so far in vain.

On the east and north, the Artesia Freeway ends at the Harbor Freeway and dumps traffic onto Artesia Boulevard.

Also to the north, construction has started on the $20-million Gardena Gateway Center, a Spanish-style, 19-acre shopping complex on Artesia Boulevard that some residents fear will aggravate traffic.

Now, Caltrans plans to build a 1,000-car park-and-ride transit center directly to the east.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Betty Hinds, a community activist who, with her husband Duane, heads the Cassidy Tract Citizens Committee, which claims to represent the area. “We really didn’t need this transit center right now.”

Learned of Plan in July

Residents of about 100 homes on and around Cassidy Street learned of the California Department of Transportation plan in July. The agency plans to build the facility on an 18-acre site at the southeast corner of Artesia Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, just east of the Gardena city limits in the Harbor Gateway section of Los Angeles.

Residents around Cassidy Street, however, contend that their homes are most affected by the project because they are the only ones nearby.

“We’re somewhat isolated, so we’re fighting all these battles by ourselves,” Duane Hinds said. Gardena City Manager Kenneth Landau said the city will work with Caltrans but has little say in the project.

The area near the proposed transit center is mostly commercial and industrial, and there have been few complaints from Harbor Gateway residents, said Niki Tennant, a deputy for Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores.

The residents group fears the transit center will flood the area with commuters seeking a shortcut to the park-and-ride lot, adding to the traffic on the narrow, half-mile-long residential street. Parking on Cassidy is already restricted to residents and is closed to through traffic on weekends.

Caltrans officials are considering options to alleviate the potential increase in traffic, said Cleavon Govan, a Caltrans senior environmental planner. Those options include closing the eastern end of Cassidy and routing traffic around the neighborhood, he said.

“We understand their concerns, but this is something that can be worked out,” Govan said.

The $16-million project, funded largely by the Federal Highway Administration, will consist of the parking lot and a bus station to pick up passengers.

Similar transit centers are being planned along the Harbor Freeway at Slauson Avenue, Rosecrans Avenue, Pacific Coast Highway and near Channel and Gaffey streets in San Pedro, Govan said.

In a Caltrans report given to Cassidy Street residents in July, officials said traffic and noise from the Artesia Boulevard transit center “would have an insignificant impact on the area’s ambient noise levels.” The state report also said that light from passing traffic shining into homes “would be reduced by using low shrubbery or low walls.”

But some residents disagree.

“Obviously, when you put 1,000 cars in an area focused around Cassidy Street, it’s going to have an impact,” Duane Hinds said.

Some residents fear the center, which would be operated by the Southern California Rapid Transit District after it is completed, would also be a magnet for crime and graffiti.

Although the project is still being planned, Caltrans officials estimate it will be completed within three years, Govan said. Residents near the center will be invited to a hearing when the final plans are near completion, he said.