Advertisement

Caltrans Study to Assess Porter Ranch Traffic

Share
Times Staff Writer

Caltrans will need to complete its own traffic study to test a builder’s conclusion that a $2-billion development proposal for Porter Ranch would not cause gridlock on the Simi Valley Freeway, state officials said Thursday.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) organized the first meeting between state officials and the developer amid concerns that even an expanded freeway might not accommodate the proposal for about 3,000 homes and 7.5 million square feet of commercial space.

At the meeting Thursday, a traffic consultant hired by the Porter Ranch Development Co. outlined planned improvements for surface streets and freeway ramps that the developer says will make room for an estimated 164,840 daily traffic trips to be generated by the development.

Advertisement

Caltrans is preparing a computer study to justify expansion of the Simi Valley Freeway, and “until we have that, it’s difficult to do anything else” on Porter Ranch, said Wally Rothbart, chief of project studies for the agency’s Los Angeles office.

“It’s too early to make assumptions or conclusions before we have the data,” said Hunt Braly, a Davis aide who represented the senator at the meeting. But he added: “If the Caltrans model runs are comparable” to the developer’s traffic forecasts, “. . . a lot of the senator’s concerns could possibly be dealt with.”

Rothbart said he was encouraged to learn of the developer’s planned street and freeway ramp improvements and of a proposed requirement that the company perform several traffic studies as the project is built over a 20- to 30-year period.

“Based on the mitigation that we discussed and the level of it, I’m somewhat more comfortable than I was going in,” Rothbart said after the meeting.

Including projects expected to be added this year to the state’s transportation improvement program, the Simi Valley Freeway would be expanded from three to five lanes between Balboa and Topanga Canyon boulevards, Braly said. But such an expansion might not be funded and completed until the late 1990s, he said. The $15- billion statewide program now has a $4.5-billion shortfall, he said.

The Los Angeles Department of City Planning has recommended that the development company, headed by Beverly Hills builder Nathan Shapell, be held to 1.5 million square feet until an expansion of the freeway is funded.

Advertisement

City Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area, supports reducing the project from 7.5 million to about 6 million square feet. The city Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the proposal May 11.

Advertisement