Fullerton : Residents Plan Protest of Road Extension

A group of Fullerton and Placentia residents, worried about traffic near school campuses, plans to go before the City Council tonight to voice opposition to the proposed extension of Placentia Avenue in the northeastern portion of the city.

“We frankly don’t feel we need a major north-south arterial running through our neighborhood,” said John McNaughton, who is organizing opposition to the project. McNaughton said more than 200 of his neighbors in Fullerton and also on the other side of Placentia Avenue in Placentia have signed petitions in protest of the extension.

The city would require Unocal Land Development Co. to extend Placentia Avenue past where it now ends at Rolling Hills Drive all the way to Imperial Highway in order to provide access to the subdivision the developer wants to build on a portion of Imperial Golf Course. The subdivision would cover 31 acres and have 111 homes. The Fullerton Planning Commission gave its approval to the road extension last month.

A traffic study estimates that the immediate effect of the project would be to bring 60% more cars and trucks immediately to the road and that traffic there will have increased 180% in 20 years.

McNaughton complained that if the project is completed, commuters on the Orange Freeway would probably find Placentia Avenue a convenient link between Brea and Anaheim. The increase in traffic, he said, would endanger the schoolchildren who cross Placentia Avenue to get to the Sierra Vista Elementary or Tuffree Junior High schools in Placentia.