FULLERTON : Road-Widening Foes to Seek Initiative

The City Council rejected a request from a residents’ group Tuesday to let voters decide whether Bastanchury Road should be widened.

A spokesman for the group, Save Our Bastanchury, said they now will propose an initiative election on the matter.

Adding two lanes along a one-mile stretch of Bastanchury will detract from the area’s rural atmosphere, said John Bastian, a spokesman for the group, which has about 100 members.

To place the issue on the ballot, members of Save Our Bastanchury must collect signatures from 15% of Fullerton’s registered voters, about 8,700 people.

A special election would cost the city about $58,000, City Clerk Anne M. York said.

The council approved widening Bastanchury between Harbor Boulevard and Euclid Street in 1985 and renewed its decision in July, despite the group’s protest. The widening project is scheduled to begin in the summer of 1991 and is intended to help ease rush-hour congestion in the north end of the city.

Bastian said his group already has hired attorneys to seek legal solutions and write a ballot initiative, which they plan to submit to the city next week.