IRVINE : Bridges Initiative Qualifies for Ballot

A petition that calls for the voters to decide the fate of two Yale Avenue bridges was officially certified Tuesday, City Clerk Nancy C. Lacey said.

Yale Action, a group that wants the two bridges opened to vehicular traffic, gathered 6,102 verified signatures, or 10.8% of Irvine’s registered voters, Lacey said. Ten percent was needed to place the issue on a ballot.

After being presented the petition Jan. 23, the City Council will have three options, Lacey said. It could move to open the bridges to cars and trucks, call for a special election or place the issue on the city’s June ballot.

The two bridges are open only to pedestrians, bicyclists and emergency vehicles. One bridge, which spans the San Diego Freeway, connects Woodbridge to University Park. The other crosses the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad tracks and connects the Deerfield village to The Ranch village.

The question of opening the bridges and thereby making Yale Avenue a continuous, north-south thoroughfare through the city has divided Irvine residents for more than a decade.

Opponents of opening the bridges, among them a group called CAUTION (Citizens Against Unsafe Traffic in Our Neighborhoods), warn that commuters will use Yale instead of heavily traveled Culver Drive and Jeffrey Road. The result would be a dramatic increase in traffic, noise and pollution in the city’s villages, they say.

The Yale Action group counters that the city’s general plan has always called for vehicular traffic on the bridges. The current petition is a compromise, they say, since it calls for only two lanes of traffic per bridge rather than the four lanes per bridge stated in the general plan.