Stanton Action Threatens Super Street

Under pressure from local businesses, the city is threatening to derail the Beach Boulevard super street demonstration project.

At a recent public hearing, the City Council was expected to follow other Orange County cities by banning on-street parking along Beach Boulevard. Planners say the move will open another traffic lane and is needed to cut travel time along the proposed 19-mile stretch of the street.

The council instead decided by a 3-2 vote to draft a resolution forbidding parking 6 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. until state planners promise to repair drainage in the parking lane when they build the super street.

Arya Rohani, special projects manager for the Orange County Transportation Commission, said that condition will spell the end of the project for Stanton.

“There will be no super street in Stanton” if any parking is allowed, Rohani said. “Traffic flow will not be consistent. We want a 24-hour restriction on parking.”

During the public hearing, business owners complained that if Beach Boulevard were red-lined, they would lose customers. They also repeated their claim that annual flooding in what is currently the parking lane would hurt their businesses even more if that lane were open to travel.

“It’s going to be a real big problem,” said Eric Taylor, who operates a boat store along Beach Boulevard. “It’ll probably put us out of business.”

Repairing the street will cost about $800,000, and neither the California Department of Transportation nor the commission can afford that, Rohani said. Both agencies have fought with the city over the flooding issue since October, with the commission pledging to look for alternative money sources to fix the parking lane.

Council member Edward L. Allen, who favored a complete parking ban, told the council, “We’re going to have people coming down Beach Boulevard at 45 miles an hour, coming to a screeching halt because there are cars in their lane.”

The Beach Boulevard super street project extends from Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach through Westminster, Anaheim, Buena Park and La Mirada to Imperial Highway in La Habra.

Rohani said his agency could help reverse the council’s ruling. “Caltrans controls parking regulations,” he said, and could rescind the city’s decision to allow on-street parking.