Agreement Paves Way for Poway Expressway : Transportation: San Diego City Council approves plan for route to link up with Interstate 15.

A major roadblock to solving Poway’s bumper-to-bumper traffic congestion was overcome this week when developers agreed to build a bypass expressway around the inland community. But a popular Poway shortcut to San Diego remains closed after two years of construction to bring it up to San Diego safety standards.

Approved in a compromise pact between developers and the San Diego City Council is an east-west expressway linking Interstate 15 and California 67--a road that would bypass Poway’s congested main street, Poway Road, and route commuters south of the city.

The proposed east-west highway, known as Scripps North Parkway where it runs through the city of San Diego and as South Poway Parkway where it enters Poway, has been stalled for two years while San Diego policymakers and two major developers argued over the layout of a 3,600-home development called Miramar Ranch North.

In the settlement agreement approved Tuesday night by the San Diego council, McMillin Communities and BCE Developers agreed to start immediately on a $24-million construction project to build the major road east from the Mercy Road interchange on Interstate 15. Poway already has begun its construction work westward from its South Poway Industrial Park to link with the developers’ portion. A major portion of the east-west arterial is expected to be open from I-15 into Poway by early 1992 and completed eastward to link with California 67 by 1994.

Meanwhile, San Diego city officials remain noncommittal on when or if they will re-open Pomerado Road, a two-lane route that meanders south from Poway and links with I-15 at Miramar Road, cutting both time and miles from the commuter ride into San Diego.

In November, 1988, the San Diego City Council voted to close Pomerado Road indefinitely after annexing county property through which the winding road ran. Despite Poway’s protests that Pomerado was a needed escape route for the city’s commuters, San Diego engineers decreed that the narrow Pomerado Road was unsafe and needed to be improved.

Now, nearly two years later, rebuilding of Pomerado Road is nearing completion and Poway officials are insisting that the road be reopened to local traffic.

“It’s my opinion that San Diego cannot close Pomerado Road any longer than the construction period,” Poway City Atty. Stephen Eckis said. He pointed out that San Diego Deputy City Atty. John Reiss has issued a written opinion echoing Eckis’ belief that a regional road, such as Pomerado, cannot be arbitrarily closed to through traffic without reason.

Scripps Ranch residents want the road to stay closed until the new expressway is completed, to keep Poway industrial park traffic from inundating their residential community. San Diego city officials, sensitive to those concerns, have vowed to leave the Pomerado barricades in place.

“We don’t want to sue the city of San Diego over this but we may have to,” Eckis said.

San Diego City Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt, whose district includes Scripps Ranch, has pledged to her constituents that she will oppose the Pomerado reopening.