ORANGE : La Veta Extension Rejected by Council

The City Council voted 4 to 1 this week) to amend the city’s General Plan in order to eliminate a controversial traffic-circulation plan that would have extended La Veta Avenue between Cambridge and Tustin streets.

The proposed extension drew strong opposition from more than 150 residents at a public hearing held last week.

Residents were against the plan mainly because it would have left some homes on Fairway Drive on an “island” between La Veta Avenue and the Garden Grove Freeway. The plan also would have required paving over part of Santiago Creek, a greenbelt that residents have been fighting for 10 years to preserve.

“It was just an unacceptable impact on the residents,” Councilwoman Joanne Coontz said. “I believe there are other alternatives.”

Mayor Don E. Smith was the only member of the council to vote against eliminating the extension from the General Plan.

“I think we need an alternate to La Veta before it’s taken off the circulation element of the General Plan,” Smith said. “If there had been an alternative presented, I wouldn’t have had any problem with removing it.”

In June, the council asked the city’s traffic department to recommend alternatives to the La Veta extension and also called for an independent study of the traffic-circulation element of the General Plan. Although the alternatives have been presented by the city staff, none has yet been selected by the council.

The city’s Department of Public Works and Traffic said the La Veta extension was the best and most cost-effective solution to the city’s paralyzing traffic problems. The four-lane arterial road would have cost about $2 million to build.