FULLERTON : Group Seeks Vote on Road Widening

A Fullerton citizens group has filed the signatures of more than 11,000 residents who want voters to decide whether Bastanchury Road should be widened.

If the city clerk validates the signatures, the measure will then go before the City Council, said Mary Homme, leader of the Save Our Bastanchury group.

The council would then have three options: call a special election, adopt the measure or study the initiative further, she said.

Save Our Bastanchury filed a similar petition in July, but an error in the wording of the ballot disqualified the 7,700 signatures that were submitted. The group opposes widening Bastanchury because of concerns that the expansion would cause traffic and noise problems.

In August, Save Our Bastanchury re-circulated the petition which included the necessary language explaining the group’s reason for sponsoring the measure, Homme said. However, the group was unable to refile the petition in time to qualify it for the Nov. 6 ballot.

“We mailed the petition to the people who had signed the original document explaining what had happened,” she said. In addition, volunteers collected additional signatures in front of grocery stores in the area.

The group was formed last year to stop the widening of a one-mile stretch of Bastanchury Road. The proposed measure would prevent the city from widening or improving any street if current or predicted traffic noise would rise above the levels outlined in the city’s general plan.