OJAI : Comments Sought on Road Widening

State and federal highway engineers are inviting comments on a $1.8-million plan to widen a dangerous one-mile stretch of California 150 between Ojai and Carpinteria.

Rincon Valley ranchers and environmentalists in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties have been fighting the improvement project for six years.

“Nobody wants it,” said Duncan Abbott of Abbott Ranch, which was established along Rincon Creek in the 1870s. If the project is carried out, the ranch will lose 1.5 acres of farmland, its historic entrance, a water well and an old oak tree.

The California Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration want to straighten the curving highway, replace two single-lane bridges built in 1927 with new ones twice as wide, and increase the recommended speed limit from 15 m.p.h. to 40 m.p.h.

No fatal accidents have occurred in six years along the stretch, which is a mile east of U.S. 101, but officials said the number of nonfatal accidents is seven times higher than the state average.

Project opponents say widening the road will increase its use and raise the likelihood of fatalities. Other concerns include the loss of 5.16 acres of farmland altogether, the effect on a creek’s wetland habitat, and removal of 90 trees that are mostly old oak, walnut and sycamore.

A public hearing on the completed study will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in Carpinteria City Hall. Caltrans staff members will be available at 5:30 p.m. to answer questions.