YORBA LINDA : Council Approves Shopping Center

The City Council has unanimously approved a 73,500-square-foot shopping center on Valley View Avenue, but the developer will be required to install a stop sign and other means to control traffic on the street.

The conditions for construction of the project were issued Tuesday in response to concerns that the complex would at least double traffic on Valley View. The Valley View Sports Park and the Fairmont School are situated just north of where the center will be. Last November, a Fairmont School pupil crossing Valley View was struck and killed by a car.

Smith’s Food and Drug, the developer of the center, agreed to pay the cost of placing a stop sign at Orange Drive and Valley View Avenue, an intersection about 400 feet north of the campus. The company will also pay the $70,000 cost to install a traffic signal at the intersection should one be needed.

“We will do it to be part of this community,” said Rick Kuhle, a representative of the Smith’s chain, which is based in Salt Lake City.

The center, which will be built on a 6.5-acre parcel at the northeast corner of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Valley View Avenue, will be anchored by a Smith’s store. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

About half a dozen parents asked that the city put a crosswalk and traffic light in the middle of the block between Yorba Linda Boulevard and Orange Drive rather than at the corner.

“That would make it a much safer situation,” said David Jackson, the executive director of the Fairmont School, whose pupils range from preschool-age to second grade. “Most people feel it would be just too far to walk up to Orange (Drive) or down to Yorba Linda (Boulevard).”

City officials recommended against having such devices in the middle of the block, fearing that having them there would only create more danger. They noted that the Orange Drive crosswalk would be only 400 feet away.

“Conceiveably you can confuse the motorist and create a situation you are trying to avoid,” City Atty. Leonard Hampel said.

Mid-block crosswalks are unsafe, said Councilman Henry W. Wedaa. “They end up causing accidents. I believe more children will be killed if we put in a mid-block crosswalk.”

Three young boys were struck by a car last Nov. 8 as they were crossing a busy street with their teacher and the rest of their class. Ravi Patel, 6, died of injuries several days later.

The class had been returning from an outing in the park across the street from the campus. Dusk was falling at 5:20 p.m. as they crossed Valley View Avenue in single file in a section of the street not marked by a crosswalk; the teacher was at the head of the line. The boys who were hit were the last three children in the line.

Since then, the city has posted signs warning motorists to slow down when children are present, and it has lowered the speed limit from 40 to 35 m.p.h. In addition, “rumble” strips have been placed on the pavement in the area.

“Common sense tells us that if one child is killed crossing that street, all other children crossing that street will be at risk as well,” said Donald Gesdold, a parent of a Fairmont pupil, who presented a 415-signature petition regarding parents’ concerns about traffic on Valley View.