HUNTINGTON BEACH WESTMINSTER : Stop Signs Planned to Scuttle Shortcut

Hoping to frustrate motorists who have blazed a shortcut through a residential area, Huntington Beach and Westminster officials have agreed to set up a string of stop signs through the neighborhood.

Both city councils approved measures this week to place four-way stops at five intersections in the area, which straddles the boundary between the two cities near Beach Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway. If the tentative solution fails, the councils will consider installing a barricade to prevent through traffic from using the route.

Residents of the neighborhood, west of Beach between Bolsa and McFadden avenues, say that for more than a year drivers have streamed through their streets as an alternative to nearby arterial streets that are often congested.

Rather than use Beach or Golden West Street, motorists have been zipping between Bolsa and McFadden by way of Temple Street, Colgate Avenue, Cascade Lane and Sugar Avenue, residents say.

Neighbors complain that the drivers have clogged traffic, created noise and posed a safety threat by speeding through their streets.

Huntington Beach and Westminster officials agreed to the stop signs as a temporary solution, capping months of study and meetings with concerned residents. Officials said the stop signs, scheduled to be installed Tuesday, are a compromise between doing nothing and blocking traffic altogether.

If the stop signs prove ineffective, the city councils in three months will consider blocking Cascade Lane with a locked gate at the cities’ boundary line. Many residents living on Cascade and other streets along the shortcut argue that the cities should immediately set up the barricade.

“There’s nothing that stop signs will do to get to the root of the problem,” Cascade resident Judy Moses said. “It looks like a circus out there.”

The barricade proposal has divided residents and their neighbors on adjoining streets, who argue that closing the street is unnecessary and would pose new traffic problems in the area.

Huntington Beach Fire Chief Michael P. Dolder also argued against installing a gate on Cascade because it would slow down firefighters and paramedics by almost two minutes through the area, which could be “a matter of life and death.”

Residents throughout the neighborhood say the best solution would be to connect Hoover and Gothard streets, a proposal the two cities have studied for more than a decade. Plans to link those streets have been continually delayed, however, because of financial concerns and opposition from many residents.

“This is a very difficult decision for us because it presents concerns about traffic (against) concerns about safety and emergency response,” Huntington Beach Mayor Peter M. Green said.