Long Beach : Committee Sends Revised Traffic Plan to City Council

A hotly debated 20-year traffic plan, which has drawn packed and sometimes raucous houses at Long Beach public hearings, will be heard by the full City Council on Dec. 17.

The plan was voted out of committee Tuesday night with a list of revisions. They have thus far failed to soothe riled residents who say the latest strategy for handling cross-town traffic through the year 2010 will probably ruin their neighborhoods.

The most recent version of the plan--the result of more than two years of study--would make Pacific Coast Highway the main east-west corridor through town, ostensibly diverting traffic from 7th Street, Ocean Boulevard, Anaheim Street and other thoroughfares. It also would delay controversial rush-hour parking bans on Anaheim and 7th streets until after the year 2000.

But nearby residents, predicting that traffic would ultimately spill into their neighborhoods anyway, urged a plan that depends less on rush-hour traffic bans and more on public transportation. Their call for a six-week delay to come up with alternatives was rebuffed when the city’s Transportation Committee voted 2-to-1 to refer what is known as the draft transportation element to the full council.

Councilmen Les Robbins and Jeff Kellogg opted to send the draft out of committee, with Belmont Shore area Councilman Doug Drummond dissenting.