SANTA ANA : Signs Show Voter Interest in Election

The “vote yes” neon-yellow yard signs that dotted many homes in the city’s northwest corner were just one indication of the high voter interest in the advisory election balloting that ended Monday to decide whether a major traffic plan should be implemented there.

After weeks of acrimonious debate over the plan developed by the Floral Park Traffic Committee, city staffers were preparing for the last-minute voting rush as a steady stream of residents hand-delivered their ballots to city offices up until the 5 p.m. deadline. Norm Canchola, city neighborhood improvement coordinator, said that before Monday, only 700 of the 2,700 ballots mailed to eligible homeowners in the area had been returned.

Canchola said the staff would tabulate the ballots this week to determine whether two-thirds of the voters agreed on any of the proposals included on the 18-point plan, with the findings to be presented to the City Council next week.

While residents have agreed that a traffic solution is needed to control the onslaught of commuter traffic on the narrow residential streets since construction began on the “Orange Crush” freeway exchange, disagreement over how to cure the problem has raised emotions to a fever pitch.

Proponents are calling for reducing the speed limit on some streets, installing right-turn-only signs at some intersections and constructing barriers to prevent commuters from cutting through the neighborhood bounded by Bristol Street on the west, 17th Street on the south, Broadway on the east and Memory and Sherwood lanes and the Santa Ana Freeway on the north.

But opponents have complained of the inconveniences that would be created by the proposal and called it a thinly veiled attempt by the affluent neighborhood to build a wall around itself.

Canchola said the city received numerous complaints about how the survey was conducted--only one ballot per household was allowed and apartment dwellers were excluded, for example. But he said he couldn’t hazard a guess whether another survey will be required before the residents can reach a two-thirds consensus.