OJAI : Consultant to Study One-Way Street Plan

The Ojai City Council decided Tuesday to hire a traffic engineering firm to conduct a study on making Ojai Avenue a one-way street through downtown.

The study will analyze the effects of combining a one-way route eastbound through downtown on Ojai Avenue with a westbound route on a parallel street, possibly Matilija Street, Ojai Public Works Director Stan Moore said.

“The study really is to see if it is feasible for the city to create a traffic couplet. It will be quite an in-depth study,” Moore said.

Creating a one-way downtown has been suggested for years as a way to ease Ojai traffic and parking problems, City Manager Andrew Belknap said.

The idea was given a trial run during the 1989 rehabilitation of the Ojai Arcade shopping area, when traffic on Ojai Avenue was one-way eastbound between Signal and Montgomery streets.

Westbound traffic was diverted to Matilija Street.

Many merchants on Ojai Avenue said the traffic diversion hurt business, but shopkeepers on Matilija liked the change, Belknap said.

Evaluating the effects of the traffic diversions on local businesses and holding hearings on the issue will be a major component of the study, Belknap said.

The City Council authorized Moore to negotiate with DKS Associates of Los Angeles on a final price for the study. The city has budgeted $30,000.