CYPRESS : Holder Street Bridge Plans Abandoned

Holder Street will not be extended, the City Council decided recently after angry residents complained that the proposed plan would increase traffic and noise in their neighborhood.

About 40 people showed up at the council meeting last week to denounce the idea which pops up periodically as a cure for congestion along Valley View Street. Currently, Holder stretches all the way to Katella Avenue except for a short span where the storm channel cuts across the street.

For some of the residents, it was a case of deja vu .

“It seems like just yesterday we were here,” said Jack Cates of residents’ earlier efforts to prevent the city from building a bridge for vehicles over the storm channel.

Several residents chastised the council for resurrecting what they had thought was a dead issue.

“You are going to doom us to traffic that is unbearable,” said Richard Price, president of the Cypress Village Homeowners Assn. “You want to open up a corridor that makes our quality of life significantly less.”

This latest attempt was made after companies in the Cypress Business Park proposed construction of a pedestrian bridge over the storm channel so that employees could walk or ride their bikes to work.

Since then, the idea had been bandied about for several months while city staff and business park officials discussed details of who would pay for the $100,000 bridge. During the talks, the original proposal grew to include not only the walkway but also a bridge that could accommodate vehicles and pedestrians.

To gauge community interest in the idea--which had more than tripled in cost--the council had suggested sending out a survey to residents who lived near the proposed project. But after listening to the heated testimony against the proposal, the council decided to abandon the idea.

However, Mayor Richard Partin and Councilman Walter K. Bowman said they were not entirely opposed to the project.

Bowman said the city should have mailed out the survey anyway to allow all those in the community to voice their opinion.

“Anybody who drives up and down Valley View, especially at rush hour, must realize something needs to be done,” Bowman said.

Partin took his comments one step further, indicating that it would be just a matter of time before the roadway was extended.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Gail H. Kerry, along with fellow council members Joyce C. Nicholson and Cecilia L. Age, maintained that the proposal was not a good idea.

“This is just not the proper time to do it,” Kerry said.