Plan Faces Rocky Road : County Making Slow Progress on ‘Super-Street’ Project

Finished with her breakfast of salami and eggs, Judy Soskin emerged from the Katella Deli, a local hangout, and gestured toward Katella Avenue a few feet away. “You’re telling me they want to widen this already huge street and restrict on-street parking?” said the 27-year-old bookkeeper. “Look out there. Do you see any traffic?”

It was 8 a.m., a peak commute time, but cars and trucks sped by, unhindered by congestion. Still, the county’s plan to convert the 14.5-mile stretch of Katella Avenue between the San Gabriel River Freeway in Los Alamitos and the Costa Mesa Freeway in Orange into a “super-street” with bus turnouts, dedicated right-turn pockets, concrete medians, synchronized signals and other amenities, is slowly taking shape.

Each of the five cities along the route--Los Alamitos, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim and Orange--have held public meetings on the $55-million project or have filed comments on the draft environmental impact report with the Orange County Transportation Authority. The Orange County Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors are expected to approve the final report by year’s end, paving the way for design work, followed by construction in about two years.

But the Transportation Authority, which is planning a 220-mile network of super-streets, faces a fundamental political problem.

Each city through which a super-street passes must approve the project and cooperate on the final design, which hasn’t happened yet. Then they must apply to the Transportation Authority for super-street funding, which comes from Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for traffic improvements approved by voters countywide in November, 1990.

Businesses and residents are often strongly opposed because, like Soskin, they don’t see a congestion problem now and fear loss of customers or business property.

It’s a tough sell, but Transportation Authority officials believe they have a persuasive argument: “Let’s try to think of 10 to 20 years from now and plan ahead,” Transportation Authority board member Robert P. Wahlstrom recently told a hostile audience in his hometown of Los Alamitos.

Typical of many residents along the entire route, some people in Los Alamitos argued the project would provide “zero benefits” to them. But Wahlstrom, a Los Alamitos councilman, agreed with county officials who argue that without super-streets, congestion will worsen during the next two decades as another 600,000 to 800,000 people swell the county’s population.

There are trade-offs.

For example, while business owners want to slow traffic down rather than speed it up so motorists can see what restaurants and shops are available, county transportation planners want to give morning and evening commuters a safe, 45 m.p.h. street alternative to clogged freeways.

At the corner of Los Alamitos Boulevard and Katella Avenue--the county’s second busiest intersection--business owners are angry about the super-street project.

For example, Foster Hooper, a partner in the Rossmoor Car Wash, complained that a wider Katella Avenue could eliminate the area now used to dry off cars. “If you take that land away, it could have a serious impact,” Hooper said. “It may not be possible to have a carwash there. These projects can literally render a business dysfunctional.”

Much of the morning and evening traffic consists of people from neighborhoods far away, who are attempting to get to and from the San Gabriel River Freeway, a few blocks west. Arguably, they’re not interested in browsing and stop only for gasoline or doughnuts, if at all.

“A large percentage of the people using Katella just don’t have any business in Los Alamitos,” Wahlstrom said in interview. “They’re just driving through, and that’s not going to change. We don’t have the land for a Nordstrom or a Westminster Mall.”

Officials said more than 100,000 vehicles use the street daily.

Transportation Authority officials say much of the opposition is in reaction to the environmental impact report, which presents worst-case scenarios involving complete or partial demolition of existing buildings and is not based on actual designs, which will eliminate 90% of people’s concerns.

Still, in each city along the route, some residents are unhappy.

In Stanton, for example, Brad Pollock, who lives on Katella at Knott Street, said the project will increase traffic speeds beyond what’s appropriate for a surface street.

Pollock worries that his 6-month-old son will be endangered in his front yard as bigger vehicles use the road. “A large vehicle like a bus--a curb really doesn’t do much,” he said. “Parked cars,” which may be banned from Katella, “provide sort of a buffer.”

Noise is also a concern, not only in Stanton but in Rossmoor, an unincorporated area near Los Alamitos that is already buffeted by the noisy San Gabriel River Freeway. But Transportation Authority officials argue that local jurisdictions already have allowed more noise along Katella than any super-street would contribute.

The political hassles are not new. The first super-street project, Beach Boulevard, has been underway for two years. Repaving the stretch between the San Diego Freeway in Westminster and Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim began three weeks ago. Next on the schedule is Imperial Highway and Moulton Parkway, which are undergoing environmental reviews, to be followed soon by Harbor and MacArthur boulevards and Warner Avenue.

The Beach Boulevard project stumbled along for years as businesses along the route groaned about proposed designs. For example, automobile dealers in Huntington Beach strongly objected to restrictions for on-street parking in front of their showrooms. And the Transportation Authority had to abandon proposals to separate cross traffic from Beach by installing flyover ramps at major intersections because business owners feared a loss of customers. Finally, Stanton held up the project for months by demanding that the Transportation Authority pay for new storm drains along Beach as part of the super-street project.

On the Katella project, Cypress has had the fewest problems because its stretch of Katella was rebuilt a few years ago and already has the proper width. It also features many of the amenities envisioned in the super-street project.

In Anaheim, the major property owner--Disneyland--is welcoming the project because it will enlarge the intersection of Katella at Harbor Boulevard to include four lanes in each direction and result in new landscaping for the entire area. That will enhance Disney’s expansion plans. The city held public meetings on the super-street project. Some residents believe that traffic on Katella is already fast enough, and a few businesses don’t want raised, concrete medians that bar left turns onto their driveways.

The Transportation Authority held two open houses on the project, and city councils will give people another chance to comment before designs are finally approved and construction begins.

“It’s been smoother than the Beach Boulevard project,” said Lisa Burke, a Transportation Authority project manager. “But when we get into final design, that will raise some issues again. The incentive we have for the cities is that we have Measure M dollars. That’s going to be difficult for them to leave on the table.”

Times staff writer Kevin Johnson and correspondents Willson Cummer, Bert Eljera and Helaine Olen contributed to this report.

Katella Avenue Super-Street

Transportation officials are processing plans to transform Katella Avenue into a more efficient, streamlined thoroughfare. The first such project is underway on a 10-mile segment of Beach Boulevard. A 220-mile network of 21 “super-streets” is planned. Within a few years, improvements are expected on Imperial Highway, Moulton Parkway, Harbor Boulevard and Warner Avenue. (A) Parking Change: Restrictions on curbside parking Gripe: Business owners believe loss of curbside parking will deter people from stopping. (B) Turn Lanes Change: Additional left-turn lanes added and right-turn lanes carved into curb. Gripe: Business owners fear their buildings will be torn down. Residents in Rossmoor don’t want a turn pocket proposed at a residential cross street because it might mean more traffic. (C) Lanes Change: An extra traffic lane in each direction Gripe: Property owners fear loss of land, businesses predict loss of drive-by customers. Residents foresee increased noise. (D) Medians Change: Long concrete medians to improve safety and reduce left turns into driveways. Gripe: Some business owners say they will lose customers without left turns into their parking lots. (E) Bus Stops Change: Turnouts for buses to load, unload passengers without blocking traffic. Gripe: Business owners say turnouts in front of their stores will reduce store visibility and discourage drive-by customers. Source: Orange County Transportation Authority