Not a Through Street : Cities’ Support Needed but Lacking for Planned ‘Smart’ Roadway From Dana Point to Santa Ana

Call it a “super street” or a “smart street,” either way it’s a dumb idea to Wayne Schafer.

His two-story Pacific Coast Highway office building stands in the path of plans to widen and improve Street of the Golden Lantern into a major highway stretching 25 miles from Dana Point to Santa Ana. Under the proposal, his corner building would be bulldozed for a new right-turn lane.

“I don’t need this,” said Schafer, 64, who bought the property 30 years ago as an investment and already lost one-third of it in the 1970s, the first time the county widened the highway. “Any way you look at it, it’s not a good deal for me.”

Schafer is not alone in disliking the plan, county transportation officials have painfully learned over the past six weeks as they’ve bounced from city hall to city hall, presenting the proposed widening project that would go through six cities.

In Dana Point, for example, City Councilman William L. Ossenmacher derisively labeled the $55-million project the “freeway to the fish” because it would end at Dana Point Harbor.

Another Dana Point council member, Judy Curreri, told county planners: “I can’t even talk I’m so upset. When people come to Dana Point they are just going to have to slow down. We are not going to have a super street or smart street here.”

Among other things, Curreri is unhappy about the possible loss of parking next to Dana Hills High School. But other problems--such as a loss of landscaping, attracting more motorists and general disruption the roadwork could bring--have also raised objections by residents of Irvine, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills.

Like many other landowners throughout the county, Schafer is caught in the path of progress.

In order to handle the 600,000 to 800,000 new residents expected to move to Orange County over the next two decades, transportation planners have envisioned a 22-street, 220-mile network of “smart streets,” the latest buzz term for high-speed, mini-freeways made more “intelligent” with the addition of bus turnouts, sound walls, ramps, right-turn pockets, concrete medians and other features.

County officials recently tossed out the old super street name for such roadways because it conjured images of a massive highway. Officials have instead adopted the smart street label to give the network a softer, friendlier sound.

Laguna Niguel resident Bill Wood, whose home is near the proposed Moulton Parkway smart street, said: “I guess it’s not unbearable. People can live in the bottom of a mine shaft if they have to. But I’m going to fight this thing all the way.”

County officials are used to such sour reactions, but feel they must grin and bear it because, ultimately, each city along the highway route is responsible for the roadway’s plans--and project funding--within their boundaries.

The county’s transportation planners counter criticism with pleas to look at the long-term consequences of failing to provide for travel in fast-growing South County. Street of the Golden Lantern, which changes its name to Moulton Parkway, Irvine Center Drive and Edinger Avenue along the route to Santa Ana, is going to be increasingly congested, they say.

“We try to project at least 20 years ahead,” said Ken R. Smith, the county’s director of transportation. “One of the things we found on Moulton . . . is that there will be more demand than we can cover. In the case of Moulton we could easily use eight lanes the whole length of the route.”

Currently, Moulton Parkway ranges from four to six lanes.

The first step--before adding new lanes--is to make the street “smarter,” Smith said.

Such improvements as coordinating traffic signals, restricting parking and adding bus bays to get them out of the way of traffic would be among the initial steps in creating a smart street, Smith said.

“We don’t entirely rule out widening the streets (to eight lanes), that’s still an important part of the project, particularly at the intersections where the real congestion occurs. But first we can make the streets work more efficiently,” Smith said.

Four of the 22 smart streets countywide have been identified as top priority: Beach Boulevard, Imperial Highway, Katella Avenue and Moulton Parkway.

Construction has already started on improvements along Beach Boulevard, but along Moulton Parkway, transportation officials are now soliciting comments from the community and a draft environmental impact report has been prepared and is available at local city halls.

By virtue of its location, Moulton Parkway has at least one significant difference from the other proposed smart streets.

Unlike the flatter north and central parts of the county, where a grid traffic system gives drivers several street options, the hilly terrain of South County limits the number of highways that can be built, making Moulton Parkway particularly important, Smith said.

South County residents can rely on only three of what Smith calls “critical corridors” for getting across the county: Interstate 5, Pacific Coast Highway and Moulton Parkway.

“Since those are the only routes we have, we really need to enhance them,” Smith said, adding that Moulton basically runs parallel to Interstate 5. “The demand for that road is going to be there. What we are trying to do is look to the future.”

But the South County’s relative newness is also an advantage, Smith said. It offered the transportation planners a head start and most of the right-of-way for a future six-lane highway was designed into Moulton Parkway, he said.

“Katella Avenue, for instance, is strictly a retrofit,” Smith said, meaning additional right of way had to be acquired.

Still, county officials acknowledge that the smart street idea is not being accepted well in the cities that will be asked to approve roadwork.

Each individual city will ultimately decide the fate of the street within its border, and then apply to the Orange County Transportation Authority for funding through Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for traffic improvements approved by voters countywide in November, 1990.

In Irvine, for instance, city officials say they don’t want the changes along Irvine Center Drive.

“We have grave concerns about the plan, particularly where it passes through existing neighborhoods in Woodbridge, the Ranch and Deerfield,” City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. said. “Irvine Center Drive was built to accommodate our maximum traffic. We never envisioned it being widened to a super street.”

In Laguna Hills, the changes could bring the removal of more than 70 trees along the roadway, a loss of 60% of the greenbelt and a 100-foot section of an equestrian trail.

“I think that concept (put forth by the county) is one that completely changes the face of Laguna Hills along Moulton Parkway,” said City Councilman Randal J. Bressette. “It completely changes the image that’s now created when you drive down Moulton, and I don’t think it creates one that residents here want to portray.”

In Dana Point, Dana Hills High School could lose some parking, a newly built $900,000 median could lose 13 palm trees and a bank across the street from Schafer’s Pacific Coast Highway building could lose part of a parking lot, among other changes.

The officials in the cities along the route must decide which is worse: Living in the additional congestion that could come with greater South County population, or making road changes today, said Gary L. Hausdorfer, a San Juan Capistrano city councilman and chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

“The (smart street) concept was basically to create alternatives to freeways,” Hausdorfer said. “But there is a price, both literally and figuratively for them. If people don’t want them they need to speak out. Ultimately the decision makers will have to balance everything out and make a decision.”

Smartening Up an Old Street

Orange County transportation planners envision a 25-mile “smart” street snaking through six cities from Dana Point to Santa Ana. Streamlining the four-name roadway into a thoroughfare tentatively named “Moulton Parkway Smart Street” will take nearly 20 years and $55 million, planners say.

* City-by-City Highlights

How the street could change through six cities:

* Santa Ana

Eliminate three office buildings, two fast-food restaurants; eliminate two driveways to create a bus turnout.

* Tustin

Eliminate 17 trees; eliminate left turns onto Parkway Loop.

* Irvine

Construct sound walls, widen streets.

* Laguna Hills

Remove 70 trees; eliminate 43 parking spaces.

* Laguna Niguel

Widen roadway; remove more than 60 trees; build medians.

* Dana Point

Eliminate street parking next to Dana Hills High School; remove 13 recently planted palm trees.

* A Typical Intersection What makes the street “smart”:

* (1) Turn lanes: Additional left-turn lanes; right-turn lanes carved into curb.

* (2) Medians: Long concrete medians to improve safety and reduce left turns into driveways.

* (3) Lanes: Extra traffic lanes in each direction, as many as a total of eight in some places.

* (4) Bus stops: Turnouts for buses to load, unload passengers without blocking traffic.

* (5) Parking: Restrictions on curbside parking.

Source: County of Orange; Researched by LEN HALL and CAROLINE LEMKE /Los Angeles Times