Monterey Park : Traffic Proposals Lose Out

None of Monterey Park’s proposed traffic improvements made the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s list of recommended projects, city officials have learned.

The transportation authority staff rejected the city’s request to fund 13 projects totaling $15 million, including the widening of Atlantic Boulevard and Garfield Avenue.

Projects that made the list included a $2.9-million bike trail for the city of Avalon on Catalina Island and a $500,000 storm drain stenciling project for Los Angeles.

The transportation board, which is a regional agency, will vote on the recommendations Wednesday.

“We’re shocked, to say the least,” said Chris Jeffers, Monterey Park city manager.

Jeffers said he was disappointed that some of the recommended projects will do nothing to improve transportation in the area.

But transportation officials said some of the agency’s federal funding sources specify that the money must be used for certain projects--bike trails or storm drain projects, for instance.

Also, funding requests totaled $6.2 billion but only $1.1 billion will be granted, said Susan Rosales, the agency’s director of San Gabriel Valley area projects.