Cutbacks Taking the Green Out of Median Landscaping
Dear Street Smart:
Is the center-divider landscaping on local streets cared for by cities or by local landscape companies?
If it is the cities, most of which are experiencing financial problems of late, why would they spend the money to tear out perfectly healthy-looking, beautiful plants?
In particular, along Ponderosa Drive, just west of Arneill Road in Camarillo, a major project has been to remove beautiful bushes from the center divider. Why?
Mary Barnes
Oxnard
Dear Reader:
Usually, city crews or private contractors hired by a city take care of the median landscaping that brightens the view of pavement-weary motorists. But sometimes, homeowners must pay landscape assessment fees to help keep their center dividers and parkways green.
In your hometown, Oxnard, budget problems have led to a dramatic reduction in the number of city workers assigned to care for public landscaping, says Lori Beltran, the city’s parks maintenance supervisor.
Despite the budget cuts, Beltran says, “We’re not taking out landscaping. If you see areas where it’s bare, the gophers have gotten out of hand.”
In Camarillo, the vegetation you saw workers removing was dying or in poor condition, says Ernie Villasenor, the city’s streets superintendent.
These plants and trees are being replaced with new varieties that conform to Camarillo’s master plan for landscaping. This is a list of drought-resistant plants that city leaders eventually want to see on all medians and parkways.
“The problem was that the previous landscaping was kind of a hodge podge, depending on what the developers or their landscape architects wanted,” Villasenor says. “There was no uniformity.”
The city is also replacing its pop-up sprinklers with drip systems that waste less water. But because of budget problems, even Camarillo’s public landscaping improvements can only be done a little at a time.
“We’re just doing it according to resources that are available,” Villasenor says.
Dear Street Smart:
Perhaps you can help persuade Simi Valley to paint a “Keep Clear” sign on the pavement along Sycamore Drive at Racine Street.
Racine is often blocked by inconsiderate drivers heading north on Sycamore, waiting for the traffic light to change at Cochran Street. As a result, southbound drivers wishing to turn left on Racine to enter the housing tract are often prevented from doing so.
Also, drivers on Racine who want to turn left to go south on Sycamore are thwarted by blockage at the intersection, again by northbound drivers.
Posting a “Keep Clear” sign wouldn’t necessarily deter everyone from blocking the intersection. But it might at least make enough drivers aware of the problem they cause at Racine.
I don’t think it should cost much to paint a warning sign on the street.
Ronald L. Freeman
Simi Valley
Dear Reader:
Cost is not the issue here. Simi Valley has painted “Keep Clear” warnings at about half a dozen intersections that tend to get blocked by heavy traffic. These signs are effective, says Bill Golubics, the city’s traffic engineer.
But Golubics fears that if the city puts these warnings at too many intersections, drivers may begin to ignore them.
Nevertheless, the city is taking other steps to relieve congestion on Sycamore, just south of Cochran. This intersection, near several bustling shopping centers and banks, is one of the busiest in Simi Valley.
Within the next week or two, the city will begin building a new right-turn-only lane on Sycamore to make it easier for northbound drivers to turn onto Cochran. The traffic light will also get a new right-turn arrow.
The city will add a second left-turn pocket for northbound drivers turning the other way onto Cochran.
This $198,000 project should be finished by November, just before the holiday shopping season. Golubics believes the new lanes and signal “may eliminate the blocking that occasionally occurs at Racine.”
But the traffic engineer said the city will keep your concerns in mind. If Racine still gets blocked after the improvements on Sycamore are finished, Golubics said, the city will consider a “Keep Clear” warning.
Dear Street Smart:
There is an ongoing traffic problem at the medical office building near the corner of Westlake Boulevard and Triunfo Canyon Road in Westlake Village.
One of the conditions imposed on the building by the city of Thousand Oaks was that the single-lane driveway on Westlake Boulevard must be used only as an entrance to the parking lot. All cars leaving the parking lot must use the Triunfo Canyon driveway.
Despite a small “No Exit” sign and double incoming arrows on the pavement, some drivers still use the Westlake Boulevard driveway as an exit. This creates a very dangerous, not to mention annoying situation.
There is a slight curve, tall shrubs and a traffic signal near this entrance. As a result, drivers traveling north on Westlake Boulevard suddenly encounter some bozo who insists on exiting from this entrance, or they find a line of cars waiting while some bozo exits onto Westlake.
The problem is compounded by drivers who fail to come to a complete stop for a red light when they turn right from Triunfo Canyon onto Westlake.
Can tire shredders be installed at the Westlake entrance to the medical building to make sure it allows only one-way traffic?
And for the people who don’t stop before making right-turns at the corner, an officer handing out tickets would generate a windfall in fines and possibly make an impression on these inconsiderate clods.
Lorraine L. O’Neill
Westlake Village
Dear Reader:
It sounds like some drivers just don’t understand the ins and outs of this parking lot.
Yours is not the only complaint the city staff has heard concerning this lot. “We worked with the owner to have all those signs and pavements markings put in,” says John Helliwell, Thousand Oaks’ traffic engineer.
Marcia Heuer, manager of Westshore Medical Plaza, says, “All the people who occupy space (in the building) have been reminded over and over in a newsletter and during our annual meeting not to use that driveway to exit.”
Heuer said the building’s board of directors did consider putting in a tire shredder, which would puncture the treads of any car that went the wrong way in that driveway. But traffic experts say these devices can pose a serious safety hazard--and trigger a lawsuit over any damage or injury they cause.
“The city would not recommend using those,” Helliwell says.
Though the exit problem is annoying, city records show there has been no rash of traffic accidents here.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Will Howe says most drivers using this parking lot abide by the rules. Because the lot is private property, deputies cannot ticket the few drivers who go out the entrance, unless the driver does not yield to oncoming traffic.
But as a result of your letter, Howe said deputies will watch for drivers who don’t stop fully before turning right on red at the nearby corner.
Write to Street Smart, The Times Ventura County Edition, 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura 93003. You may enclose a simple sketch if it will help Street Smart understand your traffic questions. Or call our Sound Off Line, 658-5546. Whether writing or calling, include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. No anonymous queries will be accepted, and letters are subject to editing.
