VAN NUYS : Residents Oppose Proposed Signal

Concerned about the safety of their children, Van Nuys residents have petitioned Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude to take action against a proposed traffic light they believe would bring hundreds of cars speeding past their homes.

Neighborhood activist Romana Catton said last week that she is “very, very disappointed” with the city Department of Transportation’s plans to move ahead with a signal at Orion Avenue and Vanowen Street.

“We definitely don’t want it,” said Catton, who recently presented Braude with a petition containing 300 signatures of residents who oppose the light. “We’ve decided that if they go ahead and put that light in, we will protest every single day at that intersection with signs and whatever it takes.”

Last month, department officials announced that they would pursue plans to install the light despite objections from residents living in an area known as Midvale-Chisholm Estates, bounded by the San Diego Freeway, Sepulveda Boulevard, Sherman Way and Vanowen. After a meeting with Braude about the proposed signal last year, Catton said Braude’s office told her that he had urged the department to withdraw its plans.

“Here we thought it was a done deal, and now it’s come back to haunt us,” Catton said. “We expect Councilman Braude to stand by his original decision to withdraw this signal at Orion and Vanowen.”

Judith Hirshberg, Braude’s field deputy, said she was unaware of any promise of support made to Catton by the councilman’s office. Nor would she say which way Braude, who met with department officials last week, was leaning.

“He was impressed by the presentation by the community,” Hirshberg said. “But he is waiting to hear back from the DOT on the number of accidents at that intersection.”

Department officials, who could not be reached for comment, stated in a letter to Braude that the signal is needed to allow apartment residents along Vanowen to make left-hand turns.

But Catton and other residents fear that the lights will make Orion into a thoroughfare past their homes and expand the existing shortcut that drivers take from Firmament Avenue to the freeway.

“Commuters use Firmament as a throughway to the on-ramp for the 405 at Sherman Way,” Catton said. “They speed through here. We fear children may get hurt or killed. We’ve already had some close calls.”

More than 700 vehicles take Firmament to the freeway on-ramp between 4 and 6 p.m., according to a March, 1993, department study cited by Catton. Residents fear that that number will increase to more than 900 with the new signal diverting more traffic off Vanowen.