Chapman Told to Install Crosswalk, Traffic Signal

Ensuring the safety of Chapman University students who dart across Walnut Avenue from the campus is the responsibility of the school, city officials said.

As a result, the City Council ruled that the university will have to install a mid-block pedestrian crosswalk and signal on the busy avenue to protect students.

The city’s chief engineer, Bernie Dennis, also said the city should remove the four-way stop signs that were erected at Walnut Avenue and Grand Street when the university was building a new dormitory.

“If Chapman can afford to found a new law school, it can afford to mitigate the traffic there,” Councilman Mike Spurgeon said.

The city put up all-way stop signs in 1988 after the college requested a pedestrian signal, Dennis said. But when Chapman built new dormitories three years ago, foot traffic started flowing across the middle of the street. While there are only enough vehicles to justify a one-way stop sign on Grand Street, pedestrian safety requires some kind of signal for the students, he added.

Milt Galbraith, chief of campus safety at Chapman, said that the crossing should not be a problem. When it comes to student safety, “money would be no object,” he said.

The nearby dormitory complex has 800 rooms, he said. Enrollment is at 600 to 700 students now, but a full house would mean heavy pedestrian traffic crossing the street to get to the campus.