YORBA LINDA : Imperial Highway Project Advances

The city has given tentative approval to a plan to widen Imperial Highway despite objections from residents and a city planner’s report that county studies of the environmental impact of the project were inadequate and inaccurate.

After a lengthy, emotionally charged public hearing on Tuesday, the council voted 5-0 to move ahead on designing portions of the project that will not affect the volume or speed of traffic on Imperial Highway.

The council also left the door open to building the entire project, which includes six lanes of traffic between Rose Drive and Yorba Linda Boulevard and sound walls ranging from six feet to 16 feet along portions of the road. The project was proposed by the Orange County Transportation Authority and will be paid by a countywide half-cent sales tax established by Measure M.

Although the city has repeatedly asked OCTA to do an environmental impact study, the agency says one is not needed. But a city planner, in a memo to the city engineer dated Aug. 30, points out numerous errors and oversights in the county’s initial study that was used to justify not doing an environmental impact report.

“The initial study for the . . . project is insufficient in three ways,” the memo states. “The initial study is not consistent with (state) guidelines. It . . . fails to completely identify all potential areas of impact (and) it fails to properly mitigate potential impacts.”

Councilman Mark Schwing also criticized the study for failing to address the gridlock caused by daily morning trains just south of the intersection of Imperial Highway and Orangethorpe Avenue.

“The initial study gave only passing comment to the worst intersection in the area,” Schwing said. “They’re going to route four lanes of traffic down (Imperial Highway), then come to a sudden stop when a train comes through. It’s beyond logic.”