BUENA PARK : Short Sections of 2 Streets Will Close

Short sections of 5th Street and Fullerton Avenue will be permanently closed to traffic within the next few months.

City Council members this week approved plans to shut off the two strips to allow nearby companies to expand.

Officials conducted studies and hearings on the closings for about seven months, Public Works Director Donald K. Jensen said.

“The end result will be an improved street-circulation system and the improvement of two commercial properties,” he said Wednesday.

The area of 5th Street between Fullerton Avenue and Beach Boulevard, as well as part of a connecting alley, will be shut.

Closing about 500 feet of the street will both improve traffic and allow auto dealership Ted Jones Ford to connect its two sites, Jensen said. “The problem is that Ted Jones is on both sides of the street,” he said, “and we have a lot of people walking across from one side to the other.”

Traffic would flow to Artesia Boulevard or Commonwealth Avenue, he said.

The same issue compelled the closing of 150 feet of Fullerton Avenue between Commonwealth and 5th, Jensen said.

Klockgether-Renaker Mortuary), which fronts on Commonwealth, has its facility on the west side and its parking lot on the east side. “It gets pretty congested,” Jensen said.

Motorists can detour at Kingman Avenue and also Artesia.

The work to close the streets will begin when paperwork with the two companies is completed, Jensen said.