Keys Neighbors Want Street Shut Off, Say Traffic Conditions Too Risky : Safety: Some in the Beachmont area say the residents are exaggerating the problem to create a private cul-de-sac.

Raymond Greiner has lived on Beachmont Street in the Ventura Keys for more than a quarter century, but now he says the traffic that passes his spacious, two-story home is unbearably dangerous.

Greiner and many of his neighbors are taking their case to the Ventura City Council on Monday. They say the heavy traffic has already claimed the lives of several pets and, if the street is not closed at the point where it connects to the bridge over the Arundell Barranca, it may soon lead to greater tragedies.

Beachmont is a residential thoroughfare that connects the city’s marina area to East Harbor Boulevard. The homes that line the street are large and well-maintained.

On Friday afternoon, there were few cars or trucks passing by to support complaints of intolerable traffic conditions.

But a traffic circulation study conducted by the city showed that 1,340 vehicles use the Arundell Barranca bridge each day and that almost 2,000 vehicles traverse the area where Beachmont intersects Seashell Avenue.

Neighboring business owners and residents of the Ventura Marina Mobile Home Park on Anchors Way--which connects with Beachmont at the bridge--say the Beachmont homeowners are exaggerating their traffic problem in an effort to create a private cul-de-sac.

They point out that the two-way, public road was there when most Beachmont residents bought their homes and argue against closing one of two available routes of driving to and from the marina area for reasons of safety and convenience.

“We have one exit out here through Schooner Drive and one exit out through Beachmont,” said Anne Wormwood, president of the mobile home park’s homeowners association. “If they closed the bridge, we’d have only one exit left in case of any kind of emergency.”

Residents of the mobile home park, where about 400 people live, conducted their own study and say fewer than 1,000 vehicles cross the bridge between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily.

The city’s traffic study analyzed three methods to reduce traffic--closing the street at the Arundell Barranca bridge, making traffic over the bridge one-way, and placing barriers to prevent left turns at the corner of Beachmont and Harbor. The City Council will discuss its findings at a meeting Monday.

Some Beachmont homeowners say they would be happy with any effort to reduce traffic flow. Desiree Foraste, who lives on the street with her husband and 3-month-old twins, said she just wants to see something accomplished at the council meeting.

“I’ve had friends come over and they’re frightened to park in my driveway. It’s dangerous to pull out. You need about 10 eyes,” she said. “Several of us have had animals injured or killed. What is it going to take--a person to be killed?”

But many who live on Beachmont agree that they would really like to see the bridge closed. They say that the original marina plans do not show Beachmont as a thoroughfare.

The Ventura Port District looked at the issue during a recent meeting and recommended that the city look for a compromise that could slow traffic on the street without closing it off completely.

Residents of the mobile home park favor the port’s effort. Bob Tripp, the mobile home park’s manager, said he had no objection to stop signs, speed bumps or even barriers to left turns. But in an emergency, he said, a closed road could be a danger to people on both Beachmont and Anchor Way.

Jim Gokchoff, past president of the mobile home park’s homeowners association, said closing the road would be choosing an unfair benefit for a few over the good of many, pointing out that more than 400 mobile home park residents and most local businesses would be affected.