City Council Rejects Residents’ Plea for Freeway Sound Wall

The Ventura City Council on Monday night reneged on its promise to fund a 4,000-foot-long wall to shield an east Ventura neighborhood from highway traffic noise.

The evening’s bottom line: Paying for a sound wall is simply not the best way for the city to spend its limited construction dollars.

“The city is not in the sound wall business,” said Everett Millais, director of community services. “That’s Caltrans’ job.”

Three council members abstained from the vote: Rosa Lee Measures, Jim Monahan and Gary Tuttle cited property ownership as conflicts of interest. The remaining four council members voted unanimously not to fund the wall.

Residents living along Lafayette Street, between Citadel Avenue and Victoria Avenue, said traffic noise from California 126 has become unbearable, and has hurt the resale value of their homes.

They said they have been asking city and state officials since 1974 to build a sound wall to reduce the noise, but the money has never been available.

The residents approached the city again recently, when it was planning to disperse about $118 million for capital improvement projects.

Collected from gas, utility, sewer fees and other taxes, capital improvement funds are typically used on long-term projects that maintain or improve the city’s infrastructure, such as roads, parks and sewers.

But the Lafayette Street residents’ request came too late, after the city had established priorities for its limited budget.

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Meanwhile, the proposed wall has not gotten any cheaper. Caltrans’ estimate in 1994, the last time residents tried to get a wall funded, was $1.3 million. It has now ballooned to $3.2 million.

City staff cautioned the council against funding the project, saying the city would set a dangerous precedent if it started funding work best left to state transportation authorities.

The council briefly considered one staff suggestion that the city pay one-third of the wall’s construction costs upfront, and be reimbursed by Caltrans after the wall was built.

But the four voting members of the council rejected that idea after a city official brought up the recent news that Caltrans may be getting extra money from statewide bond measures for earthquake repairs.

“There isn’t money for this” in the city’s capital improvement budget, said Councilman Ray Di Guilio. “We need to seek an aggressive position with Caltrans.”

Residents of Lafayette Street were disappointed and angry at the council’s decision.

“This project won’t go anywhere in the state of California unless this city does something first,” said Greg Seiler, a neighborhood resident who has led the push for a sound wall since 1994. “This council has stepped on 30 years of effort by residents. It’s not going to die here.”

Residents said they are considering hiring a consultant to find ways to get the wall built. Some residents talked of a recall election.

But others were starting to lose hope.

“I don’t have another 30 years,” said 76-year-old Edith McCombs.