Vote May Come Too Late to Stop Roadwork

Residents will get a chance to vote on the city’s plans to improve Imperial Highway, but possibly not before the bulldozers move in.

A total of 3,200 signatures collected by the Organization of Unified Concerned Homeowners have been tallied, enough to put the issue to the voters in 1998, Mayor John M. Gullixson said. But the group did not submit the signatures early enough for this year’s election.

The City Council is expected to approve putting the initiative on the ballot at its meeting tonight.

Tom Martin, one of the organizers of the petition drive and a Concerned Homeowners board member, said he is disappointed.

Martin said that a 1998 vote on the project is pointless because construction probably will begin before then, damaging the town’s rural character.

“We are going to have to consider going to court to order the city to set it for special election,” Martin said, “because we are really in a race with the bulldozers.”

There is a good chance he is right.

Gullixson said Monday that the Orange County Transportation Authority is to vote Oct. 28 on the city’s application for $25 million for the project. The agency’s planning committee has recommended approval, he said, which would allow the city to begin soliciting bids for the project in January.

“We are very excited about this,” Gullixson said. “We expected to get somewhere in the range of $10 million to $12 million, but it looks like they may pay for the whole thing.”

The project would expand the 2 1/2-mile stretch of Imperial Highway between Yorba Linda Boulevard and Esperanza Road to two lanes in each direction. It also would include medians and landscaping.

The council meets at 6:30 tonight at City Hall, 4845 Casa Loma Ave. Information: (714) 961-7100.