Council to Review Borchard Road Plan

Rather than pay $10,000 for a new traffic study on Borchard Road, the City Council has voted to use statistics compiled by an engineering firm last year.

In the same 4-0 vote this week, the council decided to review the design for an extension of the road, which developers have planned to build at as much as a 12% grade in places--7% steeper than city codes ordinarily allow.

Councilman Dennis Gillette abstained from the vote.

“Everything in Newbury Park, you go down Borchard to get to,” Mayor Linda Parks said, noting that future residents of the planned $7-million, 2,350-unit Dos Vientos housing development will have to use the road.

Existing traffic study figures estimate an average of more than 9,000 cars will travel along Borchard Road each hour.

Traffic circles have been proposed for the top and bottom of Borchard Hill. That would force motorists to slow to 10 mph before entering or leaving the main street, officials said, reducing some of the risk of cars speeding down the hill and creating a danger for residents.

“That piece will be considered as part of the design feature because the developer has court authorization to build that road,” Gillette said. “What we’re looking for now are additional enhancements to improve sight lines--the view that you have--and also reduce speeds on the road.”

Critics, however, have insisted the developer should lower the grade of the road to city standards rather than introduce special safety design features, such as the traffic circles.

Gillette emphasized that the so-called traffic circles are really “not traffic circles. They’re flow-mitigation recommendations. They’re design modifications that would cause drivers to be required to drive slower up and down the 1,500-some feet.”