Yorba Linda Trees Felled by Road Work

The sound of a chain saw and the cracking of falling limbs reverberated in Judy Hahn’s home Wednesday--sad sounds to her, but ones that she knew were the city’s response to the voice of the people.

Construction crews cleared about 20 mature eucalyptus trees near her Yorba Linda home this week in preparation for the long-disputed widening of Imperial Highway, which stretches west from the Riverside Freeway to the Orange Freeway and beyond.

The noise marked an end to what Hahn described as a long personal battle against the power of progress. But city officials--backed by a majority of local voters--maintain that the wider highway is needed.

“This project, when it’s all done, will be a good project for the community,” said Roy Stephenson, Yorba Linda’s engineer and public works director.

Hahn moved to her Elmhurst Street home in 1974, when Imperial was a quiet road that ran alongside her backyard. She and her neighbors spent years fighting the city’s plans to widen the highway.

“It used to be we couldn’t even see Imperial,” she said, looking out from her front door to the empty space where a half dozen 40-foot trees used to seclude her home from the traffic. “Now we can see all the way to Eureka [Avenue, a block or so away].”

Imperial Highway has been designated as a major thoroughfare on the city’s General Plan since Yorba Linda was incorporated in the early 1960s, Stephenson said. “We need three lanes in each direction,” he said. “Traffic today warrants that.”

The Orange County Transportation Authority is paying for the $28-million project with Measure M funding as part of a regional “Smart Street” along Imperial from the Riverside Freeway to the county border at La Habra.

While opposition to the highway widening has been strong, Stephenson said a majority of residents supports it. He attributed much of the controversy to the fact that it is being done all at once, rather than in a traditional, piecemeal fashion.

Local voters in 1998 defeated the passage of Measure J, an initiative that would have blocked the project within city limits. Stephenson said about 65% of the voters marked their ballots in favor of the widening.

Residents next to the highway were relieved Wednesday to see many trees spared, but they still felt concern for the impact the widened thoroughfare would have on their homes.

Karen Cluff, who moved to her Joshua Drive home three years ago, worried that the two lanes of added traffic to Imperial Highway would dramatically increase the noise spilling into her backyard.