Supervisors Agree to Stall Road Plan

Fearful that a proposed road-widening plan will create a traffic hazard, Nyeland Acres residents convinced supervisors to temporarily hold off on doubling the lanes along Santa Clara Avenue just north of Oxnard.

Residents want the board to consider adding a frontage road as a buffer between the 71 homes along Santa Clara Avenue and the rural two-lane road, before transforming it into a four-lane highway.

“We don’t want to do away with the project,” said Supervisor John Flynn, who represents Nyeland Acres. “But we do need to do away with the current design. . . . We need an alternate plan that guarantees the safety of this community.”

Public works officials had urged supervisors to approve the environmental analysis of the project so they could begin widening Santa Clara along the 2.8-mile stretch from the Ventura Freeway to where it connects with California 118. Central Avenue also would be widened along a two-mile stretch from Camarillo’s city limit to the Santa Clara Avenue intersection.

Without the expansion, traffic in the area will become overloaded in about 10 years, said county Transportation Director Butch Britt.

But residents say the $16.5-million project would make entering the road from the homes on Santa Clara more difficult, and would endanger lives.

“All the deaths from people trying to get in and out of their driveways are going to be on this board,” one speaker said.

Another speaker, Tamara Moore, grew teary-eyed as she spoke of telling her teenage daughters, one about to get her driver’s license, that they may have to move to avoid the roadway.

“And my girls cried,” Moore said. “They don’t want to leave; they want their home. . . . Please make the right choice, for the safety of our children and our community.”

Flynn said some of the properties are less than 5 feet from the edge of the roadway.

Flynn said a frontage road is critical to ensuring the safety of residents. But Britt warned after the meeting that it will be difficult to include such a road in the existing plan because funds for the project are already tight, and the additional 1.2 miles of road could cost $5 million to $7 million.

“If folks want a guarantee for a frontage road, I can’t do it,” Britt said. “I just don’t have the funds for it.”

County officials will have to explore how the addition of the road would affect the environmental impact report, which took more than a year to complete. Residents also are hoping for a sound wall to buffer noise caused by increased traffic along the expanded road.

Supervisors agreed to postpone their vote on the four-lane highway and directed Britt to rewrite a scaled-down version of the proposal. That version will include improvements for the existing two-lane roads, such as wider turn lanes for Santa Clara and Central avenues, paved shoulders and new pavement. Included in the plan is a provision to hold off on approving the four-lane expansion until the issue of adding a frontage road can be studied.

Supervisors will consider the new proposal Tuesday.

Residents were relieved to hear of the temporary reprieve, but say it’s still no guarantee the original plan won’t go forward.

“Right now, there are too many holes to feel too secure,” Moore said. “It could still go either way.”