City, school officials form group to help improve Gould Avenue traffic
To create a pipeline between residents concerned about pedestrian safety issues around Paradise Canyon Elementary School and the appropriate school and city officials, the city’s Joint Use Committee is forming a Gould Avenue improvements subcommittee.
La Cañada Unified Board Vice President Joe Radabaugh — who also chairs the Joint Use Committee responsible for addressing properties and programs of interest to the school district and city — is appointing members to the subcommittee and will soon announce the group’s first meeting.
Formation of the subcommittee was discussed at a Nov. 14 meeting of the Joint Use Committee. There, members debriefed following a town hall forum 10 days earlier, in which residents listed their many concerns and brainstormed possible solutions.
“There are probably 20 different things that need to be looked at, and this is truly a joint use conversation,” La Cañada Mayor Pro Tem Greg Brown said during the committee meeting.
The Gould Avenue improvements subcommittee will be tasked with working alongside school and city officials to address traffic flow, infrastructure and behavioral issues that all contribute to what many believe are unsafe conditions near the school site.
Radabaugh confirmed the nine-member panel will be comprised of one school board and one city council member, a public works employee, the city’s traffic engineer, one Public Works and Traffic commissioner, Paradise Canyon Principal Carrie Hetzel, as well as a member of the school’s PTA, one Paradise Canyon parent and a resident who lives in the area.
The school board member said the tasks and meetings of the group would be introduced in another town hall forum, the date of which has yet to be determined.
