Traffic Mitigation

The Ventura City Council will decide today whether to waive a $15,851 traffic mitigation payment for a developer who is appealing the fee. William Kendall, who has built a business park in the 4500 block of Market Street, said he has already paid $18,245 in traffic mitigation fees. According to a city staff report, Kendall's project was approved in January, 1990, for industrial business park use.

The homeowners on Penny Cotten's street in a residential area of Los Angeles near Venice High School were unanimous in their decision to have the city install a series of speed humps, but that didn't make getting the financing or the approvals for the humps any easier.

Frustrated that their area's traffic plan had been stalled, dozens of Sunset Park residents created a little gridlock of their own last week by holding a protest march in the City Council chambers and temporarily halting the council meeting. Equipped with signs and a bullhorn, the Friends of Sunset Park, a residents' association, rallied on the City Hall lawn, then marched into the council chambers.

Re "How to Frustrate a Lot of People? It Takes Planning," column by Dana Parsons, Dec. 1: The Orange County Transportation Authority has not done good planning because they are mired in the past, playing with trains. Luckily, they are not in charge of fire services or bucket brigades would be their best idea for firefighting. OCTA must first reject all ideas that include rail and concrete. There is no future for either. Next they must study what have been the most successful traffic mitigation programs.

The amount of money Ventura charges developers to help offset the traffic generated by their projects will be reviewed for the first time since being established almost a decade ago. The review is unlikely to increase or decrease the $800,000 to $1-million traffic mitigation fees paid each year, City Engineer Rick Raives said. But since the number of project categories is likely to increase, developers could see fees for a given project go up or down.

With a Bloomingdale's department store opening at the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square this fall, there's bound to be more traffic on surrounding streets, particularly the thoroughfares of Riverside Drive and Hazeltine and Woodman avenues. To address possible traffic mitigation strategies, City Councilman Mike Feuer will host a neighborhood council meeting tonight where area residents can discuss possible problem areas.

Those who have been waiting for an upturn of the economy in Ventura County may have a long wait. As other states have been fishing in our industrial waters, luring county businesses away with incentives, our elected officials have been driving a stake into the heart of those very same businesses. Now, the Board of Supervisors has adopted a traffic mitigation fee that will impose more cost on any firm building in the county. What can the supervisors be thinking of? When business leaves, who will provide the jobs and the tax base necessary to operate county government?

The homeowners on Penny Cotten's street in a residential area of Los Angeles near Venice High School were unanimous in their decision to have the city install a series of speed humps, but that didn't make getting the financing or the approvals for the humps any easier.

Re "How to Frustrate a Lot of People? It Takes Planning," column by Dana Parsons, Dec. 1: The Orange County Transportation Authority has not done good planning because they are mired in the past, playing with trains. Luckily, they are not in charge of fire services or bucket brigades would be their best idea for firefighting. OCTA must first reject all ideas that include rail and concrete. There is no future for either. Next they must study what have been the most successful traffic mitigation programs.

The Times' article of April 25 concerning revision of the city's Coastal Transportation Corridor Specific Plan ordinance highlights a critical failing of the city bureaucracies--this time the L.A. City Department of Transportation. All too often these bureaucracies pursue their narrowly focused logic to the exclusion of the public interest. In this instance, the Transportation Department says we must mitigate traffic impacts by widening streets, and therefore this ordinance should encourage developers to do more in this respect.

Crews have begun preliminary work on a nearly $10-million effort to unclog traffic on the Ventura Freeway's Johnson Drive interchange in Ventura. The project, expected to last a year, will eliminate the Union Pacific Railroad crossing at Auto Center Drive by replacing it with a bridge over an extended Johnson Drive. Nearby Leland Street will also be widened.

The amount of money Ventura charges developers to help offset the traffic generated by their projects will be reviewed for the first time since being established almost a decade ago. The review is unlikely to increase or decrease the $800,000 to $1-million traffic mitigation fees paid each year, City Engineer Rick Raives said. But since the number of project categories is likely to increase, developers could see fees for a given project go up or down.

The City Council this week agreed to impose a $57,000 annual user fee on the directors of the Calabasas Landfill to pay for maintenance of several city roads well traveled by trucks going to the dump. Calabasas officials said the city has spent a large amount of its resources to maintain the affected roads, repairing damage caused for the most part by trucks from sanitation districts outside city limits.

With a Bloomingdale's department store opening at the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square this fall, there's bound to be more traffic on surrounding streets, particularly the thoroughfares of Riverside Drive and Hazeltine and Woodman avenues. To address possible traffic mitigation strategies, City Councilman Mike Feuer will host a neighborhood council meeting tonight where area residents can discuss possible problem areas.

Frustrated that their area's traffic plan had been stalled, dozens of Sunset Park residents created a little gridlock of their own last week by holding a protest march in the City Council chambers and temporarily halting the council meeting. Equipped with signs and a bullhorn, the Friends of Sunset Park, a residents' association, rallied on the City Hall lawn, then marched into the council chambers.

Those who have been waiting for an upturn of the economy in Ventura County may have a long wait. As other states have been fishing in our industrial waters, luring county businesses away with incentives, our elected officials have been driving a stake into the heart of those very same businesses. Now, the Board of Supervisors has adopted a traffic mitigation fee that will impose more cost on any firm building in the county. What can the supervisors be thinking of? When business leaves, who will provide the jobs and the tax base necessary to operate county government?

In the battle of giants over the location of a subway station in Studio City, the homeowners in the area appear to be the losers. We are the people who most clearly understand the implications of the decisions being made in our behalf, yet our voices go unrecognized, or when heard, are misunderstood. A recent Times column said, "North Hollywood residents supporting MCA, organized by company executive Christine Hanson, were in the audience. Some of them testified for MCA." I testified for the Studio City Residents Assn.

Congratulations on your series examining traffic congestion in Southern California. These comprehensive articles will surely assist citizens and public officials in fashioning a workable approach to this serious problem. My office has implemented one of the options discussed in the series--flex-time--with great success. Flexible work schedules not only help reduce traffic congestion at peak commuting hours, they also allow employees greater freedom to arrange their workday to accommodate outside needs.

In the battle of giants over the location of a subway station in Studio City, the homeowners in the area appear to be the losers. We are the people who most clearly understand the implications of the decisions being made in our behalf, yet our voices go unrecognized, or when heard, are misunderstood. A recent Times column said, "North Hollywood residents supporting MCA, organized by company executive Christine Hanson, were in the audience. Some of them testified for MCA." I testified for the Studio City Residents Assn.

The Ventura City Council will decide today whether to waive a $15,851 traffic mitigation payment for a developer who is appealing the fee. William Kendall, who has built a business park in the 4500 block of Market Street, said he has already paid $18,245 in traffic mitigation fees. According to a city staff report, Kendall's project was approved in January, 1990, for industrial business park use.