In 2014 the City Council voted to fund a conceptual study to address vehicular speed, mobility, and traffic congestion in the 3rd and 4th street corridor. The firm tasked with the developing the study, Fehr and Peers, evaluated a series of options that will now be considered for advancement from the conceptual plan to preliminary engineering. On October 6th at 5pm, the City Council will receive the report and deliberate on further direction.
This past week I invited residents from various pockets of the corridor and broader community to meet and review the final report. The purpose of this meeting was to hear residents share their perspective of the recommendations with me and with each other. In addition to the great dialogue, there were three takeaways that are crucial for the general public to understand:
1) There is more to the report than traffic signals.
Although much of the public discourse has been centered around the merit of traffic signals, whether youre pro-lights, anti-lights, or undecided, it is important to know that there are a total of twenty-four recommendations included in the report. Of those recommendations, seven are traffic signals and the others are a mix of less controversial items. There are also alternatives to most recommendations included in the report which creates even more options for the public and Council to consider.
2) The City Council doesnt have the final say on most of the recommendations.
Since State Routes 75 and 282 (3rd and 4th st) are owned by Caltrans, the City would need their approval on many of the recommendations before they could be implemented.
3) This isnt all or nothing.
On Tuesday, the City Council could decide to move forward with preliminary engineering for all, some, or none of the recommendations as each of the elements can be considered individually. This means the Council can pick and choose which, if any, recommendations should be moved forward.
Although this is another issue that is dividing the public, I was encourage by the positive and constructive dialogue that occurred between residents at the meeting last week. While there wasnt a strong consensus around every recommendation, there was a strong consensus around many of the elements and alternatives. One item that everyone did agree on was that the safety of the corridor could and should be improved.
The entire city council agenda for Tuesday can be found at the following link: http://www.coronado.ca.us/eGov/apps/document/center.egov?view=item;id=9579
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to research the issue and participate in the public workshops and dialogue.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me or any other Councilmember.
Councilmember and Optimist
Richard Bailey
619.335.7315
