Traffic! OUR community, our town cannot handle the added traffic, no matter what anyone else claims.
The Western Avenue Task Force found that Western Avenue, between Palos Verdes Drive North and 25th Street handles 37,500 vehicles per day. Well actually, that was the number of cars measured on Western in 2005.
The WATF also stated that, even without any new large developments built in the area, the number of vehicles traveling on Western Avenue would rise about one percent each and every year between 2005 and 2030.
The WATF was published before any information about Bob Bisno's plans for Ponte Vista were known.
One of the main suggestions that the WATF made was that Western Avenue be widened to three lanes in each direction between Palos Verdes Drive North and 25th. Street.
With all the recommendations the WATF made, including adding lanes, reworking intersections and driveways, they estimated that there could be up to a 12% reduction in the time it takes to travel from Palos Verdes Drive North and 25th. Street IF all the suggestions were implemented, but without having any information about Bob's plans for Ponte Vista.
Traffic has always been the number one problem facing any ideas about what should or should not be built at Ponte Vista. Not only is traffic a problem for the mind to deal with, it also is the most emotional aspect of trying to support or oppose whatever is built at Ponte Vista.
An extremely troubling problem with the traffic issue is that there is actually know real way of predicting what may happen with traffic under Bob's current plans.
The L.A. Dept. of Transportation and the engineers who are paid by Bob all have to follow outdated rules that do not accurately apply to Los Angeles and the uniqueness of the City of Los Angeles, as far as traffic goes.
It also did absolutely no good the Bob tried to use high-rise condominium and townhouse rules for a development where the tallest buildings were going to be only 6 stories tall. The old rules allowed him to fudge that way and he did exactly what he was allowed to do. Now that there will be no 6-story buildings, he cannot use the high-rise numbers, but he still can use the ITE trip generation tables that are the same for New York City, Philadelphia, Nashville, Dallas, and Pedly.
Los Angeles is unique and to use traffic rules that apply nationwide for such an area as the greater L.A. area, has created the problems we have been having and will have until the government wises up and created tables specifically for the L.A. area.
Since there appears to be a lack of will on the part of Bob and the bureaucrats in L.A. to find a way to get the Navy to give up land for an eastern exit onto Gaffey from Ponte Vista and the new Mary Star campus, Western Avenue will have to take all the traffic from Ponte Vista and some of the traffic from Mary Star, if a new access road is built.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation, in the matter of Ponte Vista has been a sorry mess. Not only have they withheld information, they seem to really be in the back pocket of Bob, it seems to many individuals. They have appeared incompetent, ill informed, mismanaged, and generally out of touch with the people who pay their salaries.
There is no way anyone should rely on the L.A. D.O.T. when it comes to Ponte Vista and that is one more reason why Bob's current plans are so wrong for OUR community.
Target, Seaport Luxury Homes, Marshall's, and probably Highland Park (134-units on Gaffey) are four projects that will also impact traffic in northwest San Pedro. Western Avenue and Gaffey Street are going to get very much more crowded long before anything is built at the Ponte Vista site.
OUR community has lost trust with the Department of Transportation and we still haven't found any real reason to trust Bob Bisno. No matter what coating anyone puts on the issue of traffic, the coating will be poison to San Pedro and the surrounding areas.
Bob Bisno has stated from the very beginning that as his major traffic mitigation, ATSAC will be installed. Well Bob, ATSAC is being installed whether you build one unit or 429-units. Claiming that you will put money into a trust fund is nice, but L.A.D.O.T. has already claimed that trust fund money can go where it wants the money to go, and that could be Venice.
I have always trusted Jerry Gaines and Sal Satomayor and the other members of the Western Avenue Task Force when it comes to traffic issues. These volunteers did their work without prejudice about any new developments or projects. They also did their work when there were real counts taken and objective observations meant that nobody had anything to gain or lose.
If Jerry and Sal and the other members of the WATF say you can't build 1,950-units on Western Avenue, I believe them. It simply can't be done.
I feel on this issue, I am going to stick with objective volunteers over an out of town developer, as far as traffic goes.
OUR community is made up of several towns, none of which can support a 1,950-unit condominium project. Traffic will get worse no matter what is built at Ponte Vista, but 1,950 units is very much too big for the town, and the traffic.
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