Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Traffic Counting Along Western Avenue

On my way to postpone my jury duty this morning, I passed over a bunch of tubes for counting traffic along Western Avenue.
The counters were on both sides of Western and I passed over them from just about Avenida Aprenda all the way north to just about the railroad tracks near Sepulveda.
So I wondered, were counts being taken for the Ponte Vista at San Pedro Project?
To find out the answer, I called Ms. Elise Swanson, the Vice President overseeing the Outreach Team. She said she didn't believe the current counts were being conducted for the project. She also said that counts for the new Traffic Study were taken late last year and that she would have been informed if these new counts were for the Ponte Vista project.
In our short but informative conversation, Ms. Swanson also said that more information about the project should be available in February and that the Outreach Team was just making sure they had "all their ducks in a row", according to Ms. Swanson.
I am pleased that things may be moving forward. As everyone should know, something will be built on the former site of Naval personnel housing.
It also means that not just new eateries will be in more development stages in 2010.
Now what I am now wondering if the counts being taken today and other recent days will mirror counts taken late last year for the Ponte Vista Environmental Impact Report. I also am wondering how all the more recent counts compare to the Western Avenue Task Force's studies that estimated that traffic along Western would increase by about one percent per year, beginning in 2005 and continuing on for the next 25 years.
There could some factors that both the Western Avenue Task Force and others could not have known about back in 2005. Since the decline in our economy, what might the more currents counts reflect in the fewer cars that may be traveling along Western because their drivers lost their jobs.
Other factors include the number of students attending the newer Mary Star High School and more students attending Dodson Middle School from out of the more local areas. I don't know if there has been a real increase in the number of students attending Rolling Hills Prep on Palos Verdes Drive North.
So I guess it is getting closer to the time to really consider how many units you feel could be successfully built and occupied at Ponte Vista at San Pedro. You are also most welcome to consider what type of condominiums should be offered for sale or lease.
2009 was a very sleepy year for the 61.53 acre site. The goats continue to graze and first responders continue to train.
2010 may bring more of that and quite a bit more discussion about the Ponte Vista at San Pedro Project. I think by the end of the year, we will all know when the old homes will be razed and when new construction will begin.

1 comment:

Jim said...

The vast majority of the community still beleive the Ponta Vista site should remain R-1, and there is no reason for that number to change.

If Janice Hahn wasn't such a fence sitter trying to suck up to both sides of this issue, and if she really stood behind the people who elected her to represent them, she would have made it very clear from the start to the developer that the zoning would not be changed, and if anything was ever going to be built at Ponte Vista, it would be R-1.

If that had happened, the homes that people really want could have already been built and sold, and Bob would have still made a very nice profit. It could have been that simple.

I'll bet Bob thinks about that a lot these days.