Good News, Bad News - Saddleback Ranch Road

Last week we looked at the Good News and the Bad News associated with seniors, affordable housing, and Village Pond Park. Today we look at Saddleback Ranch Road (SRR).

The Good News is that construction has started. The Bad News follows…

Among all the cities in South Orange County, no city has people more worried about traffic than Lake Forest. So the City Council approved adding 5,000 new homes, 12,000 new people, and more than 40,000 extra vehicle trips every day.

Does that make sense?

Portola Hills, where the latest construction has started, is a community of 6000+ people in the Eastern-most part of Lake Forest. Basically there is one road in and out of the area, and during “rush” hour there is no possibility of rushing. So, the City decides to build 900 more homes, with more than 2,000 more people and nearly 10,000 extra vehicle trips per day, and add them to Portola Hills without creating one additional road and without widening the existing roads.

Does that make sense?

Then someone gets the bright idea that instead of making it easier for people to get in and out of Portola Hills, the best thing you can do is slow down the traffic so that it takes even more time for the 8,000 people who make 60,000+ vehicle trips per day to get it and out of the area.

Does that make sense?

If that’s not enough, they design the one major access road in such a manner that people on bicycles are forced to share the one lane with cars, on a steep incline, where most bicycles are going to be zipping along at under 10 miles per hour, and cars will line up behind them.

Does that make sense?

This issue came to my attention a few weeks ago. I talked to the Director of Public Works and he explained that the project is proceeding as planned when the developers and the residents came together a few years ago to modify the plans. I was at those meetings, and while personally I didn’t think too highly of the plans, he was right. This is what the people who attended decided to do, given that they were forced by the City Council to do something.

But in the intervening time, the State passed a law that says that bicycles need to be given 3 feet clearance. If you ride a bike, you normally stay about 2 or 3 feet away from the curb because the curb is a trip hazard. So with 2 to 3 feet from the curb, and 3 feet clearance, that leaves about 7 feet for a car to get past a bike without going into the opposite lane. Though many cars are less than 7 feet wide, others are more than 7 feet wide. When you add in the width of many oversize mirrors, the width of many cars exceeds 7 feet.

Now consider that many drivers are timid. We see them all the time. And while I’m not criticizing timidity at the wheel, there’s no question that they can slow down traffic. Usually this makes little difference. But now it has the possibility of causing real delays. The result is the real possibility that on some stretches of the road, bikes will go single file and dozens of cars will line up in back of them.

What can we do? According to the Director of Public Works, the project is near completion and by the time we could get any changes studied and then recommended by the Council, especially if they take another “Spa Day”, the project will be completed. Hence, we are in the uncomfortable position of sitting back and waiting for the problem to emerge.

How did we get here? Some of the dozens of people who showed up at the Traffic Advisory Group meeting last week complained that they had no idea that this problem was going to happen. Certainly no one mentioned it at the time, and few people were able to extrapolate from the drawings to the reality. The change in the bicycle law also wasn’t anticipated then, so the original plans called for people in cars to squeeze the bicyclists which is no longer allowed.

Of course there are several other features of the SRR modifications that are getting good reviews (e.g., the so-called bulb-outs and the pork chops), but another questionable feature is the use of irrigation in the medians (see picture) at a time when we are in the worst drought in recent history. Some will argue that Portola will use reclaimed water, as if reclaimed water wasn’t real water that might otherwise be used.

On October 27 the TAG will put the SRR item on the agenda, so you might want to attend the 7 pm meeting at the City Hall By that time the project will be almost concluded, so there is little that can be done, except to learn from this experience. Since developers are going to continue to want to develop residential homes despite the fact that the City is already bulging at the seams, and there is no land left for residential development, and since developers tend to pour tens of thousands of dollars into city council campaigns to be sure that people are elected who will vote them what they want, we are likely to be confronted with similar situations in the future. Learning from this experience would be a good thing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on Dec 12 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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