Resident Concerns

Residents e-mail me all the time and post their concerns on Lake Forest Town Square. Sometimes they come in and see me during my office hours. About a month ago I wrote about these concerns (Click Here). Here’s some of the latest issues.

TRAFFIC AND SAFETY

People living along Muirlands and Overlake are worried about the recent spate of accidents in their neighborhoods. I’ve asked the City to provide a list of the intersections in Lake Forest and their accident rate (and fatality rate). We did get speed tests along Overlake and they showed that speeding was not a problem on that street.

The serious accidents on Muirlands and Overlake are only the tip of the iceberg.

• People who live on Kiley Street are worried about speeders and are asking for a speed bump.
• Elsewhere people are hoping to have a traffic light installed.
• On Raymond people who live in the mobile homes are concerned with the parking along Raymond that obstructs their views.
• People who live in Bennett Ranch are still not happy about the parking problem there.
• People who live in Foothill Ranch want to know if the Portola Parkway extension is going to be completed, and if not, what can we do to stop the speeding on the dead-end that remains.

The list goes on.

These concerns underline my conviction that the City needs a Traffic and Parking Commission. Last year we had a “Traffic Advisory Group” that achieved very little, except to rubber stamp what we were already doing. If what we were doing was adequate, we wouldn’t have the kinds of congestion, accidents, and parking problems that residents complain about every week.

At the last Council meeting I asked once again for a Traffic and Parking Commission. Councilmen Nick and Voigts supported the idea so let’s look forward to a new discussion. Councilman Voigts suggested that we install the new Commission within the existing Planning Commission, to avoid the time and effort to formally create a new Commission which is subject to the Brown Act. He considers the fact that the Planning Commission used to meet twice monthly, but has been reduced to only once per month. Hence, we could re-instate the twice per month schedule and accommodate the new Commission on the second date.

It’s a good idea I think that requires a little modification to be successful. Right now the people on the Planning Commission have little “traffic and parking” expertise. Some would argue some of them have little “planning” experience too, but I’ll postpone that discussion for right now. To add traffic and parking as a second focus for the Planning Commission, I think we need to add two more people, both of whom should be more “traffic/parking” oriented. This would give us a 7-person Planning and Traffic Commission which I believe is a good thing.

Staff have been asked to bring back a proposal and I hope we do it soon since the new appointments to the Planning Commission will be made shortly, so if we change the size and scope we need to do it asap.

Next time I’ll look at some more issues that concern our residents. BTW – in case you didn’t know, there is a Facebook page entitled Lake Forest Town Square and many of these issues are discussed at length on that page. There are more than 500 people who participate there and we often get great ideas from that forum that ultimately makes their way to the Council. To participate you need to be a Lake Forest resident and you need to log in using your real name.

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 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in January at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.