Now is the time to speak out on proposed changes to some city
streets. There will be three community meetings this weekend to
discuss the city’s traffic plans through 2030.
Now is the time to speak out on proposed changes to some city streets. There will be three community meetings this weekend to discuss the city’s traffic plans through 2030.
Chief among these is extending Santa Teresa Boulevard from Hale Avenue at Main Avenue to Spring Avenue at DeWitt Avenue, according to summary of the proposed circulation changes available online.
Community Development Director Kathy Molloy Previsich said that instead of becoming a four-lane arterial, Santa Teresa would be a two-lane, multi-modal arterial with separated bicycle and walk paths.
The Santa Teresa extension drew ire from nearby residents when the 40-year-old plans surfaced at Morgan Hill City Council meetings in June 2008. The controversy settled for the most part during the following year as the city waited for the traffic study’s results. Now they’re here, and one vocal resident of southwest Morgan Hill says the city tried to slip them past the public eye.
“There were promises made for community meetings, those haven’t materialized,” Frank Manocchio, frequent city council meeting attendee, told the council Wednesday night. Manocchio pointed out that the results of the traffic study came out in early August, but he and his neighbors didn’t hear anything about it. Manocchio said he “stumbled upon” the study earlier this month while perusing the city’s Web site. Since that time, an announcement about the circulation element update’s public comment period and the community meetings hosted by the city were placed on the front page of the city’s Web site, www.morganhill.ca.gov.
Another proposal is to reduce Monterey Road from Main to Dunne avenues from four lanes to two lanes. Butterfield Boulevard from Cochrane to Monterey roads would remain four lanes, instead of being expanded to six.
A litany of other roads originally planned for four lanes will be planned for two instead, according to the report.
The meetings will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday and from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Monday and Thursday. All meetings will be held in the Hiram Morgan Hill Room at the Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road.
The city has spent almost $110,000 on traffic consulting to update its traffic model and projected traffic needs through 2030. City planners at first proposed a four-lane Santa Teresa extension based on a 2000 traffic model that did not include the U.S. 101 widening.
Redevelopment Agency funds will be used to pay for the $17 million Santa Teresa extension over the next five years.
The city also plans to spend $9 million in Redevelopment Agency funds to widen Dunne Avenue from two lanes to four lanes from Monterey Road to Peak Avenue this year, according to city reports.
