Future of 156 through SJ Valley splits officials
The dispute over how to improve the traffic-choked section of
Hwy. 156 through San Juan Valley may come to a head May 6.
The county Board of Supervisors is expected to reopen the
long-simmering debate at 1:15 p.m. that day in chambers in the
county administrative building at Fourth and West streets.
Future of 156 through SJ Valley splits officials
The dispute over how to improve the traffic-choked section of Hwy. 156 through San Juan Valley may come to a head May 6.
The county Board of Supervisors is expected to reopen the long-simmering debate at 1:15 p.m. that day in chambers in the county administrative building at Fourth and West streets.
With Caltrans officials promising to show up, it could be quite a dust-up.
A wider corridor through San Juan Valley’s center is not the issue. Rather, it is what kind of a highway is needed, and how much of some of California’s most valuable farmland should be entombed beneath asphalt.
The highway is now a two-lane link from Hwy. 101 west of San Juan to Hollister, Hwy. 25 and, ultimately Hwy. 152.
The state Department of Transportation is advancing the idea of a limited-access four-lane highway through the valley, paralleled by frontage roads. Supervisor Anthony Botelho, whose district encompasses San Juan Valley, and San Juan Bautista officials support a more modest highway, one that continues to allow direct access from driveways and valley by-ways.
“I think it’s appalling that COG [the county Council of Governments] voted to swallow up a tremendous amount of San Juan Valley,” said Botelho, who serves on the COG board.
COG is a consortium of local officials concerned with regional issues such as transportation.
“When we’re all trying to pull together … to lower carbon dioxide emissions, why would you run trucks through seven stoplights?” Botelho said.
Botelho juggles his job as a supervisor with an orchard operation. He supports a four-lane expressway-level roadway, one allowing direct access from the roads that crisscross the valley as well as driveways connecting to it today. His concern over loss of farmland is shared by the county Farm Bureau.
The Farm Bureau was the first to advance a “three-in-one” highway, intended to shunt traffic from Hwys. 152, 25 and 156 along a new alignment that splits the difference between where the three meet Hwy. 101.
But Caltrans claims its studies show such a route would only reduce traffic on the existing highways by 10 percent, according to Supervisor Pat Loe, who advocates Caltrans’ approach.
“For years we’ve known that highway is nearing capacity,” she said. “We need a four-lane highway, but the safety issue is real. You have, like, 40 driveways onto the highway. You’ll have people wanting to cross the highway with farm equipment. If safety is the No. 1 issue [not having frontage roads] is not a viable option.
“We all want the smallest possible footprint,” she said. “But what is the smallest practical footprint?”
Loe recently testified before the state Transportation Commission to try to secure funding. “I felt very positive afterward,” she said.
COG subsequently voted to support supervisors sending a letter to the state urging funding, but supervisors elected not to make that move.
Botelho, for one, believes that Caltrans is “not very transparent. It’s a major highway through our community. It’s really something.
“If you vote to make 156 a trade corridor you make it a trade corridor forever,” he said.
Botelho described COG’s move as “the most discouraging vote I’ve ever felt.”
San Juan residents and council members have their own set of issues, according to City Manager Jan McClintock.
The San Juan Council was scheduled this week to consider passing a resolution over a limited-access highway.
The resolution, voted upon after presstime, asks supervisors to reassert its original position for minimal expansion, to oppose raising the level of the highway, to oppose an overpass at Bixby Road in favor of a light and to shunt truck traffic onto other links.
“That highway doesn’t need to be elevated six feet,” McClintock said. “It’s not just a visual issue. There’s a huge drainage impact. It creates an enormous dam across the valley.”
She believes much traffic could be relieved with better turn lanes, and even suggested that a median lane near intersections could be shared by traffic running in both directions to enter and leave the highway.
“The city of San Juan already is on the record as saying it should be four lanes, but four lanes with continued access from the valley roads,” McClintock said.
The Board of Supervisors will discuss Hwy. 156 at 1:15 p.m. May 6 in board chambers at 481 Fourth St. in Hollister.
