By PATRICK DWIRE
Citizens sound off on Valley freeway
The message for Caltrans officials from the residents of San
Juan Bautista was clear and apparently unanimous – don’t plan on
widening Highway 156 through our town and the San Juan Valley.
Caltrans response was – well, we already have, but we want to work
with you to resolve our differences.
In a contentious and at times emotional Town Hall meeting
Caltrans hosted in San Juan Bautista last week, Caltrans
representatives were put on the defensive, but promised to keep
coming back to work toward solutions.
By PATRICK DWIRE
Citizens sound off on Valley freeway
The message for Caltrans officials from the residents of San Juan Bautista was clear and apparently unanimous – don’t plan on widening Highway 156 through our town and the San Juan Valley. Caltrans response was – well, we already have, but we want to work with you to resolve our differences.
In a contentious and at times emotional Town Hall meeting Caltrans hosted in San Juan Bautista last week, Caltrans representatives were put on the defensive, but promised to keep coming back to work toward solutions.
“I don’t expect many people to change their minds this evening,” said Gregg Albright, director of Caltrans District 5, to about 30 residents who turned out for the meeting, “But I do know we will not be able to solve problems unless we come together and wrestle through these problems together.”
The problem? Rapidly rising traffic, especially inter-regional truck traffic, funneling onto the “gap”- the two-lane, undivided stretch of Highway 156 crossing the San Juan Valley between San Juan Bautista and Union Road. Traffic has increased from 15,000 cars and trucks a day in 1995 to over 24,000 a day in 2005, an increase of 60 percent in 10 years, according to Caltrans. And there is good reason to expect traffic to continue growing at that rate until the highway slows to a crawl.
Caltrans’ proposed solution? Widen this four-mile stretch of Highway 156 to a four lane divided expressway, with various configurations of a frontage road for local farm traffic. After many years of consideration, the widening project has received local approvals as well as competitive Caltrans funding. The Highway 156 widening project was approved as part of the Regional Transportation Plan adopted by the San Benito County Council of Governments (COG) last May, and significant local “match” funding has been committed to it.
Caltrans Project Manager Richard Rosales gave an update of the scheduling and funding for the widening project at the meeting, which was followed by angry consternation by some residents that their opposition to the project was not getting heard.
Rebecca McGovern, San Juan resident and longtime open space advocate, told the Caltrans officials at the meeting, “It’s been my experience with Caltrans, even though you are very congenial and say you want to cooperate with the community, you know exactly what you want to do, and by God, that’s what you’re going to do.”
Rosales said the town hall meeting was intended as an informal discussion and in no way would substitute for the required public hearings for the Highway 156 widening project. As currently scheduled, the draft Environmental Impact Report for the widening project is expected to be circulated for comment next summer. Hearings on that document are expected before and after the document is released, and all comments received within the 45-day public review period will be responded to.
The idea of widening Highway 156 through the heart of San Juan Valley is nothing new, according to District 2 County Supervisor Anthony Botelho, who said variations of the widening project have been talked about since the 1960s when he was growing up in the valley. Botelho is strongly opposed to widening the highway running through the heart of his district, not only because it would blacktop a significant amount of prime farmland, but would forever compromise the beauty and quality of life in the San Juan Valley, potentially exacerbate already serious drainage and ground water problems, and cut the town of San Juan Bautista in two.
“I’ll do everything in my power to promote the 3-in-1 proposal, and work to gather support to amend the Regional Transportation Plan to take this project out,” Botelho announced at the meeting, which received a smattering of applause. In an earlier conversation Botelho said Caltrans has to understand the political landscape has changed since the Regional Transportation Plan was approved by COG, which Botelho serves on.
Botelho said he intended to be as persuasive as possible in getting the necessary support on the COG board to delete the expansion project from the approved Regional Transportation Plan, although funding for safety improvements for the two-lane portion highway should remain a priority.
The so-called “3-in-1 proposal,” also referred to as the road consolidation option, promises to meet the increasing demand for an east-west transportation corridor with an entirely new, four-lane expressway through the Bolsa area north of the mountains around San Juan. This new freeway would be expected to relieve the congestion on the three existing, two-lane, east-west highways in the area: Highway 156, Highway 25, and Highway 152.
The proposal for an entirely new highway across San Benito County, originally proposed by the San Benito Farm Bureau several years ago primarily as an effort to save farmland, has recently received a good deal of renewed attention. The proposal has gained more traction recently because it is included as an option a long-range, regional transportation plan recently released the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority; the Southern Gateway Transportation and Land Use Study.
fter its release in September, the Southern Gateway study was condemned by some as clearly showing the intention of Santa Clara County find to solutions for its growing traffic problems in San Benito County. The Southern Gateway Study considers six different options for a four-lane, east-west divided highway across San Benito County, including variations to widening the three existing highways, plus building a new one.
The plan was welcomed by others, particularly in the San Juan Valley, for reinvigorating the Farm Bureau’s old 3-in-1 proposal. The renewed discussion of the 3-in-1 proposal also came at a very good time for DMB Associates, which endorsed the concept as a viable option to handle the traffic impacts of the proposed master-planned new town DMB is proposing in Bolsa area, El Rancho San Benito. Having the local partnership with the developer of a mega-project, who will be liable for potentially millions of dollars of traffic impact fees, has given the old idea a new life.
Although the town hall meeting in San Juan was called by Caltrans as a goodwill gesture to increase public communication and collaboration with the local community, Caltrans officials were reluctant to discuss the 3-in-1 proposal as a viable alternative to widening Highway 156.
