Take another look at 156
Once upon a time, American towns and cities sought to have state highways routed through them. Automobiles brought business, it was thought.
And so every long trip included long waits at a series of stoplights as motorists plied the main drags of towns like Gilroy and Hollister. Even sprawling Sacramento routed Hwy. 50 through block after block of suburbia.
San Benito County residents recently celebrated the opening of the Hwy. 25 bypass around downtown Hollister, a sure sign of a different awareness.
That seems cruelly ironic as a group of San Juan Valley residents seek to get the attention of the state Department of Transportation with a lawsuit seeking to block Caltrans’ current plans for widening Hwy. 156 through the valley.
San Juan Valley has retained its rural character, even as more and more traffic is funneled along its length. Highways 156 and 152 are the main link between the Central Coast and the Central Valley, a key corridor for moving goods and people.
The problems, as opponents see them, are that the highway will further rend the fabric of San Juan Bautista, cover an additional 150 acres of some of the most productive farmland in the region, damage the landscape and only create a new bottleneck a few miles down the road, where the highway returns to two lanes.
Caltrans has completed an environmental review for the project, determined no significant impacts, and certified its own study.
A functioning east-west corridor is vital to the region’s economy, and it would be wrong to oppose the 156 project unless a better alternative existed.
But such an alternative does appear to exist. A new highway through northernmost San Benito County, one advanced nearly a decade ago by the county Farm Bureau, could relieve congestion on Hwys.156, 25 and 152.
Transportation planners say that such a highway would still not erase the need for improvements to 156 and 25, but before San Benito County residents are asked to solve regional transportation needs by paving much of the valley that represents the area’s crown jewel, alternatives need an honest, open evaluation.
When local opponents were told by a Caltrans official last year that their only option would be to sue the state, few at the agency would have guessed that anyone would call their bluff.
But a lawsuit’s been filed, and money to support the opposition by the Friends of San Juan Valley is pouring in.
The mouse that is San Juan Bautista has roared, and it would serve us all well to listen.
