19th Street Bridge Gone Forever!
Termed-out Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen, in one of his last official acts as a member of the Huntington Beach City Council, sent out an email blast to announce that today the full board of the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) voted UNANIMOUSLY to remove the controversial 19th Street Bridge over the Santa Ana River from Costa Mesa to Huntington Beach from the Master Plan of Arterial Highways permanently. This battle has gone on for decades and it's good to see it finally resolved.
There are some in the community who feel that bridge might have been the key to commercial development along the 19th Street corridor, and that its elimination will only make it more difficult to implement some of the plans that have been in place for years. We'll see.
WHAT ABOUT THE BANNING RANCH?
Unknown is the impact the elimination of the bridge will have on the white-hot Banning Ranch development issue. Some felt that the bridge was necessary for that development to succeed.
IT'S OVER...
So, scratch off the 19th Street Bridge from your "To Do" list. Onward and upward.
The text of Don Hansen's email announcement is below:
19th Street Bridge Eliminated in Unanimous Vote
I am happy to
report that the full board of the Orange County Transportation Authority
(OCTA) unanimously voted to eliminate the 19th Street Bridge for the
Master Plan of Arterial Highways (MPAH).
Today was my last
meeting as a member of the Board of Directors due to reaching my term
limit as a Huntington Beach Council Member. I am proud to deliver the
elimination of this bridge to our community as one of my final official
acts.
This multi-decade
battle is finally over and the residents of the affected communities can
now rest easy without the fear of this bridge being advanced in the
future.
I appreciate all
of those who participated in this process. I think it is proof-positive
that you can make an impact through activism.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your voice.
Labels: 19th Street Bridge, Banning Ranch, Don Hansen, Westside Plans
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 11/26/2012 02:43:00 PM
4 Comments:
Awesome! This is a huge relief.
I'm relieved to see the bridge gone, but I suspect there will be an effort to connect PCH to W. 19th Street via a new Bluff Road, to facilitate development of Banning Ranch. We mustn't go to sleep, or we may find ourselves in the midst of a nightmare.
http://ocpoliticsblog.com/octa-kills-hbcm-bridge/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OcPolitics+%28OC+Politics%29
Eleanor, good point. There will now be a push by Newport to get even more of their commuter traffic pushed through Costa Mesa via Bluff Road. That just means more people from the Inland Empire gridlocking our streets to get to the beach. Hopefully Huntington Beach will be against Bluff Road as well once they realize they will just end up with more traffic on their section of PCH as well.
Our feeble council (Riggy, Mensinger, and Monahan) will no doubt find a way to sell us out again even though it's a Newport Beach project. If we had a council that fought for our quality of life, they could find all kinds of way to help stop Bluff Road.
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