FULLERTON : Road Noise Foes Start New Campaign

Although a technicality killed a community group’s plans to place an anti-noise measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, the group’s leader said Thursday that it again is collecting signatures to force a special election to decide the question.

Mary B. Homme, who heads Save Our Bastanchury, a group of Fullerton residents who oppose the city’s plans to widen Bastanchury Road, said about 8,000 signatures are needed to call a special election.

The previous ballot measure was disqualified July 5 after the city clerk’s office invalidated 7,700 signatures because the petitions did not include a paragraph mandated by state election laws stating the reason for circulating the documents.

Since the deadline for placing a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot is today , Homme said the group didn’t have enough time to re-qualify the measure.

The group contends that the $3.8 million road-widening and improvement projects the city has planned for Bastanchury Road would increase traffic noise to unacceptable levels. The city plans to widen the road from four to six lanes.

However, Hugh Berry, director of engineering and community development for Fullerton, said the proposed project would give the city added traffic capacity and would relieve an already overcrowded Bastanchury Road, as well as other residential streets throughout the city.

On Monday, Homme said letters explaining the current situation were mailed to all the people who had originally signed the petitions. Included with the letter was a petition.

After the signatures are verified, the City Council has more than three months to decide whether to adopt the measure or put it before the voters in a special election.