Residents, School Split Over Street : Concerns: City Council to decide if route through campus should be shut. Drive-by shooting fears are a factor.

The Ventura City Council Monday will weigh student safety against traffic congestion when it decides whether to permanently close part of Poli Street near Ventura High School.

School officials are expected to lobby to block off Poli Street, which cuts through the center of the campus, to decrease the chances of a drive-by shooting. At the same time, residents say they will implore the council to keep Poli open because of the traffic problems created when it is closed.

Poli Street is one of the city’s major east-west thoroughfares. Concerned about campus security, parents and school officials have petitioned the city to close the street at least four times over a nearly 20-year period.

In February, the fatal stabbing of a popular Ventura High student several blocks from campus heightened fears that gang violence would erupt on campus. No drive-by shootings have ever been reported at the campus, police said.

In response to concerns of parents and school officials, the council in February decided to temporarily close Poli between Catalina Street and Hill Canyon Road from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on school days until the end of the school year.

The closure diverted traffic onto nearby residential streets. In April, neighbors persuaded the council to install another barricade at the end of Palomar Avenue, just east of Hyland Avenue, to discourage motorists from using the route as a detour. Poli was reopened in June.

According to a $25,000 traffic study by a city-hired traffic consultant, if Poli is closed, barricades should also be put at Palomar Avenue and Sunset Drive, which run parallel to Poli. That would force detouring motorists south to Main Street instead of north to the hillside neighborhood, the report said. It also recommends replacing a traffic signal at the intersection of Poli and Catalina Avenue with a four-way stop.

“Whenever you close Poli, you push the traffic up into the hillside,” said Nazir Lalani, the city’s transportation engineer.

The traffic study said the block-long section of Poli Street that would be closed averages only two accidents per year. Only one pedestrian has been hit by a car in that area during the last five years.

Officials estimate there are about 5,000 pedestrian crossings on Poli during a school--mostly students. About 9,000 vehicles a day use the street. Their average speed is 35 m.p.h., although the posted speed limit during school hours is 25 m.p.h., the study said.

Lalani said traffic on the portion of Poli proposed for closing is not considered hazardous.

Ventura Unified School Board President John Walker agrees.

“I think it boils down to campus security,” he said. “We’re more concerned about drive-bys. We need to control the campus area as much as we can. I don’t want to wait for something to happen.”

Since the temporary closure of the street, classrooms have become quieter because there is less street noise, teachers said.

But hillside residents are upset about the potential for increased traffic through their neighborhoods and have written letters and circulated petitions to try to keep Poli open. City officials estimate residents from about 70 houses on Palomar Avenue, Hyland Avenue and Fairview Drive have been primarily affected.

The study said the number of vehicles on Palomar and Hyland increased by 150%--or 800 cars--because of the temporary closure. Traffic on Sunset Drive increased by 80%, or 430 vehicles.

“We want the freedom to use our streets,” said Dorothy Goodman, who has lived on Hyland for more than 30 years. “In a time of emotion, they closed Poli. We are being punished because they can’t control the students.”

School district officials asked the council to close Poli Street in 1974, 1991, 1992 and 1993. In May, 1974, it was closed for a two-week trial period and then reopened after hillside residents complained. The council denied the district’s requests in 1991 and 1992.

City officials are recommending that the school district pay for the cost of installing the barricades and the four-way stop if the council decides to block off Poli. Removing the signal at Catalina and Poli and installing a four-way stop will cost about $20,000. The four barricades--two on Poli and one on Palomar and Sunset--would also cost about $20,000.

But Walker said he thinks the city should pay for the gates and four-way stop signs because “traffic is a city responsibility.”

However, Walker said school officials may be willing to pay part of the costs to make sure that Poli is closed. Both the city and the school district are financially strapped, he noted. “We’ll see who can cry the loudest.”

Mayor Greg Carson said he favors having the school district pay half the costs if the council votes to close Poli.

Carson said is not looking forward to Monday night. Any decision will anger both sides, he said. “It’s definitely a no-win situation.”

FYI

The Ventura City Council will decide Monday whether to permanently close part of Poli Street near Ventura High School during school hours. The council meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at Ventura City Hall, 501 Poli St.