Bridge comes across city’s desk again

Deirdre Newman

Two members of a Westside redevelopment committee asked the city

Tuesday to focus on positives of a 19th Street bridge instead of

dwelling on the negatives after the City Council rejected the group’s

recommendation to study building the bridge earlier this month.

Robert Graham and Terri Breer of the Community Redevelopment

Action Committee said they would like the City Council or Planning

Commission to hold another hearing on the issue.

The council voted 4 to 1 against the committee’s recommendation,

with Allan Mansoor -- a former committee member -- dissenting.

The majority of the council said it was not the right time to fund

an independent study until a regional consensus is formed.

Four area cities -- Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach and

Huntington Beach -- have agreed to work collaboratively on bridge

issues at 19th Street and Gisler Avenue.

Bridges at Gisler and 19th that would cross the Santa Ana River

are included in county transportation plans, but Costa Mesa and other

cities have been working for years to remove them.

Costa Mesa officials have largely led that fight, contending that

either bridge would simply create a “cut-through” for drivers looking

for a shortcut to the Costa Mesa Freeway.

The action committee was established to examine how to bring

development to the Westside.

Graham says the city has been shortsighted in its focus on traffic

and has completely ignored any beneficial economic effect the bridge

could have on the Westside.

“I’m looking for a study that can give people in this city an

understanding of what that road might do for us and what the cost

would be so we can have an intelligent discussion and they can make

an intelligent decision,” Graham said.

Councilman Gary Monahan said he was not amenable to rehashing a

discussion on the bridge study because he does not believe it would

help the Westside.

“I have no desire to spend any money on a study right now,”

Monahan said. “We have huge budget questions to answer. We’ve been

discussing this bridge question for years. The city is attempting to

take it off the master plan ... Let’s move on.”

The four cities trying to come to a regional consensus

commissioned a study -- the Santa Ana River Crossing Study -- to

research the effects of removing the bridges from the county plan.

But it doesn’t address any economic effects, Graham said.

“If it’s been discussed in the past, it’s always been at the level

of a popularity contest, never with any substance and they’ve put it

off on the traffic issue and forgotten about everything else,” Graham

said. “I think it’s because they think if they put the light of day

on it, it might come up with a conclusion they don’t like.”

Breer said she felt like she did not have enough information to

participate in the committee’s discussion of the bridge study.

“I would like the Planning Commission to hold a study session

where we could have a presentation to the public as to why enough is

enough,” Breer said.

Graham said he would like the city to do more to see how much a

study would really cost. In early January, Mayor Karen Robinson said

it would cost about $150,000 to fund a study.

Mansoor was unavailable for comment Friday.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN may be reached at (949) 574-4221 or by e-mail at

[email protected].