Newland Street needs some work

I was astonished to find out that Huntington Beach doesn’t have any plans to widen Newland Street from Hamilton to Pacific Coast Highway, even though they are allowing a new development to be built on Newland and Hamilton.

Since the Newland Street residential development is for 204 attached units, they have estimated an increase of 500 cars on the road. City planners say that the street will be raised on either side of the flood control channel bridge (a good thing since this area has been so prone to flooding every time it rains). Also, they say that the street will remain one lane each way with a center striped median and bike lanes.

Currently, the city is rushing to complete the storm-drain improvements and road work before the developers break ground about October. Since the developers are going to pay for the replacement bridge and the city has the funds to improve Newland Street, why not widen Newland Street? AES is donating 100 feet of frontage to the city. So why aren’t they going to use that land and some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in development fees to widen the street and the channel bridge (located next to the AAA Animal Hospital)?

If you are in agreement that Newland Street should be widened, please send your comments to the city Planning Department, 2000 Main St., Huntington Beach 92648 or call it at (714) 536-5596