Residents chime in on bridge study

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Residents on Thursday had their first chance to comment

on the Santa Ana River Crossings Study and they had a lot to say.

“We are against the Gisler bridge,” resident Luis Sedano said. “We

don’t want to destroy a semiprivate community.”

Comments, rather than questions, dominated the question-and-answer

session with a vast majority of residents supporting the removal of the

Gisler Avenue and 19th Street bridges from the arterial highways master

plan.

The Orange County Transportation Authority will, until Aug. 6, collect

public comments on the study, which evaluates the potential environmental

consequences of removing the two proposed bridges from the plan.

The bridges have long been points of contention between Costa Mesa,

Newport Beach, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach -- the four cities

that would be affected by the bridges if they are built.

Authority representatives said a consensus from Costa Mesa, Huntington

Beach and Fountain Valley would be required to remove the Gisler bridge,

while Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa would be required to

delete the 19th Street bridge.

The Gisler Avenue bridge would cross the Santa Ana River from Costa

Mesa into Fountain Valley, where it would connect to Garfield Avenue, and

the 19th Street bridge would cross from Costa Mesa to Banning Avenue in

Huntington Beach.

According to the study, deleting the bridges at 19th Street and Gisler

Avenue would increase overall traffic, which would have to be reduced by

adding turn lanes, signals and additional lanes.

The study also included alternatives to removing the bridges,

including leaving the bridges on the master plan and changing their

alignment. The 19th Street bridge would instead connect from 17th Street

to Brookhurst Avenue, while the Gisler bridge would cross from Garfield

to the San Diego Freeway with exits at South Coast Drive.

The county could also decide to delete one bridge but not the other.

Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach city officials have historically

opposed the 19th Street bridge and want the bridge removed from the

county’s master plan. Newport Beach officials have favored the bridge,

while Fountain Valley is considered a neutral party.

Residents in the Freedom Homes tract on Costa Mesa’s Westside began

working to eliminate plans to build the bridge in 1987, and other

residents have expressed concern about traffic, noise, air pollution and

safety if the bridge goes in.

“With such staggering opposition, why don’t they just take them off

the plan once and for all,” resident Connie Megley said. “Nobody whose

town the bridges go through want them.”

Not everybody was against the bridge, however. Paul Bunney, a Costa

Mesa resident, said he thinks everybody needs to share the traffic

burden.

“People are like, ‘Not in my neighborhood,’ but we have to look at it

fairly,” he said. “I think we should leave it on the master plan.”

Residents neighboring Gisler Avenue and Fountain Valley resident

oppose the Gisler bridge.

According to the study, several homes on Nevada Avenue in Costa Mesa

could be displaced if the Gisler Avenue bridge is built and the city’s

Suburbia Park, adjacent to the Santa Ana River and the San Diego Freeway,

would be closed.

* Jennifer Kho covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275

or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .