Traffic findings anger Newland residents

An environmental report released this week has angered residents near a proposed housing development in southeast Huntington Beach, who disagree with its key finding that their concerns over increased traffic are overstated.

WL Direct Huntington Beach ? a partnership between builders JCC Homes and John Laing Homes ? plans to build 123 triplex and 81 duplex units at the site, which is bounded by Newland Street to the west, Lomond Drive to the south and Hamilton Avenue to the north.

The draft environmental report, which was presented for public comment at a March 30 meeting, states that the increase in traffic from the new development, with its main entrance on Newland, would not have a significant effect on the area.

Residents argue that the project would make traffic on Newland, already a problem, worse.

“When Bushard [Street] was closed [for sewer construction], traffic on Newland doubled. And traffic is bumper-to-bumper day and night,” resident Michael Morton said.

According to a draft environmental report prepared for the city, installing a traffic light at the intersection of Newland and Hamilton streets would help ease backups.

Planning commission chairman Robert Dingwall, however, believes such a light will have the opposite effect. “All the cars will be stacked up waiting for the light to change,” he said.

Residents disagree. For one thing, they say, effects of the Newland project will be compounded by other development in the area. The new Pacific City project, for instance, will add 516 town homes just along the Pacific Coast Highway at 1st Street.

“What they need to think about is how to handle this increased load of traffic on the streets,” said Jeanie Reed, who has lived in the area for 20 years.

Reed said she was hoping the developer would replace the small bridge on Newland Street with a three-lane bridge instead of rebuilding the two-lane bridge.

In keeping with city requirements, the developer plans to replace the bridge without adding any lanes. Morton believes Newland or surrounding streets might need to be widened to cope with the traffic.

The project is expected to break ground at the end of this year.

Southeast Huntington Beach residents also are concerned the new development may overburden area schools. Kettler Elementary School, in the area, is set to close at the end of this school year.

Blueprints for the 23-acre vacant site call for converting the five-acre RV storage facility on its northeastern corner into a two-acre public park.

Jane James, the city’s senior planner, said officials will take residents’ concerns into account when they produce the final environmental report.

The city will be accepting public comments about the draft environmental report through April 17. Once the final report is issued, residents will have an opportunity to comment on it before the planning commission votes on certification. The project would then move on to the City Council for consideration. The land, a former oil-tank farm, was linked to the massive oil spill in 1990 that killed thousands of birds and contaminated 15 miles of county beaches.

QUESTION

Is there too much traffic already in southeast Huntington Beach? Call our Readers Hotline at (714) 966-4691 or send e-mail to hbindependent @latimes.com. Please spell your name and include your hometown and phone number for verification purposes.hbi.06-newland-CPhotoInfoLS1PL1O220060406ix80imknKENT TREPTOW / INDEPENDENT(LA)Residents in southeast Huntington Beach are concerned that 204 new homes, proposed to be built in the vacant lot in the background, will increase traffic along the already busy Newland Street at Hamilton Avenue.