SOUNDING OFF:

Recently, we saw workshops conducted by the Orange County Transportation Authority in which residents were given an overview of the options being considered for improving traffic flow along Newport Boulevard — SR 55 — through Costa Mesa’s downtown.

As reported by Byron de Arakal in his commentary (“Outlook grim at OCTA forum,” April 2), the first one played to a packed house and was an adversarial event, with some residents taking aggressive positions with OCTA and city representatives.

Fortunately, the second of those workshops was much more conciliatory and productive. In fact, a couple of residents apologized to the consultants who moderated the workshops for their belligerent behavior at the earlier meeting and acknowledged that the consultant’s traffic numbers were accurate.

That was refreshing. There were many excellent suggestions and observations made by attendees, including former Planning Commissioner Bruce Garlich’s suggestion that a “boring” option be considered as an alternative to the apparently most favored choice presented by OCTA — the so-called “Cut and Cover” plan. No one knows the cost difference, but boring under the existing right-of-way instead of digging a trench and covering it with a street would certainly be much less disruptive to traffic and commerce.

Those in attendance at both workshops received the same information that some near-term improvements are already planned and funded and will be implemented this year and, regardless which of the long-term solutions is selected, nothing of significance will happen for many years — probably two decades. That didn’t make anxious residents very happy, many of whom live in adjacent neighborhoods being impacted by cut-through drivers trying to avoid the current bottlenecks. They are looking for relief from those problems today, not after their infant children graduate from high school.

The third and final workshop was held in Newport Beach. While only a handful of residents and no officials except former Councilman Dick Nichol showed up, the input provided was valuable. Most were Newport Heights residents, concerned about cut-through traffic — a concern shared by Costa Mesa Eastside residents. Some expressed concern about traffic being “dumped” into Newport Beach, but were reminded by the moderators that they already get this traffic now.

The comments and suggestions harvested will be folded into the mix by the professionals at OCTA, CalTrans and LSA Associates — the consulting firm hired to facilitate this process — and the results of that amalgamation will be three or four potential solutions to the problem. Based on the timeline presented at the workshops, this should occur sometime this summer, after which the OCTA Board will make the decision as to which way to proceed.

Funding, however, is a different matter. No one had a clue where the hundreds of millions of dollars needed for the most aggressive of the proposed solutions might come from.

As with most governmental activities, this process seems to be moving at a pace akin to sap running. One positive aspect of this issue has been the emergence of a new cadre of citizen activists, many of whom appear to be bright, younger folks with a real stake in this issue. Most of us long-term residents will be either long gone by the time this problem is solved or residing in a care facility.

These younger activists represent the future of this city, so I’m happy to see them stepping up and participating in the process. Newport Boulevard traffic notwithstanding, the future is bright for our city.

GEOFF WEST is a resident of Costa Mesa.