A road with a view

Eron Ben-Yehuda

Overlook Road has a great view.

But nobody’s allowed to see it because of a bureaucratic tiff between the

city and the county, a city councilman says.

Winding along the edge of the Bolsa Chica bluffs, the newly constructed

road is blocked by locked gates.

“I’d like to take a hacksaw and chop the damn padlock off,” City

Councilman Tom Harman said.

Neither the city nor the county wants to take responsibility for opening

and closing the gates and the public’s losing out, he said.

The PLC Land Co. built the road as a condition to developing the Bluffs,

an adjacent upscale gated community at the corner of Edwards and Garfield

avenues that’s nearing completion, senior city planner Mary Beth Broeren

said.

The city is expected to assume ownership of the road, which would then be

transferred to the county as part of its future Harriett M. Wieder

Regional Park, otherwise known as Linear Park, she said.

Although the asphalt has been laid and the cement paved, the city prefers

to wait before taking over, said Eric Jessen, who represents the county’s

department of harbors, beaches and parks.

“There are some little quirks that need to be worked out,” he said.

Even after PLC gives up the road, there’s not enough staff at either the

city or county level to operate the gate, Broeren said.

“That’s baloney,” he said in disagreement.

City employees working at nearby Central Park can do the job, he said.

And if not the city, Harman asked, then what about the county, which will

own the park in future?

But neither the city nor the county is sure of what will happen.

“I can’t tell you right now whether the gates will be operated at this

point,” Jessen said.

Maybe something can be worked out later, Broeren said. “We just need to

talk about it.”

Enough talk, Harman said, standing ready with his chainsaw.