A bridge too far?

Elise Gee

On an aerial map at Costa Mesa City Hall, the proposed 19th Street bridge

is a mere line, less than an inch long.

But it’s a line that has the potential to divide, not link, communities.

For more than a decade, the debate of whether to build a 19th Street

bridge has aroused people’s passions and inflamed their anger.

“It goes beyond civic planning and becomes a religion, acrusade, a

belief,” said Newport Beach resident Pete Tarr, who serves on an advisory

group that studies the bridge proposal.

If the bridge is simply a line on a map, the $200,000 cooperative Santa

Ana River Crossings study is an expensive eraser that many hope will put

an end to the contentious issue once and for all.

The cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach,Fountain Valley

and the Orange County Transportation Authority are all participating in a

study to decide whether to eliminate the 19th Street and Gisler Avenue

bridges from a master plan.

The Gisler Avenue bridge lacks the controversy surrounding the 19th

Street bridge and Fountain Valley residents are expected to have little

to say about the 19th Street bridge. Built or not, that crossing will

have little impact on their city.

That leaves three cities divided on the 19th Street bridge, with Costa

Mesa and Huntington Beach on one side trying to wipe it from the county

map and Newport Beach on the other trying to have it built.

Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa officials and residents oppose the bridge

because of the rivers of traffic they say will pour into what are now

quiet and peaceful neighborhoods. Newport Beach leaders would like to see

the bridge built to alleviate pressure on West Coast Highway.

The Orange County Transportation Authority, which is acting as lead

agency on the study, has perhaps the easiest role in the study. Leaders

at the agency have said the bridges will be removed only if the cities

can come to a consensus or if an alternative is found.

It’s hard enough for one city to come to a consensus, said county

Supervisor Jim Silva, a Huntington Beach resident who has historically

opposed the bridge. But then again, he said, anything is possible.

For City Councilman Joe Erickson, it’s not a question of whether it’s

possible for the cities to come to an agreement -- they simply must.

“The study will come up with solutions, and I have to believe they’re

there,” Erickson said.

GETTING A FOOTHOLD

Costa Mesa has the most invested in the study -- both financially and

politically. Its $100,000 contribution makes up the bulk of the funds for

the study and the City Council has taken tough positions against the

bridges over the years. The transportation authority contributed $50,000

to the study, Newport Beach contributed $35,000 and Huntington Beach

pitched in $15,000.

In 1993, the Costa Mesa City Council adopted a general plan policy

stating that no new development could use the bridges to offset expected

traffic.

Last year, when the $190,000 study to revitalize Costa Mesa’s West Side

began, the council directed the consultant to assume the 19th Street

bridge would not be built -- even though the Santa Ana River Crossings

study had also just begun.

But that doesn’t mean surrounding cities aren’t increasing the need for

the bridges.

“The only thing we can control for sure is ourselves, so you start

there,” said Perry Valantine, Costa Mesa’s director of planning.

The roots of Costa Mesa’s adamant opposition to the 19th Street bridge go

back at least a decade when a group of residents realized the bridge was

still on the county’s map.

“I think people began to believe the 19th Street bridge would be a

reality,” said resident Sandy Ames, who became a member of the group in

1992. “They collectively realized this wasn’t a positive thing they

wanted to happen.”

Ames lives in the Freedom Homes tract of Costa Mesa near Canyon Park. It

is an older, established neighborhood built after World War II.

Some people bought the homes from their parents or grandparents. A good

majority of the families are younger and have children, and they have

revitalized the neighborhood with sometimes elaborate remodels and

additions.

Traffic was such a major issue there that residents successfully rallied

for traffic barriers, which make it impossible for vehicles to cut

through the residential streets.

Residents who lived in the neighborhood, along with others who were

concerned about the possibility of a bridge at 19th Street, began meeting

on a monthly basis in 1987 and 1988 in an effort to eliminate plans to

build the bridge.

In 1994, the citizens’ group was endorsed by the City Council and became

an official city committee just after debate on both the Gisler Avenue

and the 19th Street bridges reached new heights.

“I think it’s terrible for neighborhoods,” said Janet Remington, a Costa

Mesa resident who was involved in public debates in 1993. “It would be a

disaster on both sides of the river.”

Hundreds of residents became involved in the debate, speaking against the

bridges in numerous public meetings.

A major issue back in 1993 was the possibility that East 19th Street

would need to be widened if the bridge was built. The work would have

required the demolition of 69 homes in East Costa Mesa along 19th Street.

Since that time, the widening of East 19th Street was removed from both

the city’s and county’s master plans in 1994.

However, the widening issue may not be dead, Erickson said.

“If the bridge was to be built, there would be tremendous pressure to

look at this again,” he said.

OPPOSITION ALMOST EVERYWHERE

Costa Mesa residents’ vehement opposition to the bridge is echoed by

their neighbors to the east in Huntington Beach.

“We don’t want a highway running through our neighborhood,” said John

Scott, of Huntington Beach.

The issues for residents in the southeast Huntington Beach neighborhood

are similar to those in Costa Mesa, said Kathi Richardson.

Her neighborhood is also quiet, peaceful and inundated with children.

“We’re very well connected,” Richardson said. “All the kids go to the

same school and play on the same soccer fields. No one wants the bridge

here. We know what a disaster it would be for our neighborhood.”

If residents are vocal about their opposition to the bridge now, they

were even more vocal about it in the early ‘90s, when the battle was

fought with much more intensity because the outcome was more in doubt.

Opposition was so vehement then that hundreds of residents crowded into

the Costa Mesa neighborhood community center in opposition to the bridge.

That’s why it’s so hard for Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach residents to

understand where support for the bridge is coming from now, they say.

“The people of this community thought we had fought this down,” Remington

said.

19TH TO THE BEACH

In addition to Newport Beach, a small group of residents in Costa Mesa

support a bridge at 19th Street. They have formed a grass-roots group

called 19th to the Beach, and during the last year have been campaigning

for support.

“I don’t think [19th to the Beach members] know the fight they’ll have on

their hands,” Remington said.

Costa Mesa residents Bob Graham and Philip Morello last year formed 19th

to the Beach, which boasts 25 members, just as the cooperative bridge

study and the separate West Side study got underway.

Leaders for 19th to the Beach argue that a plan to revitalize the West

Side must include a bridge, which would turn 19th Street from a dead-end

street to a major commercial thoroughfare.

“They refuse to look at the possible benefits of extending 19th Street,”

Graham said. “It’s going to benefit these residences here. These people’s

homes are $100,000 less than people on the East Side.

“They’ll have direct access to the beach. Property values will go up and

it’ll benefit the commercial area.”

Graham, a former city council candidate, says this with an earnestness in

his eyes and a true belief that he is asking for what’s best for Costa

Mesa.

Unfortunately for Graham, it’s the same earnestness that is in Erickson’s

eyes when he says he intends on keeping his campaign promise to remove

the bridge from the county map.

It’s also the same earnestness in Ames’ eyes when she says she will fight

to keep her neighborhood safe and quiet for her children.

Ames said she could care less about property values.

“My house is probably $100,000 less than something on the East Side,”

Ames said. “That’s OK with me because I invested in a neighborhood, not a

financial (venture).”

Erickson also disagrees with Graham. He says if the bridge is built, it

would only attract transient businesses such as gas stations and liquor

stores -- not the types of businesses that would benefit Costa Mesa. He

also said the bridge would only turn Costa Mesa into a cut-through city

-- not one where residents of Huntington Beach or elsewhere would stop to

do their shopping.

Costa Mesa resident Dean Reinemann agrees.

“If traffic was what was necessary to make a successful business, then

there’d be successful businesses on Newport Boulevard and 19th Street and

[West] Coast Highway,” Reinemann said. “That’s just not the case.”

Some residents have also questioned the motives of 19th to the Beach,

which includes landlords who own property on the West Side but don’t

necessarily live there.

Graham has drawn his share of jabs at public meetings from residents who

point out that he lives in the Mesa Verde neighborhood and wouldn’t have

to bear the consequences of a bridge running from Huntington Beach to

Costa Mesa. They also accuse Graham of trying to make sure a bridge isn’t

built at Gisler Avenue by pushing for one at 19th Street.

But Graham takes it in stride. He says the negative attention has not

deterred him or other members of his group from faithfully attending

every council meeting to speak about the bridge, which hasn’t been easy.

Since the council has placed updates of the bridge study at the end of

their agenda once a month, Graham and others often must wait until the

end of the evening meeting to speak.

Every once in a while, he is able to get a rile out of the council

members -- all of whom are opposed to a bridge at 19th Street.

“I think what we’re trying to change their minds about is they need to be

knowledgeable about their decisions,” Graham said. “They’re giving away

something without knowing the value of what they’re giving away.”

DIVIDED COMMUNITIES

For all of Graham’s efforts, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach may have a

more serious adversary in their neighbor, Newport Beach.

Something that appears to unite Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach residents

even more than their position on the bridge are their perceptions of

Newport Beach.

Residents in the two cities say they feel like they are being asked to

shoulder the burden of something that would only benefit their more

affluent neighbor.

“I strongly feel they have overbuilt and are looking for a way out,”

Richardson said.

Added to that perception is years of built-up resentment toward a city

that Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach residents believe has successfully

thwarted attempts to send regional traffic through its streets.

“Newport Beach stopped the freeway so it wouldn’t go through their city,”

said Ames. “They wouldn’t widen Mariners Mile, yet they’re part of a

region.”

Despite what Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa say about them, Newport

Beach residents and city leaders say they only want the same thing: to

protect their neighborhoods.

If anybody isn’t carrying their fair share, it’s Costa Mesa and

Huntington Beach, said Newport resident Pete Tarr.

Newport Beach Councilwoman Jan Debay agrees.

“They don’t see that without the bridge, Newport Beach is carrying the

brunt of their traffic,” she said.

The main concern is that if the bridge is not constructed someday, the

traffic it was meant to accommodate will be dumped on West Coast Highway.

Coast Highway between Newport Boulevard and the SantaAna River was

widened to six lanes in the early 1990s, and there was talk of widening

it to eight lanes in 1993 when discussions about the 19th Street bridge

reached their apex, said Rich Edmonston, traffic engineer for Newport

Beach.

“If the bridge doesn’t go through and traffic increases, then there’s

going to have to be some extensive reworking in Newport Beach, including

the widening of Coast Highway,” Tarr said.

The last time the street was widened, it took out a number of businesses.

Tarr said if it’s widened again, it could take out his home.

Newport Beach may have widened Coast Highway earlier this decade, but

Costa Mesa also went through a very painful project of its own, when the

city widened Victoria Street and bulldozed numerous homes to do it,

Erickson pointed out.

“Victoria Street has turned out very well, but it was a difficult thing

to do, to displace a lot of people,” Erickson said. “I don’t think that

needs to happen again.”

Residents who oppose a bridge at 19th Street also point to Victoria

Street as an alternative east-west corridor that could adequately handle

traffic.

Victoria Street, which is designed to carry 45,000 vehicles a day,

carries 25,000 a day, said Peter Naghavi, Costa Mesa’s transportation

services manager.

THE PLACE OF BANNING RANCH

In Newport Beach, not building the 19th Street bridge could affect

development through the city’s newly revised traffic phasing ordinance,

Debay said.

The ordinance, which has been around since the 1970s but was recently

revised to avoid legal problems, requires developers to make improvements

if individual projects generate enough traffic to make intersections too

congested.

There are already intersections in West Newport that are in a declining

state. They will only become more congested as traffic continues to

increase and the bridge isn’t built, Edmonston said. One of the

intersections that could be severely affected if a bridge is not built is

West Coast Highway and Superior Avenue.

One development that will have to comply with Newport’s traffic phasing

ordinance -- and which will be located near key intersections in both

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa -- is Taylor Woodrow’s Banning Ranch

property.

Taylor Woodrow has proposed building a development of homes on land just

east of the mouth of the Santa Ana River.

Except for a small portion of land in Newport Beach, most of the land is

unincorporated territory. But because the land may eventually be annexed

into Newport Beach, Taylor Woodrow will be required to meet city

standards, including the traffic phasing ordinance.

The plan is to build 1,750 homes, a small hotel, a shopping center, an

elementary school and various roads and parkways on 196 acres. In

addition to the development, 216 acres of land will be designated as open

space -- 120 acres of which will be untouched wetland.

Development proposals for that site have failed in the past because of

community opposition to any project that would necessitate the

construction of a bridge at 19th Street.

Taylor Woodrow Project Manager Mike Schlesinger said the company is

officially neutral on the issue of the 19th Street bridge. He contends

the project can be built with or without the bridge.

Some, such as Naghavi, Costa Mesa’s transportation services manager, said

they will reserve judgment on the need for the bridge until seeing the

firm’s traffic study.

Taylor Woodrow is preparing an environmental impact report on its project

that will use the same traffic model as the Santa Ana River Crossings

study.Schlesinger said his company believes the development has been

designed so as to make 19th Street bridge unnecessary.

Also, Taylor Woodrow’s project is much smaller than one proposed by Beeco

in the early ‘90s. It called for building 2,648 homes on the site.

“We’ve proposed a project that’s one-third less than that, and that’s why

we feel it’s not contingent on the (bridge),” Schlesinger said.

Also, the entrances to the Banning Ranch development would not be on 19th

Street. Rather, Taylor Woodrow plans a main entrance off West Coast

Highway near Superior. Other entrances will be at 16th and 17th streets.

Although the company is officially neutral when it comes to the 19th

Street bridge, it is adamantly opposed to the 17th Street alternative,

which is being studied by the transportation authority as a requirement

under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The alternative would connect West 17th Street to Huntington Beach,

directly through Taylor Woodrow’s proposed housing development.

WHAT DOES THE REGION NEED?

While each neighborhood has its own concerns, the county’s study will

reflect whether the bridge is needed from a regional standpoint.

“We all live in the same area with imaginary lines under alternative city

governments, but that doesn’t affect the way Idrive,” Naghavi said.

Imaginary or not, the political divisions are real for residents.

Each of the participating cities is hoping to get the best deal for their

individual communities while considering regional needs, Naghavi said.

This balance between regional and local needs is amplified by the fact

that the two busiest intersections in the county are in Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa and play heavily into the need for a bridge.

Those intersections are Newport Boulevard and Coast Highway, with 121,050

average daily trips, and 19th Street and Newport Boulevard, with 100,755

average daily trips, according to a 1996 Orange County Transportation

Authority study.

The four cities and the transportation authority must come to a unanimous

agreement on not only the 19th Street bridge, but also the Gisler Avenue

bridge.

All parties involved recognize that will be a challenge. But rather than

seeing the differences between the communities as barriers to consensus,

Erickson said he sees them as the point of conducting the study.

Erickson said he doesn’t think Costa Mesa is trying to shirk its

responsibility to regional traffic, but the city shouldn’t be forced to

bear the brunt of it either.

“I don’t want to hurt other communities, but I ask them not to hurt

mine,” Erickson said. “That’s the point of the whole study.”

Still, there are issues city leaders must overcome as discussions begin.

Some city leaders are even questioning the process.

Huntington Beach Councilman Peter Green said he will work with Newport

Beach on some issues, but feels “they have no decision on the bridge per

se.”

“I don’t see why we need their consent to have the bridges removed,”

Green said.

The study is being held up now because all the agencies are being asked

to agree on what land-use information should be included in the report.

“It’s not easy for local agencies and a regional agency to agree on one

thing,” Naghavi said.

The draft environmental report, which was to be completed and released

sometime this month, has been delayed again. It is expected to be

released by August 2000.

“You can call it anti-regionalism, but it all boils down to somebody’s

neighborhood,” said Scott, the Huntington Beach resident. “I don’t care

whether your neighborhood is in Newport Beach or here. There’s greater

value in that than saving someone five minutes going home at night.”