Westside committee pushes old bridge idea

Lolita Harper

The committee charged with designing a working future for the

Westside narrowly recommended last week that the City Council pay for

studies on the economic effects of what has long been a contentious

proposal for the city: a bridge at 19th Street.

Resident and committee member Robert Graham led the charge to

recommend a study of the bridge, as he has been personally asking the

council to do for more than a year.

Graham contends the City Council majority opposes a bridge at 19th

Street but has formed that opinion without relevant data. He said the

council can’t make an educated decision until more studies have been

done.

The Community Redevelopment Action Committee, which barely had

enough members present Thursday to take an official action, voted 22

to 9 to ask council members to consider allocating money for

extensive studies on the bridge’s feasibility.

A bridge at 19th Street that would cross from Costa Mesa to

Banning Avenue in Huntington Beach is scheduled to be built to

relieve the area’s traffic woes, according to county master plans.

The bridge has been a point of contention for more than a decade

among Costa Mesa residents and leaders, with opponents saying the

bridge will make 19th Street a mini-highway for people traveling from

Huntington Beach to the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Graham and other proponents, however, believe the bridge could

connect the isolated Westside to the beach and give residents better

access to the coast. He has also argued that more traffic through the

city will result in more people visiting and spending money here.

“This shows that people now want to understand what the road to

Huntington Beach could do for that community over there,” Graham

said. “I think it is a major victory to try to get some sanity in

that whole situation over there.”

Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach leaders would have

to form a consensus to get the bridge deleted from the Orange County

Transportation Authority’s master plan. So far, that has proven no

easy task.

Committee member Martin Millard said the council’s reaction to the

recommendation will be the first test of how much city leaders trust

the committee and how much weight its recommendations will carry.

Councilman Gary Monahan said he can understand Graham’s push for a

study but can’t justify spending more taxpayer money for a study when

there is not overwhelming support from any of the city’s leaders to

build a bridge.

“I think the reality is that a bridge is not going to be built,”

Monahan said. “I would expect that their recommendation will be taken

into consideration, but I just don’t see it in our budget.”

The Community Action Redevelopment Committee, which has been

criticized for being too large and too bureaucratic, had about 75

members a few months ago but had been whittled down to 62 active

members by Thursday.

Only 33 members were at the meeting, with 32 needed for an

official vote, said Mike Robinson, the city’s planning and

development manager.

“They just barely had a quorum and they just barely had the 70%

needed to make the recommendation,” Robinson said.

Since Thursday, one other member has resigned, leaving the active

number at 61, he said.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.