City leader feels need to curb speed

Councilwoman will propose formation of committee to look at making streets in Costa Mesa safer.Speed bumps are just one of several ways to slow drivers in Costa Mesa’s neighborhoods, and City Councilwoman Katrina Foley wants to consider them all.

Foley is proposing a safe streets committee that would create a list of options residents could consider to make their neighborhoods safer and more pedestrian-friendly. But she may face skepticism from other council members when she makes her pitch in January.

Foley said she’s heard from residents that speeding on residential streets is a widespread problem, and there’s no formal process to address it. When people have a complaint now, she said, they come to a City Council meeting or write the city a letter.

“The reason I think it’s important that we have it at a city committee level is that we have the same problem occurring in all the neighborhoods,” Foley said. “We need to create obstacles to speed.”

She envisions the committee including representatives of the city’s homeowners associations, a few at-large members and one or two council members.

The group would draw up a model to help residents pick an option -- adding median islands, narrowing streets, or creating cul-de-sacs, for example -- that would work in their neighborhood. Foley said the committee also could look at how to beautify walkways and make them safer to encourage people to get out of their cars.

The city has a procedure for requesting speed bumps, but not other traffic-calming methods, and all such solutions must be approved by the council.

Mesa del Mar Homeowners Assn. President Lisa Reedy said Foley’s idea might help with speeding problems in her development, where some residents would like to serve on the committee.

“Mesa del Mar is kind of a cut-through area for a lot of people, so we do get a lot of homeowner complaints,” she said. “We have some speed bumps that some people like, other people don’t.”

City Transportation Manager Peter Naghavi said he only gets about one complaint per week on traffic issues, and officials already listen to those concerns.

“To my experience, the past 15, 16 years, we have always been able to address the issues within reason,” Naghavi said.

“I think we’ve been fairly responsive to everything that people bring up.”

Foley also may have to convince some colleagues they should form a committee. Mayor Allan Mansoor said he’s always been willing to meet with residents when they bring up traffic issues.

“It seems to me like a committee might be a one-size-fits-all type of solution,” Mansoor said. “Why not meet with individual neighbors in each specific neighborhood and address concerns in each neighborhood as they arise?”

Some of the possible solutions, such as landscaped medians, could be costly, Mansoor said.

But Foley pointed out that the tougher police enforcement, which the city sometimes uses to stop speeding, also carries a price tag and isn’t a lasting fix.

“You can’t continue to address this issue through enforcement because it’s too costly, and as soon as the enforcement is gone, people go back to speeding,” she said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at alicia.robinson@latimes.com.