DANA POINT : City to Apply for Grant for Signals

Traffic along a steep hillside road that descends into the Capistrano Valley may be slowed by two new traffic signals if the city receives money from a county transportation agency.

The City Council this week voted to apply for a grant from the Orange County Unified Transportation Trust requesting as much as half the approximately $200,000 necessary to install signals on Stonehill Drive at Selva Road and at Ocean Hill Drive, said City Engineer Bob Sergeant.

“I believe we should be notified by summertime,” Sergeant said of the application.

The signals are a response to complaints from residents of the Thunderbird Capistrano neighborhood on the north side of Stonehill Drive, he said.

“It’s a matter of safety and concern to the neighborhood,” he said. “The hill is a steep grade, about 13% at Selva, that gradually levels off to about 5% or 6% at Ocean Hill.”

Sergeant said the speed limit is posted at 40 m.p.h. on Stonehill but that cars often travel faster on the decline and that area residents therefore find it difficult to enter the roadway.

Stonehill Drive, which runs east and west, ends at Niguel Road on the west. It will eventually run through to the Santa Ana Freeway on the east. Construction on that project should begin by late summer or early fall, Sergeant said.