BUENA PARK : Neighborhood Near Mall to Get Signs

The City Council on Monday agreed to install a variety of traffic signs on Camellia Drive to make some streets near Buena Park Mall safer.

The council voted to install a 25-m.p.h. speed limit sign at both ends of Camellia Drive and install “Stop Ahead” signs in front of Glen Dysinger Sr. Elementary School and at the intersection of Camellia Drive and Cyclamen Way.

The council also approved an additional street light for the crosswalk on La Palma Avenue and Camellia Drive and voted to install four “Do Not Block Intersection” signs on La Palma Avenue at Camellia Drive.

The lobbying effort for the signs was started by Mike Adams and Sheldon Karlan, residents of the area known as the flower tract because all the streets there are named after flowers.

After a girl was struck by a car while walking her bike in a crosswalk on Camellia Drive, the two men canvassed the neighborhood and gathered more than 200 signatures in support of the new signs.

The city Traffic and Transportation Commission began investigating the area, and found traffic hazards including poorly lit crosswalks, speeding, motorists who failed to yield at stop signs and traffic congestion.

The commission discovered that the traffic volume on La Palma at the Camellia intersection averages 2,000 vehicles per hour. Records show that 10 broadsides and rear-end accidents have occurred in the area in the last three years.