Poway Sues S.D. for Reopening of Pomerado Road

Poway officials filed suit Tuesday in Superior Court to force a speedy reopening of Pomerado Road, a popular shortcut for commuters from Ramona and Poway to San Diego.

Poway City Atty. Stephen Eckis said the city’s plea will be heard Dec. 7 by Judge Jeffrey T. Miller, who might order the road reopened at that time.

San Diego City Council members last week reversed their decision to reopen the road, which has been closed for two years for realignment and reconstruction, after San Diego city attorneys John Witt and Curtis Fitzpatrick issued an opinion that the city could honor its pledge not to reopen Pomerado until another direct route linking Poway to Interstate 15 was built.

Eckis, in Poway’s petition seeking an injunction, said San Diego acted illegally in refusing to reopen the road when construction was completed.

He cited the California Vehicle Code, which provides that cities may regulate traffic through or around a street only during the actual performance of work of construction unless it is found that “the street is no longer needed for vehicular traffic.”

Pomerado Road, which carried about 6,100 cars a day before it was closed by San Diego in November, 1988, formerly was a part of U.S. 395, the federal route linking Riverside and San Diego, Eckis pointed out, and is predicted to have a daily traffic count of 34,000 vehicles a day by the year 2010.

The Poway attorney argued that San Diego’s failure to reopen the road “is the result of arbitrary and capricious action taken contrary to law.”

Poway is seeking an order by the judge to reopen Pomerado Road and a temporary and permanent injunction to prevent the city from closing it in the future.

Pressure on San Diego council members to keep the road closed comes from the upscale suburb of Scripps Ranch, which lies along the southern part of Pomerado.

The Scripps Ranch community plan calls for closure of Pomerado until a four-lane expressway, known as South Poway Parkway, is completed.

That road was delayed when San Diego officials put off plans of developers who are committed to build the expressway.

It is not expected to be built and open for traffic before the end of 1992.

Eckis pointed to two conflicting opinions issued by the San Diego city attorney’s office, one by Witt and Fitzpatrick supporting the continued closure and one issued in May by Deputy City Atty. John Riess stating that continued closure of the road after completion of construction violates state law.