DANA POINT : City on the Road to Improvements

From her window at Del Mar Realty, Patricia Short should have an expansive view across Street of the Blue Lantern to Coast Highway.

There’s a problem, however--the line of 6-foot weeds on a dusty median strip gets in the way.

For Short, the announcement last week that the City Council has allocated $75,000 for landscaping and irrigation work on medians and parkways around town was cause for rejoicing.

“It’s time they did something about those weeds; they’re gross,” Short said. “It’s really an important spot for the city because they’re right at the entrance to the downtown area.”

The weed-removal project was one of four approved by the council for its annual capital improvement program, which this year will cost $784,000.

The appropriation was the first in a $5.6-million program for this fiscal year--a 240% increase over last year’s budget allocation, City Engineer Dennis Jue said.

“The council has made it their No. 1 goal for the year to construct these projects,” Jue said.

Six intersections in the city will get signal improvements, two alleys will be repaved and get new gutters, two streets will get storm drain improvements and median strips and parkways throughout town will be cleared of weeds and re-landscaped, Jue said.

The projects include:

* $75,000 for landscaping and irrigation systems on parkways and median strips next to Crown Valley Parkway, Street of the Blue Lantern, Street of the Ruby Lantern, Camino de Estrella and Niguel Road.

* $265,000 for street and storm drain improvements on Victoria Boulevard between Camino Capistrano and Sepulveda Avenue as well as storm drain improvements on Sepulveda Avenue from Victoria Boulevard.

* $18,000 for design of two alleys considered top priority in the city--south of Santa Clara between Street of the Violet Lantern and Old Golden Lantern, and the alley north of Victoria Boulevard between Sepulveda Avenue and Via Santa Rosa.

* $400,000 for traffic signals at the intersections of Coast Highway and Street of the Violet Lantern, Del Prado Avenue and Street of the Violet Lantern, and Stonehill Drive and Niguel Road; left-turn arrows at Coast Highway and Street of the Blue Lantern and Coast Highway at Palisades Drive at Beach Road; and new signal phasing to ease the flow from Monarch Bay at Coast Highway and Crown Valley Parkway.