Agency Endorses Proposal to Widen 3 Highways

SIMI VALLEY —  Hoping to provide relief for rush-hour bottlenecks in Ventura County, a regional planning agency has endorsed proposals to widen the Ronald Reagan Freeway, California 23 and the Ventura Freeway as part of an $80-billion comprehensive transportation plan.

Members of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Thursday, voted 38 to 3 to support a final version of the group’s Communitylink 21 transportation plan--a 20-year blueprint to expand and improve Southern California’s transportation network well into the next century.

“This plan has anticipated the kind of growth that Ventura County is expected to experience in the next 20 years,” said county Supervisor Judy Mikels, who said the vote helped end her yearlong tenure as association president on a high note.

“But what’s important is to look at this from a regional perspective and how Ventura County fits into that. . . . This plan recognizes the county’s importance and will undoubtedly prove invaluable as it enters the 21st century.”

As the designated planning organization for Southern California, the association is required by law to develop and adopt a long-range transportation proposal in order to be eligible to receive state and federal funding.

The plan, which details everything from highway widening to expanding rail service to car-pooling, will be forwarded to the federal government for review before any of the individual projects can receive money needed for completion.

The association represents the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura. Of those, Ventura County has the fewest projects and will, if approved, receive the least funding.

At a combined cost of about $83 million, the Ronald Reagan Freeway would be widened from Tapo Canyon Road in Simi Valley to the Los Angeles County line, and California 23 would be widened from the Ventura Freeway in Thousand Oaks to California 118 in Moorpark.

Those projects would also include numerous interchange improvements at an as-yet-undetermined cost.

Also included in the Communitylink 21 proposal are preliminary plans on widening California 118 from Moorpark to Somis to handle an anticipated increase in truck and commuter traffic.

Though the idea of accommodating additional trucks has been soundly criticized by area residents, work would not begin for at least 20 years, giving residents and planners time to come to an agreement on how the project should be executed.

Additionally, rail service would be increased in the area with expanded service to begin as early as next year in Simi Valley and Moorpark and more trains to be added during the next decade in west county communities, such as Oxnard and Camarillo.

Plans also include expanding the Oxnard Airport to handle more passenger and freight traffic as well as possibly opening a regional airport at Point Mugu, which would use existing facilities at the Naval Air Weapons Station.

The Point Mugu plans have been tabled for the last year at the Navy’s request and if approved would not be worked on for about two decades.

The county would also receive more than $10 million to create a more extensive system of bicycle paths and pedestrian facilities to promote alternative means of transportation.

Other projects approved by the Ventura County Transportation Commission were incorporated into the baseline costs of the association’s plan. They include a $20-million widening of the Ventura Freeway between Johnson Drive in Ventura and Vineyard Avenue in Oxnard, improving the interchange of Pleasant Valley Road and the Ventura Freeway to accommodate greater port traffic and expanding the Seaward Avenue interchange.

Ventura County officials said they were encouraged by the amount of projected funding, which should be sufficient to cover anticipated transportation projects.

“We’ve been able to resolve all the issues that we had at the beginning of this process, so what we’ve got, I’m sure, will meet our needs,” said Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

The vote capped more than four years of debate and study that included comments from cities, regional authorities and thousands of Southern California residents on how best to accommodate the estimated 7 million people expected to move to Southern California by 2020.

According to association studies used to guide the development of Communitylink 21, most of those new residents will move to Riverside, Ventura and the northern part of Los Angeles counties, with most of the job growth--about 4 million are projected by 2020--occurring in central Los Angeles and in Orange and Riverside counties.

“We’re talking about adding the population of two Chicagos to an already highly urbanized area,” Mikels said. “That kind of growth is almost frightening and needs to be planned for well in advance.”

Some of the larger projects in the Communitylink 21 plan include a $1.7-billion widening of the Pomona Freeway in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, a widening of Interstate 5, the 710 and 405 freeways in Los Angeles County, and $541 million to expand Metrolink commuter services throughout the region.

After the association plan is reviewed and approved by federal transportation authorities, it will be forwarded to the state’s Transportation Commission, which will distribute the funds.

“This was a monumental process and nobody got 100% of what they wanted,” Mikels said. “But what we’ve achieved is a fair and balanced plan that’s going to go a long way toward serving the needs of this region.”