http://wavenewspapers.com/news/article_b3d9ad32-f8cd-11e3-879c-0017a43b2370.html
June 20, 2014
Close-the-gap banners. One of the street banners Alhambra officials have placed
throughout the city urging regional and state transportation planners to
close the gap in the Long Beach (710) Freeway.
ALHAMBRA
— Citing gridlock on city streets, city officials here are again trying
to raise awareness and move the process they hope will lead to the
closure of the 4.5–mile gap in the
Long Beach (710) Freeway.
Earlier this month, city officials unveiled banners with terse
messages like “Dig It…the 710 Tunnel” and “Put Traffic in Its Place”
along Fremont Avenue near where the freeway currently ends.
The
Long Beach Freeway is a main north-south artery between the Ports of Long Beach and
Los Angeles, and distribution centers and rail facilities throughout Southern
California. It ends at
Valley Boulevard, resulting in what officials call documented environmental impacts in local communities.
Officials say local streets are flooded with
commuters traveling north and south on surface streets trying to connect
with other freeways.
“It’s not fair to our communities, not safe and puts our residents at risk,” Alhambra Mayor Stephen Sham said.
Efforts to address the gap, which would link the 710 with the
Ventura (134) and Foothill (210) freeways have been underway since 1965, when freeway construction was halted at
Valley Boulevard.
Since then, the debate about closing the gap in the freeway has raged with city officials and residents of Alhambra and
Monterey Park arguing for the completion of the freeway and their counterparts in
Pasadena and
South Pasadena arguing against it.
The argument in favor of completing the freeway was
that the freeway dumped thousands of cars a day onto the surface streets
in Alhambra and
Monterey Park, causing congestion and environmental woes.
In
Pasadena and
South Pasadena, residents complained extending the freeway would eliminate entire residential neighborhoods that had been there for years.
In 2006, the state Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority conducted two
tunnel feasibility assessments and found that a tunnel was a viable
solution warranting more detailed evaluation.
Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 416 by state
Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge, removing from consideration the
alternative to build a surface and depressed freeway to close the gap.
Caltrans’ ownership of hundreds of homes along that proposed alignment
through South
Pasadena, Pasadena, and in the
El Sereno community of
Los Angeles has been a contentious issue for decades.
The MTA is currently studying several alternatives
including the tunnel option, which could avoid or reduce many of the
environmental impacts of a surface/depressed freeway. When the
environmental evaluation process is completed, the selected and adopted
solution will close the 4.5-mile gap between Alhambra and
Pasadena.
Caltrans has announced it will be putting on the market some of the 461 homes that it owns along the 710 Gap in
Pasadena,
South Pasadena and
El Sereno.
The sale of properties deemed excess will begin in the fall, after
proposed regulations governing the sales are approved and adopted.
SB 416, in part, requires Caltrans to offer the
surplus residential properties to current and former tenants in good
standing, respectively, and to purchasers who will be owner occupants.
In his announcement of public hearings to get
comments on the proposed regulations, Caltrans Director Malcolm
Dougherty said, “we are committed to getting out of the residential
landlord business so we can focus on our mission to provide a safe,
sustainable and efficient transportation system in
California.”
The sales will take place in three phases. In the
first phase beginning in the fall, the sale of the single-family and
multi-family properties will include those that are not affected by the
remaining project alternatives in the draft environmental documents for
the freeway.
Caltrans is seeking comments on the regulations
proposed to govern the sale of the excess properties. The agency will
host public hearings on July 15 at Cal State
Los Angeles, and on July 17 at the
Pasadena Convention Center. A 45-day comment period on the proposal began May 30.
