With the help of an Orange County traffic engineer, the Rossmoor Community Services District has developed proposed changes to improve traffic flow throughout the community.
An ad-hoc committee of RCSD 1st Vice President Tony Demarco and Director Nathan Searles has been working with an Orange County Public Works engineering team directed by Wei Zhu, P.E., T.E., a professional traffic engineer, to develop alternatives to slow down traffic in some high-volume areas.
Zhu appeared at the January meeting of the RCSD Board to briefly explain the study’s purpose and methodology.
She said the study is mainly focused “on the concerns of the community, especially along Montecito, a major arterial street in Rossmoor, and traffic flows near the elementary schools scattered throughout the community.
“The primary concerns are speeding, parking on the south end of Montecito and school traffic circulation,” she said. Zhu said the traffic engineering team at OC Public Works, and their consultants, have been studying the situation for the past year.
“We’ve collected a lot of traffic and parking data,” she added. The OC traffic engineer acknowledged that a survey with some of the alternatives has been distributed to the entire community for input.
The RCSD held a “town hall” meeting before their regular meeting at which more than 100 residents began offering their input on what is being proposed.
“I don’t even remember how many alternative solutions for each segment we developed,” she said, “then we narrowed it down.”
Her main message to residents was that the county would never make any changes unwanted by residents and that much thought had already gone into the project.
“As a result of all those iterations and collaboration with the community, we came up with a recommendation,” said Zhu, “but by all means, these (recommendations) are not something we came up with overnight.”
Demarco thanked the county for their work on the project and reminded Rossmoor residents that the county has sent out a survey. “We encourage all residents to fill out the survey,” he said.
In addition, Demarco thanked residents who have actively “participated in the dialogue” up to this point.
Residents with questions were urged to email them to the district’s general manager, Joe Mendoza.
In short, among the recommendations are;
Montecito Road North
• One lane per direction, a center turn lane, bike lanes and parallel parking.
School Area (Shakespeare & Bostonian)
• One lane per direction, a center turn lane, bike lanes and parallel parking.
Montecito Road – South
• One lane per direction, a center turn lane, bike lanes and parallel parking.
Bradbury Road
• Radar feedback signs.
• Raised medians (25’ long)
• 25 mph stencils (one in each direction)
Montecito Traffic Circles (mini roundabouts)
• Shakespeare Drive
• Bostonian Drive
• Bradbury Road
Peggy Wilkins, a teacher at Rossmoor Elementary, spoke during oral communications to thank Wei Zhu for her work. Wilkins presented her analysis of the proposal having lived in Rossmoor for 28 years.
In addition, she suggested the group investigate parking permits. “We have an issue with parking on Montecito,” she said. “we have issues with the apartment complex, so Wilkins asked the traffic team to look at permits as a potential solution to the parking issues.
Another speaker said she too was thankful for the work, but she thought reducing Montecito from four lanes to one (each way) “would be disastrous. “The beauty of Rossmoor is that we have a deep concern for the safety of our people.”
Zhu again assured residents that they would only move forward with a plan reached by a community consensus, urging everyone to take the survey. The survey goes into more detail on each change, allowing residents to vote yes or no for each one.