When you hear about the “I-605/Katella Avenue Interchange Project” you immediately think about the “Village 605 Project.”
After all, the Village 605 Project is the 113,880 square foot shopping center project scheduled to be built at, you guessed it, the northeast corner of the I-605/Katella Avenue Interchange.
The Village 605 shopping center project has caused quite a stir in Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and Cypress, due to concerns over pedestrian safety, traffic and the size of the project’s freeway sign.
When you hear about the “I-605/Katella Avenue Interchange Project” you immediately think about the “Village 605 Project.”
After all, the Village 605 Project is the 113,880 square foot shopping center project scheduled to be built at, you guessed it, the northeast corner of the I-605/Katella Avenue Interchange.
The Village 605 shopping center project has caused quite a stir in Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and Cypress, due to concerns over pedestrian safety, traffic and the size of the project’s freeway sign.
The Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans have announced the beginning of a multi-million dollar improvement project named the “I-605/Katella Avenue Interchange Project.”
Yet strangely, this transportation project [using local funding provided by Measure M-2, the County transportation sales tax], has nothing to do with the Village 605 development.
Back in 2006, when County voters re-authorized the transportation sales tax, the I-605/Katella Interchange was listed as one of the many projects to be funded by the tax measure.
OCTA and Caltrans list the following improvements to be made to the interchange: modifications to the ramps, widening of Katella and improvement to “bicycle and pedestrian facilities.” The interchange project will not be dealing with the major concern of local residents– the safety of children crossing Katella Avenue at Wallingford/Walnut. This is because, by its design, the interchange project’s limits end at Civic Center Drive and Katella.
In other words, despite the obvious increases in both vehicular and pedestrian traffic along and across Katella due to Village 605, OCTA and Caltrans have no current plans to use its interchange Project to deal with these challenges.
Many residents have suggested a pedestrian bridge be built to protect school-children and facilitate traffic flow at the corner of Katella and Wallingford/Walnut.
Whatever the merits of this solution, it can’t be considered as part of the Interchange project as long as OCTA and Caltrans continue to limit the project’s reach to Civic Center Drive and Katella.
One would think that efficient use of taxpayer dollars would encourage OCTA and Caltrans to redraft the scope of the I-605/Katella Interchange project to include coverage of the Katella pedestrian crossing at Wallingford/Walnut.
But it’s anybody’s guess whether these two powerful, yet remote, governmental agencies will be responsive to the community’s needs.
This column appeared in the July 12, 2017 print edition of the News Enterprise.
