The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Neighbors, Caltrans in head-on

By Natasha Collins

Caltrans and a Sunnyvale neighborhood are at odds over a proposed intersection connecting Lawrence Expressway to Wildwood Avenue, where a new shopping and office complex promises to intensify traffic.

Residents say the intersection, just north of U.S. 101, would keep students at a nearby school safer. But the state contends it would cause traffic jams and accidents.

Without the intersection, 20,000 cars a day headed for the new Mercado Santa Clara center on Wildwood and Sandia Avenue are expected to pass by Fairwood Elementary School, which also is on Sandia.

"Without the intersection, traffic is going to go by an elementary school, a church and a park," said Fred Fowler, president of the Lakewood Village Neighborhood Association and a City Council candidate. "There are a lot of families with young children in the neighborhood, and we are concerned about their safety."

The city of Sunnyvale and the county Roads Commission agree that connecting Wildwood to Lawrence Expressway, and installing a lighted intersection, is the best solution to the problem, said Sunnyvale traffic engineer Ray Williamson said.

"There's two ways in and out of the shopping center," Williamson said. "One way is on Great America Parkway, the other is Lawrence, which the only way to get to is through the neighbhorhood."

It will cost almost $1 million to put in the intersection, but the cost is worth it for a child's safety, Williamson said.

The city and the developer of Mercado Santa Clara have already allotted money for the intersection, with the city putting up $600,000.

Caltrans, however, has refused to approve the project, saying the light would be too close to the Highway 101 intersection and would cause traffic delays, Caltrans spokesman Jeff Wise said.

"We don't want traffic backing up on 101 or Lawrence," Wise said. "It [the project] would cause traffic backup and accidents."

Caltrans would have to go against its design and operation standards to approve the intersection, which it is not allowed to do without state legislation.

"This is a development issue that the city and the county will have to find a solution to," he said. "We cannot allow for exceptions or deviate from our design plan."

It would be dangerous for people exiting 101 if there were an intersection at Wildwood, Wise said.

"The intersection would only be 200 feet away from the offramp," he said. "People exiting the freeway at a high rate of speed would run right into a line of stopped cars. It could cause all kinds of problems, including accidents."

But the delays on Lawrence and 101 are minimal compared to the effect the traffic could have on the community, Fowler said.

"We don't want to put cars before kids," Fowler said. "Traffic is going to be backed up in the neighborhood with people trying to get to and from Lawrence. We need to offer people an alternative to our neighborhood streets."

Because of the mixed use at Mercado Santa Clara, traffic will be an around-the-clock problem for the neighborhood, Fowler said.

"People going to the offices will cause traffic problems during rush hour, and there will be shopping traffic throughout the day," he said. "This is going to put a lot of stress on our neighborhood roadways."

The city is not willing to let Caltrans' refusal stand, Williamson said.

"Caltrans does not have to answer to local politicians, so we plan to contact state legislators and even the governor if we have to," he said. "We are going to do whatever it takes to get our problem heard and some way of getting Caltrans to change its mind."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 24, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.