The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Council blocks streets to El Camino Real traffic

By Natasha Collins

The City Council voted to block two neighborhood streets to El Camino Real traffic Nov. 11, unanimously upholding requests from neighbors who said cut-through traffic was ruining their neighborhood.

Residents of S. Taaffe and S. Frances streets also said that cars using their streets to get downtown from El Camino, or vice versa, threatened the safety of their historic housing district.

"Traffic discourages the desire to maintain the quality of the neighborhood," said Andrew Buchanan, who lives on S. Frances Street.

But not everyone favored closing the roads. Commercial property owners worry the closure will make access to their businesses more difficult.

"Traffic off El Camino will run into the barrier and then have all this congestion to turn around in. I think the city would have a better way to spend the taxpayers' money than on 51 residents who do not want people driving on their street," said Peter Orlando, a business owner.

The partial barriers will be placed about 100 feet north of El Camino Real so that businesses on Taaffe and Frances can still be accessed from El Camino.

The partial closure of the street will be done in two phases. The first phase will be the construction of a temporary barrier, made up of portable concrete planters and 4-inch-high curbs. To increase visibility of the barriers, shrubbery and reflectors will be placed in the planters. Signs will also be placed on El Camino Real, Olive Avenue and Mathilda Avenue to warn drivers of the road closure. The temporary barrier will be in place for three months.

The second phase of development will only be considered after residents have had a chance to adapt to the closure and to make sure they still support it. A barrier will be designed if residents and the city decide the closure is an effective way to reduce traffic. Residents will have input on the design of the barrier.

Because the closure is designed to look formidable to cars but will allow emergency vehicles to pass, some drivers may still access the streets from El Camino, according to a staff report. There will be no way to prevent people from driving through the barrier because police will not patrol the area.

Material costs for the temporary closure are expected to reach $7,500. That figure does not include labor or maintenance costs.

The cost of the final barrier will be between $28,000 and $40,000. That includes the cost of removing pavement, possible impacts on storm drains and installing permanent planters, landscaping and irrigation. It does not include the additional cost of aesthetic features which residents have requested.

Councilman Landon Noll said the closure was necessary to preserve the neighborhood.

"This is the last of the historic neighborhoods. It is not just the traffic counts that we need to be concerned with, but all the traffic impacts on the community," he said.

The City Council meets every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers. Meetings can also be watched on KSUN, Channel 18.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 19, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.