The Sunnyvale Sun

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

City traffic plan will
'destroy' S. Mary Ave.

I am a member of a new neighborhood association, Sunnyvale West, which comprises about 6,000 households. Our purpose in banding together is to offer the city council alternatives to having our busy residential street become a major thoroughfare for residents of other towns commuting daily to Moffett Towers.

A Sunnyvale resident since 1980, I have witnessed the population density of Mary Avenue multiplying on both sides of Evelyn Avenue. Three sections of new housing were built between the railroad tracks at Evelyn and Central Expressway about 15 years ago. Just recently, more housing development went up next to the Mary Manor strip mall at Washington Avenue, on both sides of it--which is just across the street from where I live.

These five new housing areas have markedly increased the traffic bearing down on S. Mary Avenue, making it an engineering feat to maneuver in and out of my driveway during commute hours.

A few months ago, I learned that Sunnyvale was considering building a bridge connecting the end of Mary at Almanor to Moffett Field to enable traffic access to and from the Moffett Towers complex. This connector would directly dump another 10,000 or more cars onto an already over-utilized Mary Avenue.

The end of Mary Avenue close to Homestead has already been re-configured from a four-lane street to a three-lane street, with a middle turn-lane and bike lanes. However, that part of Mary is WIDER than the S. Mary side between El Camino and Evelyn Avenue. I heard rumors of continuing the reconfiguration all down Mary Avenue, which would cause the loss of on-street parking for residents. More problems!

The city has to find other alternatives to turning a neighborhood arterial into a highway thoroughfare. Taking away the traffic jam from commercial Mathilda and plopping it down on neighborhood Mary Avenue is not solving the problem, but merely moving it.

The city should consider enlarging Highway 85 and making a direct connection to Moffett Field at Ellis or some local street in that vicinity. The prospective workers to be employed in the Moffett Towers will not be residents of Sunnyvale--or, at most,10 percent. Why should the residents of Sunnyvale bear the brunt of the traffic burden for nearby towns?

The city council should get the state and the federal government in a matching fund situation by enlarging an already existing highway (85) and adding a turnoff on Highway 101 (for those traveling from towns south of San Jose). A long-term, expansive resolution is needed to untangle this far-reaching commute nightmare.

Let's put the plans back on the table and come up with alternates for a way to connect the future Moffett Field workers and their homes--without destroying the residential neighborhood of S. Mary Avenue.

Janette Boehm

S. Mary Avenue