New turning restrictions on upper Welburn Avenue and Mantelli Drive drew ire from nearly 200 people Tuesday night, who packed the cafeteria of Luigi Aprea Elementary School.
Mayor Roland Velasco began the town hall meeting by saying he was inundated with calls after the No Left Turn signs were posted on upper Welburn, part of a series of temporary measures approved for $25,000 by the Gilroy City Council at its Nov. 21 meeting.
Implemented to curtail excessive speeding and traffic volume on the narrow street with no sidewalks, the changes have nevertheless displeased residents on neighboring streets and parents with students at nearby Pacific Point Christian School.
Since the turning restrictions have been put in place, traffic has been stacked during school pick-ups and drop-offs. The Gilroy Police Department was asked by the school to help direct traffic, which Sergeant Wes Stanford, who was at the meeting, said the department is unable to do because of limited police resources. In addition to the sergeant, there are just three full-time traffic officers writing citations and patrolling Gilroy’s more than 200 lane miles of city streets.
“I fully sympathize with the speed issue,” said Joel Goldsmith, resident of nearby neighborhood The Forest. “But I have a problem with changing the traffic patterns. You are eliminating some traffic but adding more traffic elsewhere.”
Former Public Works director Rick Smelser, who retired in December, warned the City Council there may be “unintended consequences,” should the city proceed with the measures without first conducting a full traffic study.
However, after four years of petitioning by a group of 37 households in upper Welburn including multiple meetings with public works staff and traffic monitoring, the council in November thought it best to proceed with the temporary measures.
Since then, only a few of the recommended measures have been installed, most unpopular of which are the turning restrictions on upper Welburn and Mantelli Drive.
Erica Trinchero, a neighborhood resident who spoke out against the turning restrictions, said they forced motorists to stack up during peak traffic times and make illegal U-Turns further down the road. She informed the crowded room that she and a new group of residents had gathered 460 signatures from people who wanted the traffic measures rescinded.
“We are simply people in this neighborhood trying to get safer streets – not just on one street,” said Trinchero. “We want the proper process. We are not the opposition. We want to hold city council accountable for their decisions.”
Resident and spokesman for the upper Welburn group that spurred the traffic calming measures, Paul Fukuma, said a speed survey in 2012 showed that 85 percent of motorists travelling on that stretch of road drove in excess of the 25 mph speed limit–a claim that was met with audible derision from the audience.
Citing high volumes of traffic, a blind curve that made it dangerous for pedestrians and lack of space for cars parked on one side of the street, Fukuma said the “system works and the measures are working.”
He didn’t like some of the complaints he was hearing.
“Accusations of corruption and bribing city council members undermine the process,” he said. “We presented our concerns to the city council and [former] traffic engineer Henry Servin. We didn’t tell him what to do, but merely presented the problem to him to identify and create the solution.”
After nearly two hours of comments and questions from the gathered crowd, Mayor Velasco asked Trinchero to submit the collected signatures to the city clerk and an item to discuss the matter further would be agendized for the Feb. 27 city council meeting.
