CLEARLAKE OAKS— Placing a premium on safety Caltrans sampled the desires of north lake residents about what they would prefer in its transportation system at the monthly East Region Town Hall on Wednesday.
And while safety registers as a public preference, many cited aesthetics and serviceability to make the most of their highway corridor while charting plans for most efficiency.
Trevor Oppezzo was presenter for Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) for the department’s District 1 region. He explained local roadway development will be based on a survey from area residents of Clearlake Oaks and surrounding communities of what they would like to see. The other locales comprise Glenhaven, Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake.
He went on to state that the roadways are primarily two directional, shared use paths including non-motorized transport. Steven Hopper, Oppezzo’s colleague at Department of Transportation District 1, is a designer and focused mostly on how pedestrians and bicyclists can best integrate with vehicles safely while keeping traffic flowing. “We’ll start off at the far west part of town at Shady Lane, a key intersection with crossings (traversing Highway 20) to Island Drive and extend as far east (about 2 ½ miles) as Sulphur Bank Drive,” he said.
But he was challenged by resident Holly Harris, who did agree pedestrian crossings were needed. But she wanted to know why a crossing at Shady Lane, “Where are all the people funneling to?” she said. “Drivers don’t always slow down for the curves- and some use the turn lanes to pass other traffic- and it gets dangerous because of Eastlake Elementary School and High Valley Rd.”
Harris pointed out many suggest a crossing at Nylander Park, because people cross over to use the bus stop.
“Some suggestions (by CDT) made sense,” Harris said. “But some, just looked good on paper. They haven’t lived here and they don’t necessarily know the best locations. But the crossings need to go where the most people will use them.”
Department staff also proposed traffic calming devices such as a raised crosswalk at Foothill Blvd., a crossing with Flashing Beacons at Shindler’s Creek, near Dollar General Store, since children cross Hwy 20.
“We also propose the department look into a crossing in front of the post office,” Harris added. She further explained it is a busy area in part since a number of residents keep post office boxes to collect mail rather than place a box on Hwy. 20.
Harris and other residents noted the absence of Glenhaven citizens. They recommended the department speak to the Glenhaven Post Mistress for greater insight. Also, several pointed out Hwy. 20 gets very narrow along hairpin turns at Glenhaven.
“But there’s not a lot to be done because we got the lake on one side and steep hills on the other,” Harris said. “Any proposal to widen Hwy. 20 will require a lot of blasting, time and expense.” “And why not direct through traffic to go around the bottom of Clear Lake, down Hwy. 29?” Harris posed. But of course, this way would be more time consuming.”
Arriving near the end of the program was Alexis Kelso, Caltrans District 1senior transportation planner. Based on citizen input Caltrans will consider crosswalks by Eastlake Elementary school, Hoover St. and the Post Office, if they are not already on the list she assured. Kelso noted plans for Glenhaven are not nearly developed as for Clearlake Oaks.
Glenhaven locations have not been identified for specific bike lanes, pedestrian facilities or crosswalks as of yet.
“We have two things in mind; traffic calming, flashing beacons and shared-use facilities (side paths for pedestrians and bicyclists),” Kelso said. “And second, raised traffic island, which could be crossings or a stand-alone thing. What we are not considering are roundabouts- too costly or speed bumps but could be re-introduced in the future.”
Dawn Yang, Caltrans District 1 transportation engineer gave a tentative timeline but as of now a draft proposal is expected to be 75 percent complete by May 2024. The next step is the environmental phase. A schedule has the environmental phase implemented in fall of 2026 to 2029. The design phase will be in summer 2029 to 2031. Meanwhile, construction is anticipated from summer 2031 to summer 2032.
Oppezzo cited a figure of $47 million for the project. “That is a, wide-paint-brush estimate, with a contingency; Department proposals hinge on our needs,” he said.
And the department is acquiring funding for two projects in the south shore. It includes improvements on Hwy. 53 for coordinated traffic signals to help it stay time competitive.
Holly Harris said department staff were engaging and really listened. “This won’t be the only town hall but return in February 2024,” she said. “And in the interim they’ll do events in Nice and Upper Lake.”
