The San Marino Public Safety Commission heard from numerous impassioned voices in regards to school safety and future plans during a special meeting on Monday, June 24 at San Marino Community Church in order to gather additional input on proposed traffic projects with $32 million in Measure R tax funding as part of the Metro 710 North Project.
The topic centered around the presentation and discussion of questions previously posted by the community at input gathering meetings. With around 70 residents present, several also shared both ideas for the projects and desires to see all projects rejected. The commission reminded residents of its purpose to collect information for the council and that it will be the council’s decision on whether to accept all, modify or reject all proposals.
Currently being considered in San Marino are five projects with the funding: Huntington Drive intersection work ($12 million), Huntington Drive signal synchronization ($7 million), work in front of school sites on Huntington Drive ($6 million), work along Sierra Madre Boulevard ($4 million) and San Gabriel Boulevard signal synchronization ($3 million).
To date, the San Marino City Council has not made a decision on acceptance of the reserved Measure R funds. The topic is set to be heard on Wednesday, July 10 as an item on the regular City Council meeting agenda at City Hall at 6 p.m. According to City Manager Dr. Marcella Marlowe, city staff’s recommendation, in alignment with the Public Safety Commission’s recommendation, will be that the City Council direct staff to “refine the existing projects in a way that addresses community interests.”
“From there, if that is indeed the Council’s course of action, staff will refine the projects and partner with the Public Safety Commission in August to do more community engagement on the refined projects,” Marlowe noted in an email to The Tribune. “Once received, we will take those recommendations to the Council in September for official acceptance or rejection.”
At the June 10 Town Hall on the subject, Marlowe clarified that the process of the projects started around a year ago when the City Council appointed a resident of the community to be the 710 advisor to staff. Marlowe and Parks and Public Works Director Michael Throne then worked with the resident to compile a list of suggestions that they felt that Metro “would be willing to create a placeholder financial support for with the understanding from Metro, at the time, that these would just be placeholder projects and we could then come back to the community.” Out of the list, Metro selected the five projects that are currently being discussed.
At the Monday meeting, resident Stephanie Johnson spoke to the commission that in a spirit of “transparency,” she wanted to make note that the resident and 710 advisor was Hal Suetsugu, former transportation manager for South Pasadena and currently president of Evan Brooks Associates, Inc. (EBA). EBA notes on their website that the company is a “full-service strategic planning firm offering project management, grant writing, transportation planning, community outreach, and environmental compliance services for public agencies to assist in achieving their desired capital program, operations efficiency and project development goals.” Johnson noted that the company does traffic-related work with Metro.
“He’s very much involved in Metro and I think on the good side for that is that he’s got a lot of knowledge and information that will be helpful to the city, but I think in all fairness to the public to refer to him as a resident, I’m a resident, to refer to him as just a resident, he’s an expert in transportation and also he does have business interests with Metro,” said Johnson.
Later in the meeting, Suetsugu shared with the commission that he wanted to clarify that his former Metro work and South Pasadena participation came second to his interest in San Marino. He called the proposed projects “very modest” with a lack of five lanes in each direction on Huntington Drive and diagonal parking maintained. He shared that signal synchronization would be a “good opportunity” to fund as it is 30 years old and within 10 years funds will be needed to replace the signals.
“This is a good opportunity,” said Suetsugu. “One thing that everyone is missing out on is that with this signal synch, we gain control over those signals. We don’t have control right now.”
Suetsugu also noted that school safety was a primary focus of his in assisting with the projects along Huntington Drive.
“My heart is with the schools,” said Suetsugu. “We’ve been working 20 years to try and get those right turn pockets for our kids to come into the parking lot. It’s causing a lot of traffic and congestion. That’s something that you guys should think about.”
Resident Brad Ball received a round of applause from residents in the meeting when he shared a request that the City Council delve deeper for a better traffic study, in light of the Metro options presented.
“If feels as though what we’re all trying to do in less than 50 years, more like 50 weeks, is figure out the plan when all that traffic wasn’t going to go through the tunnel, through the freeway,” said Ball. “So suddenly now, a river has been tributaried into all these other directions without a plan because the dam wasn’t built.”
Additional information on the 710 Measure R funding, question responses and meeting notes are available through the front page of the city’s website at cityofsanmarino.org.
