Letters to the Editor: Proposed LA scale project must be reduced

Steve Laverson’s recent letter urging we trust Kilroy has been and will continue to be responsive to our community’s best interests in processing its massive One Paseo plans, though well-intentioned, is a bit naive. Heeding it would enable the developer to lead us like lemmings into the sea—of traffic gridlock.

It’s a time-honored developer strategy to delay the performance and/or submission of data on the most controversial portions of a plan—i.e. the traffic study—until the “major details” (my new favorite oxymoron) have been systematically addressed. This, and promises of millions to be spent addressing any problems, are calculated to get City staffers and officials so invested in the project that when the most threatening aspects are finally revealed, those officials will be more receptive to mitigation recommendations that they’d have rightly rejected earlier. And who better to carry out this strategy than a former Director of Development Services hired by Kilroy as a registered lobbyist to negotiate plan accommodations with her former colleagues.

While the San Marcos deployment of synchronized traffic lights Mr. Laverson referred to may have been successful in reducing existing peak traffic delays, we already have numerous delays with the site vacant. If it’s allowed to be developed to nearly four times its current entitlements, imagine the impact of the resulting geometric traffic escalation at peak periods. Synchronized traffic lights haven’t a prayer of curing those delays.

Many, including myself, favor the One Paseo concept and the additional amenities it offers. But as a community we must insist Kilroy reduce the currently proposed LA scale to both avoid the accompanying LA traffic gridlock, and to maintain the livability of the community for its residents.

Bob Freund, Carmel Valley homeowner and parent

Related posts:

1. Letter to the Editor: Traffic impacts are far from hypothetical
2. Opinion: Concerned citizens launch website on impacts of proposed Main Street project
3. Carmel Valley community meeting on proposed One Paseo project draws crowd
4. Carmel Valley community meeting on ‘Main Street’ project to be held Sept. 24
5. Carmel Valley residents voice variety of opinions on ‘Mainstreet’ project

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Posted by Staff on Feb 4, 2012. Filed under Letters, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry