Commission Doesn't Yield to Traffic

The Planning Commission of Rancho Santa Margarita on Wednesday decided to step into traffic.

The five-man commission unanimously agreed to take on more responsibility when it comes to traffic issues in the city, and endorsed a plan that provides a more public forum for residents to voice their concerns about speed bumps and stop lights.

After a presentation by city traffic engineer Bill Lawson, the proposed ordinance will go to the City Council for its first reading; if approved on two readings by the council it will become law. Lawson said the primary benefits are transparency and providing a public forum for residents.

The move dissolves the traffic review panel, or TRP, which includes a city engineer, traffic engineer and police chief. In the past, residents would have to take their cases to the TRP, which would then make recommendations to the City Council. However, residents now can make their cases to the Planning Commission directly. In some cases, the commission can make the rules and in other cases it would forward recommendations to the council.

"The intent behind this recommendation was that we as a Planning Commission take over the role of the TRP to enhance opportunities for public participation, and secondly to provide an appellate process where people can go to the city council, whereas before they went to the hidden three people behind Door No. 2, and I think for that reason alone I think this is the way to go," said vice chair Brad McGirr.

The planning commissioners, each one an appointment of a city councilperson, will be responsible for bulbouts, chokers and curb extensions; speed bumps, speed humps and speed lumps; speed feedback signs; and traffic calming. They will also serve in a role as an appeals board if there's a denial to prepare a traffic study.

The commissioners will make recommendations to the City Council regarding stop signs; uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks; traffic signal installation and removal; speed limits; and permit parking programs.

Other traffic elements will fall on the shoulders of the city engineer, such as controlled intersection crosswalks; temporary traffic control; no stopping, standing and parking zones; pedestrian movements; highway turn lanes at intersections; two-way left-turn lanes; intersection turning movement restrictions; curb markings; pavement markings/stripings.

McGirr cautioned that the commission sat in a quasi-judicial capacity and that it be on the record that the commission—the current one as well as thoe in the future—can't make "haphazard or arbitrary decisions and must follow the vehicle code and the municipal code."

"You can't allow a stop sign for Neighbor 1 and can't allow it for Neighbor 2," McGirr said. "That's something we really have to keep at the forefront of our mind going forward."

Jim Eakin said that the commissioners were not experts in traffic "but provide the layman point of view and that is why it's appropriate to have a commission such as ours to do something like this. Our duty is to know when to bring in the experts and when to make our own decisions."

At the end of the meeting, Eakin and McGirr opted to address Chairman Peter Whittingham's recent endorsement of a "voter's bill of rights" and a letter calling for the removal of benefits for city council members. The heart of the bill of rights was that the city had a poor business climate, which particularly irked both men.

"We have a $1.2 million surplus, $19 million in reserves, we've been voted the safest city, we have , , , I understand is coming in," Eakin said, mentioning businesses that have or are coming to Rancho Santa Margarita. "I want it known ... that we have a pro business climate."

McGirr, who began his comments referring to the political season by saying "I recognize what time of year this is," was a bit more impassioned.

"I don't appreciate the comments that are inconsistent with the intent of this commission, the good faith goals of this commission, and I would certainly hope they would not go on," he said. "I don't think it's appropriate."

Whittingham did not respond from the dais.

"I'm not going to respond to that," when asked about it afterward. "It's not the appropriate forum."