To Protect Adobe, City Rethinks Street Extension

To protect some of the area's oldest buildings, city planners are tweaking how downtown traffic would flow after revitalization.

The biggest alteration to the Draft Historic Town Center Master Plan would be canceling a proposed extension of Yorba Street from El Camino Real through . Instead, Yorba would be lengthened just enough to route drivers into the southeast corner of a future $12-million parking structure at the .

The change appeals to to the Yorba Street extension because it would, and sever the Blas Aguilar Adobe from the park.

"I can't see putting Yorba Street through [the park] ... I can't go with that," said Matt Gaffney, a member of the San Juan Capistrano Traffic Commission, and an outspoken critic of the plan. "The alternate route might be a little bit more palatable."

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The commission reviewed the traffic components of the Master Plan and the newly released Environmental Impact Report on Tuesday night. The Environmental Impact Report identifies potential effects of the Draft Historic Town Center Master Plan, a blueprint for long-term development in downtown.

Although none of the commissioners supported a complete extension of Yorba Street, they did favor extending Forster Street east to Del Obispo. 

The plan is "trying to draw all these people into downtown, but we're not creating any new way in, or any way out. ... Forster is the only way to do that," said Commissioner John Altieri.

Commissioners also questioned a proposal to convert parallel parking spaces along Camino Capistrano into diagonal ones that drivers would reverse into. They fear diagonal parking will snarl traffic in an area that's already heavily congested in the summer with drivers headed north and south.

"I'm all for a Main Street-type feel," Commissioner Tim Markel said. "The problem is, during the summertime, you get all the traffic from the people who think they're going to avoid the I-5."

The consultants who drew the Master Plan said their goal was to "calm" and slow traffic without reducing road capacity, making downtown more pedestrian-friendly, and a place where visitors want to spend time. They suggested , roadway narrowing, high-visibility crosswalks, landscaping, lighting and diagonal parking.

"The radical concept—which i had to wrestle with—is backing in," Art Cueto, a traffic consultant, told the commission. "I'm here to defend the concept of the plan, but in no way am I here to say this is the perfect plan. You are the folks who live here, do business here and interact with town center on a daily basis."