A couple of months ago, the City seemed interested in a “half-widening” of the Ynez-De Portola corridor ( see article on the Multi-use trail). However, their 05/25/23 budget agenda and 06/07/23 Planning Commission meeting agenda show the City Council is going back to the full widening idea of the above-mentioned corridor.
Many members of our community attended the Planning Commission meeting on 06/07/23 or sent their disagreement to the City by email. We need to continue these efforts until this project ( Ynez-De Portola Rd widening) is removed from City’s budget / general plan. Below are the next meetings we need your presence and emails for:
City Council meeting 06/13/23 ( click for details & call to action and recording
Public Traffic/Safety Commission meeting 07/27/23 (click for details and call to action)
To see Board’s call to action for 06/07/23 Planning Commission Meeting click here
Back in 2020 most of the LRHOA members responded to the Board’s call to action and as a result, the City decided to …. postpone the project. The fact that the project was postponed became clear only after 3 years (once we saw the widening in the budget meeting agenda for 05/25/23).
In 2020, we thought the City Council members seriously considered our community’s call to preserve our way of life and keep our community safe… Well, the fact that the widening of Ynez & De Portola Rd is an item on their latest budget workshop (scheduled for 06/07/23 @ 06:00pm) , shows that our community does not matter and making commuters happy is more important. It is interesting how on the same agenda they are discussing widening of roads with multiple residential driveways and making it a true arterial (even though it is running parallel with Temecula Parkway) and reducing traffic accident fatalities on public roads ( Local Roadway Safety Plan). While they widen some roads, they are also considering traffic calming improvements for other roads. This makes perfect sense ( NOT): first you create a problem , then you try to resolve it.
The section of Ynez Rd & De Portola Rd between Santiago Rd and Margarita Rd is planned to become an arterial even though it has residential driveways . Currently , with 2 lanes & 1 turn lane , this corridor has a posted speed limit of 45mph ( same as Pechanga Pkwy, a 4 lane + median road). There are no other roads in Temecula with residential driveways and 45mph speed limit. Speed and traffic have been the biggest concern for our community but all our efforts to reduce the speed limit have been ignored by the City.
Maps below show other roads with speed limits between 25 and 45MPH along with number of lanes and driveways. You’ll notice, only the corridor the City plans on widening has a speed limit of 45MPH and numerous driveways.
The agenda mentions phase 1 of the widening ( Santiago Rd to La Paz Rd). The plans for this were designed back in 2020 . If you want to see how this section will look once completed, take a look at the maps showing current properties with proposed widening, in the 2020 article called “City is moving forward with Ynez Rd widening“.
It looks like it’s that time again when we need to remind our elected officials we do not want this project…because it makes no sense! Safety has been a concern of ours and widening the road will only make things worse.
Click photo below to open agenda for the budget workshop scheduled for 05/25/23 @ 09:00 am
