by Mitch Lehman

The San Marino City Council deadlocked by a 2-2 vote – with Eugene Sun recusing himself from the issue – thereby failing to amass the necessary majority needed to make permanent modifications to the parking and traffic patterns at the intersection of Huntington Drive, San Marino Avenue and a small piece where Ridgeway Rd. intersects with the two near Starbucks.

The council had previously asked staff to modify the flow of traffic around Starbucks that would disallow a right hand turn by westbound drivers on Huntington Drive north to the Ridgeway access road. City workers had set in place traffic mitigation devices to show what the new flow would look like.

City Councilman Dennis Kneier hoped to connect the public dining area outside Starbucks to the island that contains the Rotary clock, shutting down access from Ridgeway to Huntington Drive. City staff produced traffic studies claiming such a change would have “no negative impact” on the area.

“I was hoping we could develop a nice civic plaza at that area,” Kneier said. “It’s unsafe to pull out onto Huntington from that area anyway, so a full-closure option was the better way to go.”

Tom Bristow, owner of The UPS Store on Huntington Drive, claimed his company had lost business during the trial run and did not want to see the traffic patterns changed.

Shutting down access to Huntington Drive would also add sixteen permanent parking spots for area businesses.

“I think we are missing a great opportunity for our city,” said Kneier. “This would be a nice, common central area where we could plant trees. It’s too bad.”

(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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