19th Street Bridge Gets Canned

Costa Mesa Connector Off Master Plan

There was a major change last week to the future of the proposed footprint of Costa Mesa. The 19th Street Bridge Gets Canned - A meeting of the Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors voted to remove the proposed 19th Street Bridge from the county’s master plan. There have been lots of studies and lots of controversy in the past years of traffic flow around 19th street and the impact on local Costa Mesa residents.

_{We’ll have no landmark bridge in Costa Mesa any longer}

This move to strike it from the master plan ends all of that controversy that would have linked Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach over the Santa Ana River channel, and a move that is very positive for Costa Mesa residents.

Big Push – 19th Street Bridge Gets Canned

There was a big push from Huntington Beach residents, who had the least to gain from the bridge, and they had Huntington Beach Mayor and OCTA Director Don Hansen on their side. Local Environmentalists were against the bridge as well. It seems that the only party interested in still having the bridge go forward was the city of Newport Beach, led by past mayor Steve Rosansky. Typically all three cities involved (Newport, Huntington, Costa Mesa) would have to unanimously vote to strike the idea, but OCTA directors all agreed it would be an unlikely project since it has a price tag of upwards of $150 million.

The impact to Costa Mesa would have been less than Huntington, but it would have demolished two homes when the street would have been widened to accomodate the bridge.

Newport Beach wanted the bridge because of growing traffic crowding on PCH. City officials from all cities will have to continue to look for other ways around the traffic issues, because they are still present. Eliminating the bridge is great for residents, but forces officials to look for other solutions.

Other Bridges

The Gisler-Garfield connector still exists on OCTA’s master plan, much to the detriment of the Mesa Verde neighborhood here in Costa Mesa, and that would have a very negative effect on residents of the State Streets neighborhood. Fortunately, OCTA director John Moorlach is already talking of removing that bridge from the master plan as well.