By:John Dyson, Beaumont | Original Article at ecordgazette.net
To the Editor,
Staff writer Julie Farren got a lot of information correct in her March 20, 2015 article on the “Potrero Interchange Receives City Council Go-Ahead.”
Yes, Councilman Jeff Fox voted for approval because he has been working on obtaining funding for a long time. New Councilman Mike Lara voted yes because he feels this project will bring new jobs to Beaumont. New councilman Mark Orozco wants the project approved because it will provide a short cut to state Highway 60 for his neighbors in Tournament Hills. Mayor Brenda Knight voted yes because City Manager Kapanicas suggested that she should (my opinion, not Julie’s). Julie also got it right when she wrote that many of the land speculators who own the acreage involved or effected by the project each took their turn at the podium and reminded Council that the previous city councilmen all had promised them a road and their investments would yield returns. Two local citizens spoke, not so much against the Potrero Interchange, but rather the city’s spending priority. It was suggested that The Oak Valley Parkway interchange at the I-10 freeway might be a better place to invest our limited tax dollars.
Councilman Lloyd White delved into several areas of concern with the Potrero interchange project. How much has already been spent? How much more will the project cost? Where will the funding come? How long will the project take to complete? What impacts will the completed project have on other roads and intersections? What are the benefits of the Potrero interchange? What are some alternative options?
Some of the benefits voiced at the Council meeting include that: 1) it will open land south of the 60 for development; 2) it will provide a bypass though the Pass; 3) it will improve traffic safety on the “blood alley” section of the 60 near Dowling fruit stand.
Benefit #1 is certainly true; in fact this is the primary reason for building the 60 overpass and extending Potrero Road. Benefit #2 is very doubtful. This new road does not provide a traffic bypass through the Pass. It is instead an access road for trucks to reach the warehouses to be built south of the 60. Benefit #3 safety- can be addressed by much less expensive means such as closing the crossing at Dowling and placing a center divider along this stretch of the 60. Thus far around $10 million of tax-payer money has been paid to Urban Logic Consultants to draw up the engineering plans for the interchange and bridge. The Feds and County have promised up to $13.5 million in funding towards completion. This leaves somewhere between $24 million and $66 million dollars of funding that the property owners of Beaumont will have to come up with. Does Beaumont City have this much resource? No, not even close. One of the likely benefits offered up by our Community Development Analyst at the meeting was that by completing the Potrero interchange, the Oak Valley Parkway off-ramp traffic will become so intolerable and the situation so dangerous that maybe Cal Trans will step in and save us from ourselves. I don’t think that most of us see this as a benefit. Are there alternative options?
Yes, as Councilman White suggested, spend less than one third of the money; build a new Oak Valley Parkway freeway interchange as promised in the 15 year old EIR for the new housing developments, and improve the quality of life of our citizens.
There you have it, the rest of the story not reported in the Record Gazette article.
John Dyson, Beaumont