Jeff Chambers Explains to Planning Commission that Highland Springs Traffic is Because the Stop Lights Aren’t In Sync.
Below is the transcript from the September 13, 2016 Beaumont Planning Commission Meeting. Commissioner Rearick asked Jeff Chambers from Pardee Homes about the traffic congestion on Highland Springs.
Jeff Chambers of Pardee Homes reminds everyone that Pardee Homes is not only building thousands of houses on the west side of Highland Springs, they are also building 4,500 houses on the east side of Highland Springs.
Chambers then talks about they are aware of the traffic congestion and are working with Banning and Caltrans. Chambers then blames the traffic problem on lack of traffic light synchronization.
No Pardee Homes, the problem with the traffic isn’t because the traffic lights aren’t in sync, it’s because thousands of houses were built with forged EIRs declaring ‘Negative Declarations’ instead of considering the effects of thousands of additional vehicles on the roads.
Chambers then mentions TUMF and states that they’re ‘trying to find the money’
Yea, there’s a lot of people looking for that TUMF money; specifically the WRCOG is looking for that TUMF money by October 10, 2016.
The bottom line is that Highland Springs needs to be expanded to a 4-lanes to accommodate the present traffic and 6-lanes to accommodate another 10,000 cars/day for Pardee Homes’ future houses.
The division of Beaumont and Banning’s city limits is the center line of Highland Springs. Pardee Homes has already built houses right up to the west edge of Highland Springs, so the only way that Highland Springs could be expanded to 4-lanes is to expand eastward.
Is Banning going to give up part of their city limits to accommodate Beaumont’s refusal to follow CEQA and properly mitigate their traffic?
Noooooo, that’s not going to happen. The last time Banning ‘worked with Beaumont’ – Beaumont ripped off Banning. To this day the City of Beaumont has refused to pay Banning for their part of the overpass construction.
Beaumont Planning Commission Transcript September 13, 2016: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/i…
34:30 Planning Commissioner Rearick: We’re talking Sundance and this has to do with Highland Springs’ traffic. I only have to deal with Highland Springs’ traffic at roughly 4:45 am and 5:00 pm. It’s manageable then; I don’t dare go to Highland Springs on the freeway exit on a Saturday or Sunday. Do you know of any plans where there’s a possibility that there is going to be a new way to get into Sundance? Either Pennsylvania – which I know that will most likely never be an onramp or offramp. Maybe a redesign of Highland Springs?
35:00 Jeff Chambers, Pardee Homes: As most of you know; we have an entitlement in the City of Banning to develop 4,500 + homes on the east side of Highland Springs. That work is in the process, the entitlement is in place, and we are working diligently with the City to bring that first Phase of Development in the 2018/2019 time frame. In working with the City of Banning and the City of Beaumont, trying to do something at that Joshua Palmer intersection just as you come under the freeway and you come up to Joshua Palmer park
36:00 Rearick : Trucks turn and go into the Chevron right there.
Chambers: Yes. So we are working together; Caltrans, Banning, Beaumont; to try and make that intersection flow better. And you may recall there was a period of time, several years ago, where all these signals were in sync, and they got out of sync, and they haven’t been put back in sync because one city wanted it one way and another city wanted it another way and Caltrans wouldn’t work out there and everything went askew. Part of the problem that lingers is that that signalization through, under the freeway, and on the north side and south side of the 10 is the signals are no longer in sync. But we are working. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen.
37:00 Chambers: Working with Caltrans is a very tedious process. There is a plan to do an alternative on and off ramp in this area down here to alleviate some of the traffic from this intersection to create a new off ramp that would come in here and possibly and on ramp that would some in here. I’m not certain about some of the other off ramps that have been discussed, but we are working on that and trying to find a resolution and trying to find the money to construct all that. So I would say that in the next 6 – 12 months we should have something a little more definitive. It’s definitely in the works and we’re working with WRCOG as well as Caltrans because it would be the TUMF network.
38:00 Chambers: It’s a concern of Banning, it’s a concern of Beaumont, it’s a concern of a lot of the Residents of that much more housing. Moving forward, it needs to be taken care of, we recognize that.