Hamilton Street Widening

Divisions over the Hamilton Avenue street widening project immediately bubbled to the surface at the May 19, Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council meeting.

Former board member Doug Epperhart preemptively called communities proposals to make the thoroughfare a one way street a “stupid idea.”

The city is moving to widen and install a sidewalk on this partly undeveloped thoroughfare to mitigate the air quality impacts caused by vehicles kicking up dust on the northerly unpaved side of the street. Another reason the city is moving to fix Hamilton Avenue is to address erosion and mudflow issues during rainstorms, which impacts water quality of storm water runoff and catch basins downstream.

Epperhart told Random Lengths after the meeting that residents should take advantage of whatever monies the city does give to mitigate traffic issues, especially since the broken Paseo del Mar thoroughfare isn’t going to be fixed until the city finds $50 million.

Coastal resident Christopher Cole was one of those who opposes the project argues that the project places an unfair burden on adjacent homeowners in terms of access to their homes on Hamilton Street (The project is slated to take six months to complete) and homeowners situated downhill on Hamilton will likely have to deal with excess runoff that could cause water related damage on their properties.

Cole also noted with the widening of the street, there will be increased traffic, thereby making the neighborhood a less quiet place, robbing residents one of the reasons residents moved there.

Public hearings on the project are going to take place at 12:30 p.m. at the San Pedro Public Library.

http://empowerla.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Notice-of-Public-Hearing-Signed-2.pdf