Phelps Road extension

What

In December 2001, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments voted on 52 Regional Flexible Funds Applications, with a total cost of $58.2 million. These included replacing 20 MTD buses, adding a sidewalk to a road (I think in Guadalupe), and extending Phelps Road to Los Carneros.

Opposition

We (John & Diane Kalstrom) are residents of the Storke Ranch housing complex. Phelps Road passes through the north end of our community. Putting the road through would be unsafe and undesirable for the following reasons.

• Unsafe to apartment residents, especially young children whose playground area is directly adjacent to Phelps Road. There are no barricades or fences to protect them from cars, or prevent them from running into the street.
  Students presently speed-race up and down Storke Road, trying to shave seconds off of their trip. Imagine this in front of the day care center and unprotected playground area, as Phelps Road will be used as a short-cut. Is a shorter route for them worth the expense of a child's life?
• Breaks up the continuity of Storke Ranch. (Day care, apartments, playground, tennis courts, and orange trees are all on the north side of Phelps.) Loss of privacy at pool and recreation area.
• Increased traffic and noise. Probable night-time truck deliveries from freeway to Cabrillo Business Park (to be built at Hollister and Los Carneros).
• Homes adjacent to Phelps have wooden fences that are only 5-feet high. This allows no protection from an out-of-control car injuring or killing someone. Whereas, homes built on Storke Road have a very tall cinderblock reinforced wall for protection, privacy, and noise buffering.
  The County Extension Plan does not include adding any protective or sound walls along Phelps (page 3 of Plan). Storke Ranch homeowners will likely end up paying for these walls (at greater expense than if they'd been put there in the first place).
• Having a busy road, noise, and added danger will decrease the property values at Storke Ranch.
• Students in UCSB housing (just past the end of Phelps) will have easier access to illegal parking within our complex. Residents from Francisco Torres frequently park on Willowgrove, hopping over the wall to get to their car.

Status

I arrived at the December SBCAG meeting just as they were voting. Another observer said there had been considerable discussion and changes to the projects (North county buses), but not Phelps Road. (SBCAG staff had taken it off of the list of recommended projects.) However, look for the issue to resurface a year from now, when the Regional Transportation Improvement Plan goes under review again.

Resources

Letter from Gail Marshall to signers of opposition petition.

County's extension plan. Scanned in from photocopies made at SBCAG office.

Flexible Funding Proposals. Scans of a mailing from SBCAG.

Santa Barbara County Association of Governments. Board includes all 5 county supervisors, plus a member from each city council (e.g. Santa Maria). Meetings.

Valley Voice Letters to the Editor, 9 Nov 01

Mention of giving Phelps Road to County. Buried in section 1, exhibit C in your Storke Ranch CC&R binder. From our conversations with homeowners, it seems that this was verbally disclosed by Bermant to homeowners in later phases.

Sample opposition letter.

Latest email to homeowners / Status.

Research
Why didn't Planning require developer to put Phelps at extreme north end of Storke Ranch, if the plan was to make it a through road?

County approving Storke Ranch easements, but rejecting ownership of Phelps, Nov 97.

County accepts ownership of Phelps, Mar 01.

John & Diane Kalstrom
6860 Buttonwood Lane
johnk73@juno.com