Traffic Meeting Thursday 4/20

Orange County Public Works has agreed to study Rossmoor’s long-standing parking problems along Montecito Avenue and will discuss their plan at a meeting Thursday, April 20, at 7 p.m. at Rush Park. 

The county agreed in a February letter to study ways to remedy parking near the condominiums on Montecito, following requests by the Rossmoor Homeowners Association and the Rossmoor Community Services District.

The county’s senior civil engineer in Traffic Engineering, Wei Zhu, will give a presentation on the county’s study.

For nearly two decades, homeowners along Rossmoor’s residential streets intersecting Montecito have complained that condominium residents are using up much of the available parking in front of homes. The problem has grown worse in recent years after the Shops at Rossmoor no longer allowed condominium residents to park overnight at the center.

In February, Ms. Zhu said the county would examine four possible changes:

1. 1. 1. Imposing time-restricted parking to eliminate overnight parking.
      2. Adding red curbs to improve sight distances at intersections.
      3. Putting Montecito on a road diet to add angled parking and bike lanes, thereby reducing the street from four lanes to two lanes or a variation on that approach.
      4. Changing Montecito/Shakespear/Bostonian circling around Rossmoor Elementary into one-way streets.

Ms. Zhu reaffirmed a longstanding county position that it would not consider the implementation of a permitted parking system that would prohibit condominium residents, who technically live in Seal Beach, from parking on Rossmoor Streets. She called it “nonviable, as the county does not and will not administer a parking permit program.”

RHA encourages residents to participate and offer their views on the alternative and/or permitted parking system at this meeting during a public forum. The alternatives could have significant impacts on traffic and the appearance and/or character of the neighborhood around Montecito.

Rossmoor residents interested in the issue can contact RHA’s traffic committee chairman at ralph.vartabedian@gmail.com