SHOPPING FOR A SOLUTION TRAFFIC CRUNCH PLAGUES FALLBROOK CENTER.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer City planners counted up the square footage and determined the revival of the Fallbrook Center didn't require an environmental review or major traffic mitigation measures - a decision that has left nearby residents fuming fuming /fum·ing/ (fum´ing) emitting a visible vapor. fum·ing adj. Producing or emitting smoke or vapor, as for certain concentrated nitric, sulfuric, and hydrochloric acids. . After several failed attempts to bring more business to the mall at Victory Boulevard Victory Boulevard is a major thoroughfare on Staten Island, measuring approximately 8.0 miles (12.87 km) and stretching from the west shore community of Travis to the upper east shore communities of St. George and Tompkinsville. and Fallbrook Avenue, developers turned to booming discount and big-box stores This article has multiple issues: * Its factual accuracy is disputed. * It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by citing reliable sources. . The Home Depot The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box opened last week, and a Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is a privately held chain of specialty grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. As of September 2007, Trader Joe's has a total of 284 stores.[1] and Wal-Mart are on their way, joining a whole block of new stores to create a popular retail powerhouse - and a traffic nightmare. With no mid-block stoplight to help control traffic, cars turning into and out of the parking lot dodge those entering and exiting another shopping center shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marketplaces—in that the shops are usually amalgamated into across Victory Boulevard. Motorists come face to face in the single center turn lane as they try to merge into oncoming on·com·ing adj. Coming nearer; approaching: an oncoming storm. n. An approach; an advance. traffic. Residents say the city should have been aware of the potential traffic hazards and been more aggressive in seeing that the problem was solved. ``We have felt that with the type of stores they're putting in there, there should've been a negative declaration (on an environmental document) and hearings and a traffic study done,'' said Woodland Hills Homeowners Association President Gordon Murley. ``That's why this city doesn't work,'' he said. ``It has to be compatible, and I don't consider this compatible at all.'' West Valley City Councilman Dennis Zine admits he's been getting an earful ear·ful n. 1. An abundant or excessive amount of something heard, such as talk or music. 2. Gossip, especially of an intimate or scandalous nature. 3. A scolding or reprimand. from residents and now is pressing for a midblock stoplight with left-turn signals to be installed along Victory so motorists could more easily access both Fallbrook Center and the Albertson's plaza across the street. ``You've got a traffic pattern just waiting for a disaster. You can't have a traffic volume without conflict,'' said Zine, who fought the Ahmanson Ranch development because of the traffic congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. it would cause along Victory. ``I'm a pro-business kind of guy. The fact of the matter is, I don't want to have chaos on Victory.'' Fallbrook Center held its grand reopening this summer as an outdoor retail center, bringing in big-name retailers like Kohl's, Linens 'n Things Linens 'n Things, Inc., headquartered in Clifton, New Jersey, is the second-largest large-format retailers of home textiles, housewares and decorative home accessories in the United States, behind Bed Bath & Beyond. and Petco, transforming what had been an enclosed, 30-year-old mall that had faltered as shoppers sought other venues. Old stores were renovated or razed raze also rase tr.v. razed also rased, raz·ing also ras·ing, raz·es also ras·es 1. To level to the ground; demolish. See Synonyms at ruin. 2. To scrape or shave off. 3. to make way for new ones. The J.C. Penney Outlet was transformed into Kohl's, Trader Joe's will open this month in a former Sav-On drugstore and Wal-Mart will reopen in early 2004 in a renovated Kmart. Planners said the result was a net loss of 56,500 square feet off the 1.25 million-square-foot mall. Traffic or environmental reviews would have been needed only if the new center had increased by more than 50,000 square feet. ``It didn't trigger that threshold,'' said senior city planner Larry Friedman. ``If it had, it would have required a new environmental review and new site plan review.'' City traffic engineers could not immediately provide traffic counts for the surrounding streets. Nor could the Department of Transportation say whether it expects traffic on Victory and Fallbrook to increase, since the department was required only to review the internal circulation plan rather than the broader impact. With the new development already approved, traffic-weary residents have little recourse other than to demand the streets get put in line for public funds See Fund, 3. See also: Public for improvements at the DOT, officials said. ``Once they're in legally, even if you perceive the problem was caused by their project, there's no recourse,'' said DOT senior transportation engineer Jay Kim Chang-Jun "Jay" Kim (Korean: 김창준) (born March 27, 1939) is a politician from the U.S. state of California. Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. During the Korean War, his home was destroyed. . ``It falls on our department to take care of it.'' A Fallbrook Center official noted that the shopping area has been there for decades, and while there's bound to be some additional traffic as shoppers frequent popular stores, studies have shown they want these shops in the neighborhood. ``We've been a neighbor of theirs for a long time, and we continue to be a good neighbor,'' said Fallbrook's senior general manager Rick Forster. ``It's extremely beneficial to the neighborhood. ... With that comes the daily issue in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, of traffic congestion.'' Zine's office has won assurances from the mall's owners that they will put in the traffic light, which he hopes will be done ``as quickly as possible'' - hopefully in time for WalMart's opening. ``We will be able to get by with our existing traffic pattern for the time being. When the WalMart opens up, that will increase traffic significantly,'' Zine said. Forster said the company hopes to have the traffic light operating as soon as it can go through the city approvals. If traffic worsened dramatically, Zine might pursue shutting down stores under lengthy nuisance abatement proceedings - something few would want to entertain. The city could also create an assessment district for improvements. But Murley says the left-turn signals on Victory will only make traffic worse, and wants the city to only allow right turns into either center. ``Any more signals on Victory only slows down traffic,'' said Murley, who's also vice chair of the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council. ``The amount of traffic that is now traveling along Victory, sometimes you can't make your left turn, you have a cue. And it's not any better when you look at Fallbrook.'' Lisa Mascaro, (818) 713-3761 lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): map Map: FALLBROOK CENTER TRAFFIC SOURCE: City Council office, Daily News research Gregg Miller/Staff Artist |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion