Connector roads won't be on ballot

With Weaverville facing the prospect of two major road construction projects known as the East and West Connectors in the next few years, the County Department of Transportation recently asked the board of supervisors to place an advisory measure on the November ballot to gauge public support for the two projects plus a third being planned for Wildwood Road.

The board unanimously declined the suggestion.

County staff has been working on the East and West Connector projects since they were identified in a 1998 traffic circulation plan for Weaverville. Designed to reduce congestion traveling through the downtown area, the East Connector includes Trinity County's first traffic light (at the intersection of Highway 299 and Glen Road) and would link highways 299 and 3 by an alternate route behind the Trinity River Lumber Mill property.

All the environmental studies have been completed for the East Connector and the board of supervisors selected an alternative to build the road in 2003. That decision was challenged and later upheld in court, so staff has continued to proceed with the final design, engineering and right-of-way acquisition phases for the project, with construction estimated to begin in 2010. The estimated cost of the project as of 2006 was $6,070,000 and is to be paid for with State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) funds allocated to the county.

Another proposal to alleviate in-town traffic congestion is the West Connector that would bypass Weaverville on a westerly route from the vicinity of the Trinity Alps Business and Industrial Park to Oregon Mountain. An environmental impact report for the project is nearing completion by a consultant and is expected to be circulated for public review and comment this fall.

The county planning commission will also review the document and make a recommendation to the board of supervisors early next spring. At that time, the board will be free to choose either a build or no-build alternative based on the findings in the EIR without the threat of having to pay back the STIP funds ($950,000) used to complete the environmental process.

Environmental studies for the Wildwood Road rehabilitation project have just gotten underway this year. It is a major rehabilitation project that would realign, widen and reconstruct nearly seven miles of the road in three phases. It would be similar in magnitude to the Hyampom Road reconstruction projects that proved to be highly controversial in the community.

Director of Transportation Carl Bonomini recommended that in light of recent experience with the Hyampom Road project that was initially denied and later approved by the board, the board should place the three major upcoming projects on the November 2008 ballot as advisory measures.

He noted that members of the current board of supervisors have indicated several times that the East and West Connector projects may not have community support. He added that informal polling on the West Connector demonstrated a nearly two-thirds majority support of the project, but the impartiality of the survey conducted by the transportation department was called into question.

Bonomini said the projects take several years of staff time to develop and a lot of cost is incurred both before and after the EIR decision point is reached. Before the county spends a lot of time and incurs a large financial obligation to the state funding agencies, he said it seems advisable to submit the projects to an advisory ballot measure to make board members as aware as possible of the feelings of their constituents.

He added that a proposed project in downtown Hayfork has also stirred up some vocal opposition in the community, "but is that the majority? We didn't bring that project up ourselves. It came to us out of the community and we presented a design concept, but they've come out early against it. We're asking how the board would like us to proceed."

Supervisor Howard Freeman said public input to a decision "is always good, but many times it's biased by the way you ask the question." He added that a simple "yes" or "no" question based on a description of the projects doesn't give the public enough information to make a decision, and noted that since the STIP dollars could be programmed anywhere in the county, "do people support spending all that money in Weaverville? If I want a particular answer, I know how to frame my question and that's not uncommon in ballot measures."

Supervisor Wendy Reiss commented that current conditions resulting from forest fires might sway how people feel about the road projects, noting that a West Connector "would be a really big fire break around Weaverville right now" and with the recent fire-related closure of Highway 299 at Whiskeytown, a lot of traffic was diverted from Highway 3 to 36 using Wildwood Road.

Supervisor Jeff Morris argued against a ballot measure, saying, "The supervisors are elected, and if a bad decision is made, people are voted out. Personally, I don't want to see my community turned inside out in November on contentious issues that are my responsibility to vote on. I know it's just advisory, but in asking 'yes' or 'no' you never find out 'why' and I think we'll get in real trouble shifting the responsibility to people who elected us to do the job."

Judy Pflueger agreed, saying, "If we don't have the guts to make tough decisions, we shouldn't be here. And part of the job is to sell people on the good points of the projects we decide on. We need to take the heat and stand up and do our job."

The vote to deny the requested ballot measure was 5-0.