Council continues 12th St. improvements to future meeting
Residents ask for another public meeting before council makes decision
Planning Commissioner and resident affected by improvements to 12th Street Doug Barth expresses his concerns of the proposed project at the city council meeting on Nov. 18. Photo by Heather Young
After hearing multiple comments from the public and discussing different options for improvements to 12 Street from Spring to Olive streets, Councilman Steve Martin moved to continue the item and directed staff to meet with neighbors to discuss changes and then go back to the council’s subcommittee on streets and utilities to see if it would be advisable to make changes to the project and bring it back to the council within 60 days. It was approved 5-0. Martin then made a second motion for the council to revisit its prior decision on street repairs and for staff to being it back to the council in 90 days. It was approved 4-1, Mayor Pro Tem Ed Steinbeck dissented.
The $2,350,000 project, Paso Robles Public Works Capital Projects Engineer Ditas Esperanza said, will be funded with $1,150,000 from Proposition 84 and $1.2 million from supplemental tax income. It will include preliminary engineering, soils testing, survey, final design, construction staking, construction soils, compaction testing, pavement compaction testing, construction administration and construction.
“I am deeply concerned with the current proposal being able to control the runoff going down 12th street,” Paso Robles Planning Commissioner Doug Barth said. “Just because we have free money, I don’t think we should squander taxpayers’ money just to get some street improvements done.”
Another citizen said that after the last public meeting that took place in July, he had been expecting another meeting before it went before the council.
The money from Proposition 84 is for flood control, which will pay for the installation of the storm drain pipeline and other related improvements. Because the project is being funded by the state, there are certain design requirements for the project.
“What if we say we don’t want this money, we want to design is ourselves,” Martin asked. “Do we still have to do adhere to the storm water runoff regulations?
“This is outside of the water shed area. … You can overlay a street, but as long as you … don’t extend the footprint of the street, you don’t [start] those regulations,” City Engineer John Falkenstien said.
Esperanza said that if city turned down the Proposition 84 money, there’d only be enough money to fix the streets, not to install the storm drain option. Andy Rowe of Canon Engineering said $1.2 million would — as ballpark estimate be enough to do the project without the storm water part.
“I’m still not happy with the design,” John Hamon Jr. said.
Steinbeck said he feels it’s irresponsible to reprogram the work without going back to the subcommittee.
“We’re courting disaster because it’s going to mess up the plans that have been done so far,” Martin said. “In great appreciation for the work that has been done on this so far, I do recommend that we allow the public another chance to give feedback.”
The scope of the proposed work will include:
- Installation of storm drain pipeline from Spring to Olive streets
- Minor pavement re-striping and pipeline trench restoration from Spring to Vine streets
- Reconstruct and/or install missing sidewalks and curbs and gutter as well as driveway cutouts along the north side of 12th Street from Vine to Fresno street and install linear storm water retention areas
- Pave 12th Street from Vine to Fresno streets — 36 feet wide
- Minimum landscape restoration from Vine to Fresno streets
- A bulb-out storm water retention at south side Vine Street – all others on the north side to be linear
- Reconstruct curb ramps at Vine Street on all four corners, Olive Street on all four corners, Chestnut Street on all four corners, Townhouse Terrace on two corners and Fresno Street on two corners.
- Reconstruct cross-gutters at Fresno Street, Townhouse Terrace, Chestnut Street and Olive Street
- Install eight infiltration dry wells; four with sediment trap
- Install sediment vault at southwest corner of Fresno and 12th streets
- Pervious pavers in lieu of concrete sidewalk
