Community rallies against freeway ramp; officials exploring solutions to I-5/Highway 56 traffic;

By: DAVE DOWNEY - North County Times | Sunday, December 9, 2007 8:28 PM PST ∞

DEL MAR - The sarcasm in Philip Raphael's voice is thick when he says he's not worried about losing his home to a 70-foot-high ramp that may one day connect southbound Interstate 5 with eastbound Highway 56.

"Why would I be concerned about losing my house? Isn't it a wonderful thing to be homeless?" Raphael said in an interview last week. "I guess you've already noticed that I have a disturbed sense of humor. Otherwise, I would be crying."

Raphael's home is one of 30 in the Torrey Pines area of San Diego, just southeast of Del Mar, that could be in the path of a proposed freeway interchange. Neighborhood groups are beginning to rally to the threatened homeowners' cause, even though government officials say any decision on the project is years away.

And a community meeting on the project is scheduled for later this week.

When the California Department of Transportation expanded the I-5/805 merge this decade, the agency built broad ramps connecting westbound 56 to southbound I-5, and northbound I-5 to eastbound 56.

Now the city of San Diego and Caltrans are trying to determine if additional ramps should be built to pave the way for the two missing freeway-to-freeway connections: south to east, and west to north.

The options under consideration break down to three basic scenarios: leave the interchange the way it is; add lanes and subtract traffic signals to side streets such as Carmel Valley Road, and add lanes to the freeways; or build new ramps connecting the freeways.

Much of residents' ire is aimed at the option that could build a sweeping ramp which would take off well in advance of the freeway-to-freeway interchange, in the vicinity of Del Mar Heights Road.

Driven to relieve congestion

However, Brad Johnson, senior civil engineer for the city's Engineering and Capital Projects Department, said it is premature to speculate about the potential impact of a dramatic "flyover" ramp because all options are on the table and it is far from certain which one may prevail.

And if a ramp ultimately is selected as the preferred option, it is not a foregone conclusion that it will be a giant one that towers 70 feet above the nearby neighborhood, said San Diego Councilman Scott Peters.

"In fact, the whole effort this year will be to avoid that," Peters, who is the council president, said Friday. "It's not good for the whole community to have something that's really ugly in an area that's essentially right along the coast."

The study is being driven by growing traffic volume in the area and a city law that requires road improvements before homes can be built.

"We're trying to improve existing and future traffic flow in the area," said Johnson.

While there isn't as much traffic flowing in the directions not covered by connecting ramps, the volume is growing.

Johnson said that city projections for 2030 anticipate that more than 19,000 cars a day will travel east on Highway 56 from southbound I-5, and that 23,000 will go north each day on the Interstate from westbound 56.

Still, the traffic is expected to remain twice as heavy in other directions: 45,000 daily from west to south, and 44,000 from north to east.

The other side of the street

Johnson said a draft environmental report examining all the implications for traffic and nearby communities will be ready by early 2009. Caltrans' Edward Cartagena said construction won't begin for least five or six years.

Local residents aren't waiting around for the environmental report to come out to offer their opinions about the potential project.

And the Torrey Pines Community Planning Board, which advises the San Diego City Council, voted last month to oppose any plan that would entail bulldozing even a single house, board members said.

The board is set to meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Del Mar Hills School. And the board has invited Caltrans and city officials to answer questions about the I-5/Highway 56 study.

Peters, who represents the Torrey Pines area, said the study is being driven by Proposition M, a 1998 local initiative that requires connectors on the interchange's north side before building homes, shops and parks in Pacific Highlands Ranch. Pardee Homes plans to frame 3,000 houses there.

Barbara Cerny, 62, a retired Encinitas fire administrator and paramedic coordinator who lives in the area, suggests it is ironic that, if a big ramp were built, an older neighborhood might be bulldozed for a new one.

"In order to build more homes in that area, they need to take away homes in this area, where many of us have lived for more than 30 years," said Cerny, who sits on the planning board.

Like Raphael, Cerny lives on Portofino Drive, where as many as 30 homes could be affected if the largest ramp option were later to be selected. But Cerny's home isn't threatened; she lives on the west side of Portofino, away from I-5.

"I really feel for the people who live on the other side of the street, and who had no idea that this was coming along and could lose their homes," she said.

The flyover ramp

Cliff Hanna, chairman of the Torrey Pines Community Planning Board's transportation committee, said a west-to-north ramp probably wouldn't be a major problem for the area, although it could take out a gas station. But he said the south-to-east ramp would be more problematic.

"You'd have to build a ramp that's pretty high," Hanna said. "(I-5) is a big freeway. You've got a whole lot of lanes that it would have to go up and over."

With all the concern being expressed, Peters sought to reassure homeowners.

"Look, its extremely unnerving to have this kind of discussion. I know it's very unsettling," he said. "All I can tell them is, we are trying to push everyone to come up with a better alternative."

Even so, Raphael said he is convinced the city and Caltrans ultimately will choose a big flyover ramp.

And at 70, the retired psychologist doesn't like the prospect of having to move out of the one-story, three-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot structure he has called home since 1991.

Raphael said he doesn't want to leave, even if he did have to put up with a sound wall being built across a corner of his back yard a decade ago - and even if he has to put up with the steady, noisy drone of the cars and trucks rolling down I-5.

"I like my home because I can walk from my home to the beach," he said. "I'm a single person, so a 1,600-square-foot home is more than adequate for me. And it's a nice neighborhood. The only thing that's wrong with it is the freeway."

For Cerny, who moved into a brand-new house across the street and down the block in September 1971, it is nothing short of amazing to compare the busy I-5 to what it was like back then.

"When I moved in, the freeway was a little nothing," Cerny said.

Today, the freeway is 14 lanes across. Faye Detsky-Weil, immediate past chair of the planning board, suggests that at some point officials should pour money into other solutions, such as public transit, instead of continuing to widen I-5.

"People want to know, 'What are we going to do? Just keep widening the road until we widen all the way to the beach?'"

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