Elise Gee
On an aerial map at Costa Mesa City Hall, the proposed 19th Street bridge
is a mere line, less than an inch long.
But it's a line that has the potential to divide, not link, communities.
For more than a decade, the debate of whether to build a 19th Street
bridge has aroused people's passions and inflamed their anger.
"It goes beyond civic planning and becomes a religion, acrusade, a
belief," said Newport Beach resident Pete Tarr, who serves on an advisory
group that studies the bridge proposal.
If the bridge is simply a line on a map, the $200,000 cooperative Santa
Ana River Crossings study is an expensive eraser that many hope will put
an end to the contentious issue once and for all.
The cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach,Fountain Valley
and the Orange County Transportation Authority are all participating in a
study to decide whether to eliminate the 19th Street and Gisler Avenue
bridges from a master plan.
The Gisler Avenue bridge lacks the controversy surrounding the 19th
Street bridge and Fountain Valley residents are expected to have little
to say about the 19th Street bridge. Built or not, that crossing will
have little impact on their city.
That leaves three cities divided on the 19th Street bridge, with Costa
Mesa and Huntington Beach on one side trying to wipe it from the county
map and Newport Beach on the other trying to have it built.
Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa officials and residents oppose the bridge
because of the rivers of traffic they say will pour into what are now
quiet and peaceful neighborhoods. Newport Beach leaders would like to see
the bridge built to alleviate pressure on West Coast Highway.
The Orange County Transportation Authority, which is acting as lead
agency on the study, has perhaps the easiest role in the study. Leaders
at the agency have said the bridges will be removed only if the cities
can come to a consensus or if an alternative is found.
It's hard enough for one city to come to a consensus, said county
Supervisor Jim Silva, a Huntington Beach resident who has historically
opposed the bridge. But then again, he said, anything is possible.
For City Councilman Joe Erickson, it's not a question of whether it's
possible for the cities to come to an agreement -- they simply must.
"The study will come up with solutions, and I have to believe they're
there," Erickson said.
GETTING A FOOTHOLD
Costa Mesa has the most invested in the study -- both financially and
