Plan to add Hwy. 227 roundabout fails at Board of Supervisors — but it’s not dead yet
Facing heavy opposition from members of the public, a controversial plan to add a roundabout on Highway 227 failed at the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors — but the project potentially isn’t defeated just yet.
The board on Tuesday was considering setting aside more than $691,000 for the design of the project, which was meant to improve traffic conditions along the heavily traveled Highway 227 corridor through the Edna Valley.
The proposed plan included adding a roundabout at Los Ranchos Road — a change that drew heavy criticism from residents in the area who claim it would not alleviate traffic concerns and would instead make it worse for drivers who live in the area.
Both supervisors Lynn Compton and Debbie Arnold voted against the plan on Tuesday, citing those neighborhood concerns.
“From the get-go, there has been opposition to this,” Compton said during discussion. “We’re the voice of the people in this community. And these people are overwhelmingly opposed to this.”
Why was county pursuing roundabout?
A 2015 analysis by the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) said congestion along that corridor is expected to “continue to worsen and eventually exceed acceptable levels of service for residents and commuters.”
Besides being a state highway, the road also acts as the primary route to many unincorporated neighborhoods in that area, according to a county staff report. The area is also largely rural, meaning the roadway is often used by large farm equipment.
Since that analysis, the county, SLOCOG and Caltrans have pursued an improvement project that would help alleviate some of the stress on the route and improve safety for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.
In 2019, the Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Rick Engineering Co. for a detailed traffic analysis leading up to a potential road improvement project in the area.
At that time, local officials were hoping that the public would get on board with the improvements, including a roundabout.
But that just hasn’t happened, Arnold said Tuesday.
“I supported this back in the beginning,” she said. “It was reasonable to think that maybe as the project was presented, and the folks in the area, maybe they would change their mind or maybe there were some tweaks that helped them be more accepting, but none of that has happened.”
“So I feel like you’ve all done your job,” she added, referencing staff who have worked on outreach for the project. “I thank you for that. But I feel like today is the day we need to do ours as well and just vote to oppose this project in that neighborhood, and just represent — as we’re elected to do — the people that live in this county.”
What happens next with Hwy. 227 improvement project?
Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Dawn Ortiz-Legg voted in favor of the project, citing the necessity of traffic improvements in that area.
During discussion, Ortiz-Legg said she felt it would be a lost opportunity to deny the project now, after years of work on it.
“I look at the investment and what the board did long before I came to move forward to relieve the traffic, to provide safety and do it in the most efficient manner,” she said. “We should continue on that road and not have this opportunity lost.”
Gibson, meanwhile, called the project “inevitable” and said it would be a misstep for the board to give up control of the project.
“That we understand that this project is more or less inevitable, I find it remarkable that we would not seek to keep it within the locally elected jurisdiction of this Board of Supervisors,” Gibson said.
Because Supervisor John Peschong recused himself from the vote due to a conflict of interest, the board was evenly tied on the issue, 2-to-2, and it failed by default.
Though this essentially killed the issue at the Board of Supervisors level, it did not eliminate the possibility of the project going forward anyway.
According to the county staff report, a denial of the project by the board could result in the “reassignment of the lead agency responsible for the delivery of this project.”
The county could also have to return $9.7 million in regional funds to SLOCOG, while $750,000 of federal funding spent on preliminary engineering could need to be repaid to the Federal Highway Administration, according to the staff report. (Compton disputed this claim, saying the question was asked at a recent SLOCOG meeting and that the answer was the county would not need to return that funding.)
Following the vote Tuesday, Gibson said the issue would likely now go back to SLOCOG and Caltrans for further discussion on the future of the roadway.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 1:22 PM.
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