SLO County town was set to get a temporary roundabout. What happened?
A plan to create a temporary roundabout in Templeton was axed on Tuesday after residents rallied together to shut down the effort.
The project would have put a short-term roundabout at Vineyard Drive and Bethel Road intersection in Templeton for one year.
But during this week’s county Board of Supervisor’s meeting, nearly a dozen opponents stepped forward to slam the proposal, arguing that the site lacked enough traffic to warrant an expensive roundabout that could eat away at people’s properties if it becomes permanent.
“I have been in real traffic. The traffic that is said to be happening in our small town is so minor. The roundabout is major,” Templeton resident Sarah Andrus said. “It does not fit our perceived issue. ... With three kids and sports, I am in that intersection every day. There is no problem.”
County staff said the project would have been funded primarily through a federal grant.
The site was chosen due to increased congestion and safety issues after five injury collisions occurred at the spot over the past decade, according to SLO County Public Works deputy director John Waddell.
“The safety here is below average,” he said at the meeting.
What was the proposed roundabout project?
The project would have turned the four-way stop at Vineyard Drive and Bethel Road into a temporary roundabout.
During a yearlong period, the county planned to gather safety data at the “problematic rural intersection between schools and a busy shopping area,” the staff report said. After the assessment, the demonstration roundabout would have been removed.
The four-way intersection was originally pinpointed for improvements — such as traffic lights or a roundabout — following the 2017 Templeton Circulation Study and the 2023 Vineyard Drive Corridor Plan.
All construction work would have occurred within the existing right of way, according to the report. The temporary, smaller nature of the design meant that the structure would lack sidewalks and curb ramps typical of a permanent roundabout, Waddell said.
The county would have used a $160,000 transportation-specific federal grant to fund the majority of the $200,000 project. The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments planned to chip in the last $40,000, according to the report.
Waddell said there was no funding yet for a possible permanent roundabout project at the Templeton site. A recently completed roundabout in Avila Beach cost nearly $14 million to construct.
“At some point, something will need to be done there,” he said. “It’s definitely not decided whether it’s going to be a roundabout or traffic signals.”
Why Templeton residents denounced the temporary roundabout
At the meeting, many Templeton residents said changing the four-way intersection from a full stop to a roundabout would make the intersection more dangerous, not less.
Raina Moore and her family have lived on Vineyard Drive for 14 years. She said she was worried the roundabout could lead to higher traffic speeds, creating a more unsafe crossing for pedestrians and bicyclists alike.
“This project is trying to fix something for those of us who live here that simply isn’t broken,” she said. “Yes, there is school traffic that occurs for only 180 days of the year, and it’s brief, predictable and manageable.”
Waddell said that one of the safety benefits of a roundabout is that it actually forces people to slow down to around 15 mph as they go through the circle — unlike traffic lights, where people can blow through the signals, which can result in high-speed collisions.
Moore and other Templeton parents also brought up that a proposed swap of the Templeton Middle School and Vineyard Elementary School campuses could result in more sixth- through eighth-graders traveling to school on bikes and scooters through the Vineyard Drive and Bethel Road intersection in the future.
Waddell said the county hadn’t modeled the school change but said that either way there will continue to be school traffic and additional growth at the site.
Homeowners who live right by the Templeton intersection also feared that a temporary roundabout could lead to a permanent roundabout, and that some of their property would be seized to construct it.
Templeton resident Susana López said she knew it was a busy intersection twice a day for about five minutes at a time when she moved next to the four-way stop, but “never did I think that it would mean taking away our property,” she said.
“Now with this issue, sometimes I wish we hadn’t bought it, but at the same time, we love our home, our girls love our home, and it’s our forever home,” López said. “We don’t want to give up any of it.”
Supervisors reject temporary Templeton roundabout
The proposed roundabout required a four-fifths vote to move forward, but Supervisors John Peschong and Heather Moreno said they could not support the project after receiving dozens of emails and comments from local residents opposed to the project.
Peschong said what worried him most was that the temporary roundabout would lead to a permanent project that would take chunks out of people’s private properties.
“I’m not supportive of this. My community is not supportive of this,” Peschong said, adding he had heard from close to 70 constituents and none of them were in favor of the project.
“This doesn’t mean I’m against all roundabouts, but in this particular instance, in this location, I don’t believe that this works,” he said.
Moreno agreed with Peschong, saying that she did not see a pressing need for a roundabout at the Templeton intersection.
“We’re not hearing a safety problem,” Moreno said. “Now five (collisions) in 10 years, you’re going to have accidents, but we haven’t heard that this is a huge safety concern to warrant moving to a roundabout.”
Supervisor Bruce Gibson said the outcome was unfortunate because roundabouts reduce congestion and improve safety. He and Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg both said they have witnessed intense opposition to roundabouts up front, but once the projects are complete, people are happy and even enthusiastic about the change.
But since the project failed to get the necessary votes, Gibson called for the federal grant funds to be used elsewhere in the county.
In a 4-1 vote, the supervisors approved a motion to find another intersection where the grant could be directed for a temporary roundabout project. Peschong was the sole no vote.
