Pismo Beach to take over stretch of Highway 1 through downtown area
A stretch of California’s iconic Highway 1 through Pismo Beach will soon have a new owner.
On Tuesday, the Pismo Beach City Council received one last overview of a relinquishment agreement that would see the city gain control of a 2.15-mile stretch of Highway 1 that runs between the Monarch Butterfly Grove and Mattie Road, and gave the green light to send the final agreement to Caltrans and the California Transportation Committee.
The idea of Caltrans relinquishing control of Highway 1 through Pismo Beach dates back to 2017, when then-city manager Jim Lewis sent a letter of intent to the state agency.
Since then, a Relinquishment Assessment Report, a Project Approval Report and environmental report have all cleared the approval process, leaving the relinquishment agreement as the city’s final step before it heads to the California Transportation Committee for final approval.
“I’ve been advocating for this, well, since 2017, I guess,” Mayor Ed Waage said. “Just knowing all the problems we’ve had in trying to deal with having a major thoroughfare going through the city, in which we have to constantly ask Caltrans, ‘May I? May I? May I,’ and the answer is often 'No,’ and then they sometimes say ‘yes.'”
How will takeover of Hwy. 1 work?
As is, all the maintenance, traffic, crosswalk, parking and encroachment decisions have been at the discretion of Caltrans, not the city.
That has presented issues at times, including longer waits to make needed repairs to the street and sidewalks and encroachment permits for events such as the Pismo Beach Classic Car Show or Clam Festival, according to the meeting staff report.
With control over the highway, the city would be able to add traffic signals and crosswalks as needed, complete road work as it comes up, make changes to parking and alter traffic patterns, according to the staff report.
That’s not to say that the city does nothing with the roadway as is. The city currently maintains the sidewalks, landscaping and street trees along the highway, and contracts litter removal services and street sweeping for the roadway, according to the staff report.
Assuming control of the highway isn’t without its own drawbacks, however.
The city would be responsible for the maintenance of the road, adding more than two miles its inventory, and would assume liability for trips and falls, traffic accidents and other claims made by the public for injury or damage sustained in the roadway’s limits, according to the staff report.
There’s also the fiscal obligation of between $100,000 and $200,000 for routine pavement maintenance, traffic signals, signage, striping, storm drain maintenance and bridge maintenance for the Pismo Creek bridge, according to the staff report.
However, the city’s agreement with the California Transportation Committee will also come with a payment of around $1.7 million to the city from the agency.
That sum is intended to cover some feasibility studies and improvements that the city could make, including full signalization of the intersection of Ocean View Avenue and Dolliver Street, pedestrian crossings at the Monarch Butterfly Grove and sidewalk grinding on Dolliver Street, city manager Jorge Garcia said during the meeting.
Pismo Beach public works director Rosemarie Gaglione said the arrangement should benefit both Caltrans and the city going forward.
“This benefits the city because we get to have control of this road that goes right through the middle of our city, but then Caltrans also gets to take 2.15 miles of road off their inventory, off of their maintenance list, as well,” Gaglione said. "Usually Caltrans sees these things as a positive — it’s not us ripping it away from them or something.”
When will Pismo Beach take control of Hwy. 1?
Gaglione said with the city’s end of the agreement finalized, the street should be under its control by the end of the year, barring any changes from the transportation committee.
Any addition of crossings near the butterfly grove or signalization will need to wait for feasibility studies by the city after the road has changed hands, Gaglione said.
“Immediately (residents) might not see a big change, but as we go through and we perform a traffic study to look at how we might alter some of the timing on signals, as we add a traffic signal ... perhaps at Ocean View and Dolliver, and try to see if there are other places people need to be able to cross Dolliver, eventually they will see that traffic circulates much better,” Gaglione said. “Things are going to be better for pedestrians.”
