Traffic Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. Okay. The 04/15/2026 meeting of the Marriott Traffic Commission called the order. Roll call. Would Madam Humi call roll for determining of a quorum, please?

Commissioner Burst? Present. Commissioner Chavez? Commissioner Limogiannis? Vice chair Bouchardz?

Here.

Chair Valdez? Here. Let the record reflect all members are present with the exception of commissioner Lemojiannis and commissioner Chavez with an excused absence.

Okay. Miss Burst, would you, lead us in the, Pledge of Allegiance, please? Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. We'll now be moving on to approval of the agenda.

Are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? Motion.

Second. Second. Sorry.

No. No. Negative. No. It should pop up right here. Right? Yeah. I did the motion on my side right here.

You did? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. From the undoing. A second? What? You? Oh. Can I do what? You're saying that for the motion in the second.

Put it on the floor.

I didn't see it.

Put it on the floor.

Put it on on There you go. Okay.

Got it. Okay. Commissioner Bertrowitz, has made a motion to approve the agenda. Oh, that's what he said right here. Second by commissioner Bruce.

Do I have the second one? Okay.

There we go.

Did I do that right? What?

It's okay.

Chair, if you could, please call for the motion again.

Sure.

And then if you could say out loud who who motions and who Thank you.

Okay. Motion to approve the agenda. Motion. Okay. Commissioner Bertrands, has made a motion to approve the agenda. I

second it.

And Commissioner, Burst has second the vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

We will now be moving on to the engineering department administrative updates.

Good evening, honorable chair and members of the traffic commission. It's great to see you all again. At this time, I'd like to provide a brief recap of our active CIP projects that were recently completed, are currently in design or in construction. We recently completed the pavement rehabilitation of Los Alamos Road, Antelope Road and Elm Street. The project was done on time and on budget.

For projects that are in design, we have a handful of projects I'd like to very briefly discuss. The first two are related to traffic signals. We have a new traffic signal installation coming in at Jefferson Avenue and Magnolia Street. The design has recently been completed, and we anticipate advertising the project in the next month or two. The other side effect signal modification is at Clinton Keith Road and Nunmack Street for the purpose of a protected left turn phasing for motorists turning onto Clinton Keith Road.

The design is nearly complete, and we anticipate advertising the project this summer. For our annual pavement rehabilitation project, We're we're looking at, doing an elsewhere overlay on Jefferson Avenue from Los Alamos Road to Nubbeg Street and on Clinton Keith Road from the Wildemire Murrieta boundary to Whitewood Road. We anticipate advertising this project very soon with construction this summer. And lastly, two road projects. We have Menifee Road.

Menifee Road is currently a dirt road approximately 500 feet in length between Clinton Keith Road and Los Alamos. Our plan is to construct a 24 foot wide road with two lanes of travel. For Whitewood Road, it's, we plan to add a second travel lane going northbound from Hunter Road to Clinton Keith Road. For both of these road projects, the city recently received improvement plans at the 35% design level for review and comments. Lastly, we have two projects that are under construction.

We have the right turn pocket at Alter Murrieta Drive with an estimated completion date in June. And last but not least, the Mirada Hot Springs Road widening project, which is estimated to be completed by the end of the year. With that, that concludes the engineering department updates.

Thank you. We'll now be moving on to, public comments. Public comments, non agenda. At this time, we will take public comments. Any person may address the traffic commission on any subject pertaining to the city business, which does not relate to any item listed on the agenda or the consent calendar. Normally, action may be considered or taken by the traffic commission on any matter not listed on the agenda. Speakers are limited to three minutes. And excuse me, madam, there any members of the public requesting to speak?

We do not have any non agenda public comments.

Thank you. We're now moving to the, consent calendar approval. Consent calendar approval item number one. Items on the consent calendar are considered routine and may be enacted by one motion vote one motion and vote. There will be no discussion on these items unless specific items are removed from the consent calendar for separate motions. Are there any requests from the commissioners to pull the consent calendar item for discussion or abstaining from voting? No. Okay. Call for a motion, to approve the consent calendar. Motion.

Commissioner Bercharts has made the motion to approve, followed by Commissioner Burst to second motion. Motion passed.

Motion carries unanimously.

Moving on to discussion items.

Thank you, chair. For the residents in the audience or anyone watching this live, my name is James Ozoff, senior civil engineer here at the city, and I'm the primary traffic commissioner, commission liaison and point of contact. It is my pleasure to introduce tonight's agenda item, which pertains to signing and striping modifications on Hunter Road. Being a discussion item at the end of the presentation, staff will have a recommended action that will require the commissioners to discuss and ultimately vote on. Staff has prepared a brief presentation for tonight's discussion item, which will be given by our consulting chief engineer, mister Brian Stevenson. With that said, I will now turn it over to mister Stevenson. Thank you.

Thank you, James. Good evening, chair and commissioners. This item was brought to us by a resident that lives within the Meadowlark community off of Hunter Road and West Of Winchester Road. They had a concern with an intersection of Hunter Road and Mockingbird Lane and the available site distance for somebody turning from Mockingbird Lane onto Hunter Road, as well as a concern that when this development was completed, the striping wasn't completed west of its terminus near Rainbow Drive. And then there's no bike lanes as well.

So we took a look at all, three of those requests. The crust request is to extend the striping from its current terminus at Rainbow Drive to the West to Golden Eagle. Hunter Road's currently a collector road on the city's general plan circulation element. It's 44 feet wide, and the current striping East Of Rainbow Drive has a two way left turn lane down the center of the road and striped bike lanes. West Of Rainbow Drive, there's no bike lanes.

Those are not currently on the city council approved general plan circulation element. For us to stripe in the bike lanes, those would need to be included in that document. There is currently a general plan cleanup underway right now by the city's planning department, which is proposing to incorporate the extension of these bike lanes to the end of the road by Golden Eagle. So if that is approved by council, then we will be able to come back and stripe in those class two bike lanes. So our the interim improvement would be to extend the striping from Rainbow Drive to the west to include the two way left turn lane and then to include parking restrictions along both sides of the road.

There are no residential driveways on either side of the Hunter Road at this location of Hunter. The site distance concerns were for somebody coming in the southbound direction on Mockingbird Avenue and then turning onto Hunter Road. As you can see by the sight lines here, they're limited by a wall and some trees and the curvature of the road. So for us to install an always stop, we have to follow the requirements of the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices that has warrants in there that outline when we can install an all way stop. Those are typically or primarily based on traffic volumes throughout the day, a collision history, or sight distance concerns.

I think I jumped ahead. So we took a look at the crash history. And over the last ten years at that intersection, there have been zero reported collisions at that intersection. So that wouldn't justify the collision warrant. The traffic volumes are 300 vehicles per per hour in both directions on the main road, which would be Hunter.

And then during those same eight hours to have a total of 200 vehicles per hour, which can also include pedestrians and bicyclists for the side street, which is. And just looking at the makeup of the area there and the number of homes, the side street warrant would never be met. We did not collect traffic volumes out there, but it it wouldn't have 200 vehicles per hour on the side street for eight hours of a day. So it didn't meet that. The site distance is less than the minimum required site distance that the city requires to safely turn from the side street onto the mainline road.

So our recommendation is to install and always stop at the intersection of Mockingbird Avenue in Hunter. And to extend the existing two way left turn lane to from the intersection of Rainbow Drive all the way to the west and then end it at Golden Eagle Avenue and restrict parking along this section of Hunter Road in preparation of the anticipated future bike lane that we can add. And this this exhibit shows, the proposed striping. So if if this is approved by the commission tonight, we'll then prepare a work order for the city's municipal services department to implement this. This concludes our staff report.

Happy to entertain any questions.

Where where did the funds come from?

This would we would have existing funds for this one out

to I next year. Talking able And

be

to to

sense a consultant to prepare a general plan cleanup is what they're calling it. There's a number of the elements of the general plan that are getting updated. One of them is the circulation element. So if the circulation element is approved by the council, then we would implement those. And I believe the current anticipated timeline for that would be sometime this fall.

Do people actually park there now?

We have not observed any parking, but I believe we have a resident that put in a speaker slip, and they may be able to help answer that question. We haven't observed any, parking along here To the east, way east on on Hunter, there are single family homes that front Hunter Road and have driveways fronting there. I am aware that, I believe, once a year or so, they request to the chief of police to allow parking in the bike lanes for one day to occasionally have rummage sales along along the street. But other than that, their restrict parking is restricted in the bike where the existing bike lanes are, and they would also be restricted here.

So for the for the site requirement, along that that side of the road, that includes what you're talking about, no parking along that that side as well.

Correct? That's correct. We would restrict parking along this entire stretch in preparation of the bike lane and because it doesn't meet the minimum sight distance here. The minimum sight distance here for 35 mile an hour road, I believe, is 330 feet, and we field measured it to be 201 feet.

Is that is that due because of the the curvature in the road?

It's the curvature of the road, the trees, and the wall. So there's a a few different site constraints there that would be very difficult for us to overcome.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I got. Are there any other comments regarding this discussion item?

Yes, we do have a speaker. I'd like to welcome Craig. And, Cheryl has donated her speaking time to him as well for a total of six minutes.

One, two, three, just say when. Always wish this this thing could be a little bit taller for us tall guys. Right? So I gotta stoop over and mess my back up. You guys hear me?

We can hear you. We can hear you.

Guys wait a minute. You gotta back me up and start me start me at zero here.

Okay, one moment. I'll try not

to go all six.

That's a good question.

Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair, Commission and City Staff. My name is Greg. I'm the resident in question here that, was referred to. So just as awareness, I recently served on the planning commission. So I was up there in your seat not too long ago. I do understand the process here tonight, and I wanna thank staff here for an outstanding job with this report and presentation. I also want to say thanks for your service up here on the commission. Right? I know there's a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of reading goes into this, and I know you're not doing it for your pay for the paycheck you received. So I wanna say thank you guys for that.

So this neighborhood was built out in 2016. I'm an original resident. To say this was a rough transition from Pulte, the builder, to the city would be an understatement. We had waist high weeds in the streets due to the streets not being properly sealed. We had a city park area that was overlooked where neighbors maintained for over six years. Community signage that was overlooked and maintained by the neighbors. A street with no street light. How's that happen? Hunter Road good news is Hunter Road is the last standing action item where we really need your support to approve the staff's recommendation. Visually standing in the street, I don't know if you had a chance to to go by and visit it, but if you stand there and look at it, where the Meadowlark neighborhood, you can see where it's been forgotten.

Forgotten. The Hunter Road has pristine striping and ceiling that ends once you enter the Meadowlark community. There are six of us here tonight from the community, and know that out of respect for your time in this process, I could have had over a 100 people here, and we would have all echoed the same concern, and that is safety. There have been so many near misses over the years in this street section. One of our own Murrieta code officers recently confided in me that she was nearly hit in this area while performing routine inspections.

Additionally, a sober living home has recently entered the community with substantial incremental additional traffic exacerbating our safety challenges. This always stop sign on Hunter or Mockingbird, it's a huge game changer. If you're walking on the West Side Of Hunter going south, the sidewalk ends at Mockingbird. Trying to cross that street with traffic barreling down on you is so dangerous. Additionally, the stop sign will alleviate that blind corner that Brian referred to. If you're there going to turn left, I kid you not. There has been so many near misses. And now with the additional traffic, we need this. It's just a matter of time. If we don't do this, somebody's gonna get hurt or killed.

And lastly, the lane striping. Elaine and Miguel, if you raise your hand, they live down there on the Golden Eagle side. And where there's no striping on that lane, I mean, oftentimes just for them to back out and get a pull into the road. I mean, it's crazy the way traffic comes around there. That's the way things drift. The stop sign. Combined with the striping is going to make a huge difference. So please, let's not delay any further the improvements that need to be made so that nobody is injured or killed. This neighborhood was completed in 2016, and we're now in 2026. With your assistance to approve staff's recommendation for Hunter.

This area will be so much safer for pedestrians and vehicles. Please. Approve this plan tonight so that forward progress can continue to improve safety in our city. And I know that's a core value for all of you where you wouldn't be sitting up there doing putting the time in and doing the job you do. I live there. If you guys have any questions on what you saw, as Brian alluded to, I'll I'll answer any, but any of them. But I kid you not. I could have had 100 people here with me tonight. This If you drive through and you look at the neighborhood, it's like We were forgotten. Right? All those things that I read out. We've gotten pretty much those taken care of. This is the last standing remaining item. And whether you're a dog walker, whether you're driving in your car. It's just a matter.

I mean, there's a school bus pickup there along there as well. And when you got cars barreling down there, we need something to slow it down and some kind of lengthening. I think Mr Burke Burkhart. You mentioned something about parking parking. We really see down there is every now and then somebody will park in RV when they're staging and getting getting ready to go. But other than that, there's usually no cars parked there so to

And able

think,

to

a thank you for your service also on the planning commission. I know that's a tough job.

I I We have we have thick skin. It's only arrows. Right? Although every now every now and then you get dinged.

Yeah. You get a little scratch here and there. But I lived in a similar community right off of Whitewood and Keller where before that opened up with similar situation. So I'm with you 100% as far as the safety. My number one thing that's why I was asking about the site. I actually drove down there a couple of days ago just to see for myself what it was. So firsthand, I know what you're talking about. There's really a lack of finishing what they started, right? So and that's I'm sure that's why everybody is here. So no, I'm with you.

That and firsthand I did drive down there a couple of days ago. So I know what you're talking about. So thank you for coming and giving us the

appreciate that because you know we could spend a lot of time pointing fingers over why this is the way it is. But I think you know our energy our focus should be where it is tonight and that is how do we get this fixed? How do we get this going? How do we move forward? We got everything else squared away. And like I said, these two gentlemen behind me are rock stars. I've seen a lot of their work over the last couple of years sitting up there in your seats and to be able to pretty much everything I asked for they put on there. So I don't think that was wrong. It was just overlooked. This gives us a chance to finish it up and make our community look sharp the way it is. More importantly, just God forbid, nobody gets hurt. So thank you guys. Thank you.

Commissioner, comments, discussion?

Chair Valdez, that concludes public comments.

Thank you. Okay. I'm going to call for motion. Do I have a motion to approve this? Okay.

Chair? If I may, Chair, could you repeat all the recommendation, your like a full motion, what you're making Sure. A motion So

I'd like to get a motion to approve the 100 Road signing and Stripe modifications, as presented, from the City of Engineers. Do I have a motion to

approve? Motion.

Motion. Commissioner Burt charts motions and Commissioner Burt's has second the motion. Yeah, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

Okay. Commissioner Member comments. Now is the time for commissioners to provide their comments. We will start with, Commissioner Burst. The only comment I have is, thank you everybody for coming out.

Appreciate your time, your effort to come out here. I understand fully as far as safety goes. I'm a big stickler on safeties when it comes to this. That's why I'm on here. So anytime that a safety concern comes out, I can say I take it to heart because I know I live in the community, we all live in the community.

So it's us looking out after each other. I want to thank everybody for coming out, spending your time out here and concerns. So, engineer, thank you for a great presentation. I think it's a good plan, and, I hope we can get this going so that way, the community a a little bit safer. That's all I have. So, Yeah. Sure. Okay. So with that said that being said, without any further business, this meeting is now adjourned. Thank you everybody for being here.