Much ado about parking on High Street

Two plans to beautify High Street and improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety were presented during a town hall meeting at City Hall last week.

Both concepts, created by Lawrence Moss and Associates, are also meant to encourage shoppers to patronize venues along the city's first main street, said Deputy City Manager Barry Hogan.

Improvements include a small park, additional pepper trees, raised arches and artistic elements geared to preserve the historical character of the area.

Costs are anticipated at about $5 million for either plan.

Different road alignments and parking locations distinguish the two plans, Hogan said.

"The basic difference between the straight alignment and the curved alignment is that the straight alignment has angle parking on the north side of the street and there would be no parking allowed on the south side of the street," he said.

If parking were only on the north side, it could only be accessed by drivers traveling westbound on High Street, Hogan said.

"Initially, this might be an inconvenience, but a simple left turn onto Walnut or Bard and a trip around the block would put the customer in the correct direction for the angle parking."

In addition to improving sidewalks to accommodate outdoor business and adding crosswalks to facilitate pedestrian traffic, intersections may be resurfaced with cobblestone to slow traffic.

About 50 people, including residents, business owners and city employees, attended the town hall meeting last week.

Many of them favored the curved alignment plan, which is more attractive and will force drivers to slow down, but others preferred the straight design because it's more practical and less expensive.

"It's really a shopping center in the middle of town, so the curving will help to alleviate speeding problems on High Street," said Moorpark Police Capt. Ron Nelson. The speed limit, he said, may be reduced from 30 to 25 mph.

"Plan A, with the angular parking and curves, is the prettiest plan, but it will cost several hundred thousand dollars more than plan B because there's a lot more work to do," said David Bagwell, a local contractor and candidate for the City Council.

City officials will review the streetscapes June 3 to select a draft concept. Once the drawings are complete, the council will decide whether the work should be phased in to minimize disruptions on businesses or be completed at once to expedite matters, Hogan said.

Longtime Moorpark resident Mary Schwabauer suggested city leaders should move quickly to complete the work, regardless of which plan they choose.

"Pedestrians can't cross High Street safely now because cars go 40 miles per hour on that street, so you're going to have to figure this out before we have a fatality," Schwabauer said.

City employees hosted two meetings earlier this year to solicit comments from business and property owners. At the request of Mayor Janice Parvin, the council scheduled the third session to get input from residents as well.

"The town hall meeting was really worth it. I wanted everybody to have more time to think about it because it's an important component of Moorpark," Parvin said.

Regarding the number of parking spaces, either plan will add only two or three new spots to the existing 150 spaces available around High Street, Hogan said.

The city will build a parking lot west of Moorpark Avenue to accommodate an extra 55 cars, but the parking area was not part of the discussion last week.

To view a map of either plan for High Street, visit the city's website at www.ci.moorpark.ca.us