Barricades Heat Up S. D.-Poway War of Roads : Bigger Traffic Jams Likely on Way to I-15 as Pomerado ‘Escape Route’ Is Closed

A simmering dispute between the cities of San Diego and Poway turned into a border war as barricades went up today closing off Pomerado Road to through traffic south from Poway to Interstate 15 in San Diego.

San Diego City Council members voted last Monday to close Pomerado Road indefinitely, shutting off Poway’s shortcut to I-15 and forcing most of the city’s peak-hour traffic onto Poway Road. The decision, the announcement of which was posted on signs along Pomerado Road, will detour the estimated 6,100 motorists a day who have used the Pomerado route to I-15 south onto Poway Road, which already is congested with a daily average of 41,700 cars.

The Pomerado closure, according to San Diego city planning studies completed last month, will increase traffic on Poway Road to a dangerous level, according to John Fitch, Poway’s assistant city manager.

According to the study figures, Poway Road will dip to a Level E during peak traffic hours, which, on an A-through-F sliding scale, translates to stop-and-go traffic and waits at intersections of as much as two or three signal cycles.

Poway Officials Huddle

Poway City Council members huddled with City Atty. Stephen Eckis last Tuesday in closed-door session to discuss the road closure, and emerged glum but united in their resolve to cooperate with San Diego officials rather than fight them.

Eckis conceded that the decision is probably the most practical one, but he is convinced the law is on Poway’s side if it chooses in the future to fight the closure of a public thoroughfare such as Pomerado Road without just cause.

The city of San Diego announced early this year that it would close a portion of Pomerado when it annexed an unincorporated, 345-acre island of land between the two cities. Pomerado, a narrow, winding two-lane road through the county island, was judged substandard by city street standards. Traffic engineers warned that the city could face liability from accidents along the substandard stretch if it remained open in its present condition after incorporation into the city.

However, the City Council’s decision last Monday did not limit the closure to the two-year period estimated for improvement of the road. The vote called for an indefinite closure of Pomerado until a new east-west road linking California 67 to I-15 at the Mercy Road interchange is built and open for traffic.

Most of the pressure for the Pomerado closure came from Scripps Ranch residents who protested the growing number of people from the north and east who were commuting through their community to reach their workplaces and homes.

Would Be No Incentive

San Diego Councilman Ed Struiksma led the effort to have the increasingly popular escape route for Ramona and Poway drivers sealed off. He argued convincingly enough to receive a majority vote of his colleagues that if Pomerado remained open, there would be no incentive for Poway to build the new east-west access route--South Poway Parkway--to carry traffic from a newly developing, 2,500-acre industrial park that is expected to generate an additional 167,000 auto trips a day.

Pomerado Road was to be barricaded today at Semillon Boulevard in Scripps Ranch and at Creek Road, near the new Poway-San Diego border, leaving about a mile and a half of roadway inaccessible except to two or three property owners (including the General Dynamics Sycamore Canyon facility) who must use the route to reach their land.

Prospective developers in the Poway industrial park already have contributed nearly $7 million to build Poway’s portion of the proposed four-lane parkway, but the remainder of the link west to I-15 lies in the city of San Diego, where developers have been denied development approval and, therefore, have no interest in contributing to the road construction.

Fitch said the Poway City Hall switchboard has been humming with irate Poway and Ramona callers protesting the closure and demanding that the city fight to keep the route open. But, he admitted, there is little that Poway can do.

San Diego Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer sided with Poway officials, saying the decision to close Pomerado indefinitely “will be devastating to the I-15 corridor,” which is competing with and gaining on Interstate 8 for the title of the region’s most congested freeway.

20 Minutes to Enter On-Ramp

“All that traffic will be diverted onto Poway Road and the (I-15) interchange at Rancho Penasquitos,” which is in Wolfsheimer’s councilmanic district. Rancho Penasquitos commuters now face waits of up to 20 minutes on weekday mornings before they can enter on-ramps to I-15.

Wolfsheimer, an attorney, called the indefinite closure “decidedly illegal,” explaining that a traveled road “cannot be closed without a good, sound reason.”

“This is an excellent example of Poway-bashing,” Wolfsheimer said, “and certainly an abuse of power by the City Council.”

Poway City Atty. Eckis pointed out that the San Diego council’s action is “unprecedented in my 14 or 15 years’ experience, and makes very little sense.”

However, he added, the closure order “is not irrevocable” and might be modified after Pomerado Road is straightened and improved to meet city standards.

“The (Poway) council members, after reviewing the legal merits of litigation concerning the closure and, while agreeing with me in principle, decided that cooperation with the city of San Diego was advisable at this time,” Eckis said. The consensus of the council was that the two cities could work together to complete the needed South Poway Parkway construction, he said.

Eckis added that officials of both cities are awaiting the results of local growth-control initiatives, which could have an effect on whether development projects along the path of the proposed highway will be delayed or cancelled, which in turn would reduce developer contributions to the road project.