Traffic Could Buckle Roads, Panel Says

The amount of traffic generated by the $700-million Dos Vientos housing project could buckle the roads in Newbury Park, according to members of the city’s Borchard Road advisory committee.

“The road system in Newbury Park will collapse before full build-out is reached,” said the three citizen members of the ad-hoc advisory committee that wrote a report on the housing plan. They are Milan Svitek, a planning engineer for the city of Los Angeles, Jim Nelson and Veronica Martain-Haverbeck.

Using data provided by the city, committee members predicted traffic would increase 30% more than original estimates for most of Newbury Park’s major roads.

In addition, traffic on the planned Borchard Road, one of two main arteries feeding the housing project, is expected to be twice as congested as planned.

“[The] traffic impact of Dos Vientos Ranch is much more severe than was previously identified,” the committee members reported.

“These changes clearly demonstrate that the mentioned major roads of Newbury Park will not be able to accommodate the increase in volume of traffic due to the new development.”

According to the data, Wendy Drive is expected to receive between 30,000 and 35,000 new car trips a day.

“I am not against this development; I think it will be a very nice and beautiful development,” Svitek said.

“But right now, this will be a disaster.”

The committee members urged the city to prepare a new report assessing the development’s environmental impact.

Resulting from that, the report notes, the city might have to spend several million dollars to accommodate the new traffic for the housing project, which is under construction.

Among recommended changes: widening several city roads, such as Old Conejo Road and Wendy Drive.

The city manager’s office had no immediate comment on the report.