Sacramento Drive Speeding Headaches Coming to a Head in Serramar

Residents of the upscale Serramar neighborhood in south La Mesa, having appealed to City Hall for traffic controls with a litany of horror stories, are turning to their tract’s management company for help as well.

Bill Fornadel, calling himself “one of many very concerned Serramar residents,” has exchanged email with Community Manager Maura Eisele of Prescott Cos. over speeding on Sacramento Drive, which residents say is acting as an “active on-ramp to [state Route] 94.”

A planned homeowner association meeting Sept. 29 at Helix Charter High School on the speeding problems will be a 15-minute “show-and-tell where the 27 or so items in the city's tool kit may be articulated,” Fornadel told Eisele via email Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, none of your suggestions may prove fruitful, as a neighbor has just confirmed with [city Engineering Project Manager Kathy] Feilen and [Mayor Art] Madrid [Tuesday] that the police will not be patrolling Serramar on any regular basis and, in the City Council meeting last week that four neighbors attended, the concept of the follow-up with license plates was not a priority of the Police Department,” Fornadel said.  

Fornadel said immediate traffic issues in the 228-home subdivision will not be addressed “since the city’s solutions appear to be entangled in the political and bureaucratic procedures, policies and drawn-out traffic planning phases of the department, not in affirmatively and quickly meeting the needs of the people where their quality of life is negatively affected.”

Dana Allen, a former homeowner board member, wrote Fornadel on Wednesday: “I did see police patrol on Sacramento today at about 3:30ish. This is good news. I hear your frustration. We have also been dealing with significant traffic concerns here on Eastridge [Drive].”

Allen further wrote: “Much more needs to be done. It is a process. It is my opinion that having Kathy [Feilen] attend the meeting will begin to ‘sync’ the city, the community and the HOA board on what our possible solutions are. There ARE solutions. We just have to identify a process to move towards them.”

Allen defended the 6-year-old Serramar Owners Association and the management company, saying Prescott's responsibility is to act “in accordance with our contract and at the direction of the board.”

Allen emailed seven people, including city Public Works Director Greg Humora, and said:  

“You seem to be the rising voice in the community that has gathered interest among neighbors. This voice needs to work in concert with the city to identify solutions. The [homeowners] board does not have the authority—neither does the management company—to decide what happens to the roads within our community.”

Allen wrote that the homeowner association might eventually help fund improvements, such as speed bumps, “but it is my understanding that this would only happen if there was a special assessment to homeowners. Again, I’m not the authority on this, but there are options.”

Allen encouraged Fornadel or another homeowner on Sacramento to seek a board position.

“Traffic is one of many important issues within the community and it would prove beneficial to have another strategic viewpoint on the board,” Allen said.

At the Sept. 13 City Council meeting, residents heard a progress report on city streets targeted for traffic-slowing measures. (See attached report.)

But they decried the city’s lack of urgency on Sacramento Drive's traffic issues (see videos), saying “slow down” signs and 25 mph speed limits painted on the road were failing to control the problem of a street that has become a shortcut between Eastridge Drive and High Street to state Route 94.

Frank Baggett, who volunteered to pay for speed bumps (or humps) in front of his house,  told the council last week: “I’m deathly afraid to cross the street to get my mail. … We’re an accident waiting to happen. We’re going to have a death on that street. … I beg you to do more to calm the traffic than you’ve done.”

Sacramento Drive—along with Harris Street and Tanglerod Lane—had what the city calls Phase 1 traffic calming measures installed in 2010 but was No. 16 on a list of streets for more ambitious measures.

“The petitioner for traffic calming on Sacramento Drive offered to fund up to $5,000 of a project if the project is the installation of speed humps,” said a staff report to the City Council.

“The [Neighborhood Traffic Management Program] states that if the petitioner pays for traffic calming, their request may move to the top of the ranked list of streets. … The Traffic Commission was asked whether to leave Sacramento Drive in its current position on the list or move it up to the top of the list because of the offer from the petitioner.

“The Traffic Commission decided that Sacramento Drive should remain where it was on the list because the street has not yet gone through Phase 2 where traffic calming measures are evaluated and selected and the petitioner is not willing to fund any other type of traffic calming project except for speed humps.”