Comments for June 24, 2025 City Council Meeting
Regarding items number 6.1 General Plan Amendment RZNE 0013 2024 We would like to tell you we are AGAINST reducing from 4 lanes to 2 lanes on Paseo de Valencia from Alicia to La Paz!
We attended the informational meeting last month and were shown sample renderings of what it would look like. The folks who attended the meeting did not like the idea of making Paseo de Valencia down to a 2 lane road! Folks that are bike riders, did not feel that they would be safe! Following the meeting, it was communicated via Facebook that the city would not be recommending reducing the lanes on Paseo de Valencia from Alicia to La Paz.
Here is the post from Scott Miller following the meeting.
Scott MillerResidents of Laguna Hills in the OC
6,148 points
· SneodprotsuM3c22a l1ihh3i44l3a41g7mfyim7hiai3gt9cghuamc4043a · Laguna Hills — your voice was heard!
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who came out tonight to the Mobility Element Public Workshop. City Hall was packed with passionate, engaged residents — and it was truly inspiring.
City Engineer Joe Ames did a fantastic job answering questions for over an hour, backed by our outstanding City staff.
At the end of the night, one message was loud and clear: Laguna Hills residents do not support the proposed lane reductions — and the City will not be moving forward with them.
It was a joy meeting so many of you face-to-face. This was a great night for community, for conversation, and for the future of Laguna Hills.
Thank you again for showing up and speaking out!
I hope I am not correct, but it looks the city is moving forward with voting to continue with the language of reducing lanes, based on the information attached to the city council agenda.
If I am not correct and there are NO changes being voted on great. Stop reading, but if the voices were ignored and this is indeed what is happening with this vote read on.
We have lived in our neighborhood for 22 years and Paseo de Valencia is the only way into and out of our neighborhood.
Bringing the lanes down to 2 lanes will make it harder for this neighborhood to get to and from home. When traveling on Paseo de Valencia from Laguna Hills Drive toward Aliso Place there will be tremendous congestion if you reduce the lanes. This will mean more traffic.
Ralph's and many other businesses are on the corner of Paseo de Valencia and Alicia, what will this do the traffic entering and exiting the parking lot? What about their deliveries? When I spoke to the manager of Ralph's they had not heard of this proposal.
Public Comments
June 24, 2025
Item No. 6.1
Our city has a proposal (or perhaps plan) to put in a new gas station in the corner of the Ralph's parking lot at the same corner. How will this effect traffic, especially with this proposal of fewer lanes.
When LHHS and the Laguna Hills Community Center have large events, the no parking signs are covered on Paseo de Valencia from Alicia to La Paz, so people can park on the street. LHHS has large scale sporting events and graduation. Our community center has many events each year where there is not enough parking spaces at LHHS and the community center. Thank goodness for the extra parking on Paseo de Valencia! If there is a bike lane on the curb, the city will not be able to accommodate the extra parking needed during these events.
Has there been a recent audit how the amount of traffic that comes through? How much will this cost? I saw that the city has secured a $5,000,000 grant? How can our neighborhood (off Paseo de Valencia between Alicia and La Paz) be assured that we will have continuous EASY access to and from our homes should this project move forward? Again this is the only way in and out of our neighborhood.
One rationale I read is Valenica Elementary needs a longer pick up area. I taught at Valencia and had children that went to both Valencia Elementary and Lomarena Elementary. When I was at Valencia we ran 2 sets of cars into the parking lot and loaded children into cars from both lanes. Is that still the case? The population was over 850 students at the time. With declining enrollment, they do not nearly have this many students now. This can be solved. When I drove to Lomarena I had to park around the corner and down the block to walk and pick up or drop off my child from school.
Yes, people speed on Paseo de Valencia often going 55 mph. What are other solutions to this problem?
We also have concerns about reducing lanes on Cabot down to one lane in each direction. There is only one way in and out of the El Paseo shopping center and there is proposal/ plans for gas station to go in the Bed, Bath and Beyond space. This will increase traffic and make it harder to get in and out with less lanes on Cabot.
Thank you so much for hearing our concerns.
Thank you,
Susan and Mark Nicolosi