Placentia officials approved a plan to repair a host of local streets in a city council meeting last month, after facing resident complaints for years.
Now, council members are looking to cancel or postpone other city projects to fund the repairs after several residents have shown up at recent council meetings demanding officials repave the streets.
[Read: Placentia Residents Sound Off on Run Down Roads, Officials Vow Fixes]
The council voted unanimously at their Nov. 19 meeting to approve a repavement plan to start in 2025, after residents said that their previous attempts to get officials to fix parts of Melrose Street and Chapman Avenue and several residential streets.
“I think we owe it to the public to do what we told them we would do 10 years ago,” said Councilmember Chad Wanke at the Nov. 19 meeting.
Resident Mark Hamill said at the meeting that he has called city officials’ attention to his neighborhood road in the past, but it has been neglected for years.
“I’ve lived in Placentia since 1986 on Potomac street. In 38 years, you’ve done nothing to my street. My street has just gotten worse and worse,” said Hamill.
Resident Joanna Sowards said at the meeting that she was disappointed city officials haven’t repaved the streets, which she said are a safety hazard to drivers.
“It’s going to be 2025 in a short amount of time, and we’re still being promised that our streets will be repaved,” said Sowards. “I don’t know how many times we’ve been deferred, but to hear 38 years, that’s incredible to me. That’s disingenuous.”
Public Works staff said in order to launch the repavement, money must be drawn from other city projects. The council voted to discuss which projects to draw funding from during the closed session portion of the meeting.
“Sometimes we’re dealing with buckets of money that we can’t move,” said Councilmember Rhonda Shader at the meeting. “It’s like some of the good and the bad in the government that there’s designated money.”
Councilmember Jeremy Yamaguchi called for a full reconstruction of certain roads during the meeting, even though Public Works staff say a partial restoration would be less expensive.
“If we’re going to do it, we should do it right after all of these years of saying it’s too bad to fix and needs to be replaced,” said Yamaguchi.
Wanke said he has experienced the poor condition of the roads firsthand, and much of reconstruction will be done in his district.
“I drive up and down Palm between Yorba Linda and Rose every day, and it’s unsafe at this point. There are chunks of pavement just sitting in the road,” Wanke said.
Wanke said he appreciated the residents who came to the meeting to voice their experiences and concerns with certain roads.
“Thank you for being here and letting us know how you feel and what you’re looking for, because we need the guidance.”