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Temecula residents urge GPAC to drop planned widening of Inez, La Paz and De Portola
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Summary
Residents from the Los Ranchitos neighborhood told the General Plan Advisory Committee on Nov. 13 that a planned conversion of several two‑lane streets to four lanes would endanger driveways, horses and pedestrians and asked the city to remove the widenings from the circulation element and CIP.
Temecula — Residents of the Los Ranchitos neighborhood told the General Plan Advisory Committee on Nov. 13 that the city should remove planned widenings of Inez, La Paz and De Portola from the circulation element and capital improvement plan, saying the changes would threaten safety for people, horses and drivers.
"Our ask tonight of you is to please stop the planned widening from 2 lanes to 4 lanes in front of our homes," said Louis Todd, a longtime Los Ranchitos resident, during the public‑comment period. Todd said the neighborhood has equestrian uses and little buffer between driveways and the roadway.
Other residents described similar concerns. "These are double tractor trailers, rock trucks, cement trucks," said Alan Hazleton, noting an increase in heavy commercial vehicles on De Portola and saying widening would likely increase speeds, add sidewalks and streetlights, and change neighborhood character. Dr. Eric McKilliken, a Los Ranchitos HOA board member, said the corridor serves about 67 driveway accesses — roughly 34–35 homes — and recounted a past high‑speed crash that damaged fencing and a mailbox, underscoring the safety risk near front yards and small orchards.
"The more concrete or asphalt we have in between these trails, the more at risk we are," said Dr. Jennifer Rosenberg, a veterinarian who treats neighborhood horses and who described the difficulty of pulling 40‑foot trailers into driveways.
Residents asked GPAC to consider alternatives to wholesale widening: restrict truck routes, add roundabouts and medians, improve nearby arterials to absorb through traffic, and study targeted safety mitigations (right‑turn lanes, signals, reduced speed limits). In small‑group reports back to consultants, members proposed making a Santiago connection, adding multiple roundabouts, installing planted raised medians and adding right‑turn lanes at congested ramps to reduce cut‑through traffic.
City consultants and staff said the widening is part of the current circulation‑element map being reviewed and that the update is at an early stage. Consultant Katie Cole (Farr and Piers) said the existing designation shows portions of De Portola/La Paz as a secondary arterial (four lanes) and that the GPAC process will reexamine classifications, truck routes and safety data.
Next steps: consultants will produce an existing‑conditions report, the update will use land‑use inputs and a travel‑demand model to test future needs, and the general‑plan EIR will use VMT (vehicle miles traveled) as the environmental metric. GPAC will continue the discussion in future meetings; the committee is off in December and will reconvene in January on economic development and subsequent land‑use alternatives.
