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Ojai council refers speed-hump policy concept to new Public Safety Commission
Summary
After a concept review and resident input, council voted unanimously to send the draft speed-hump policy to the newly formed Public Safety Commission for development of recommendations and prioritized review.
The Ojai City Council voted unanimously to refer a concept review of a proposed city speed-hump policy to the newly established Public Safety Commission, asking the commission to prioritize the item and return recommendations.
Staff described the item as a concept review and said the packet included a redline copy of Ventura County's policy as a starting point. Staff advised against requiring property owners to pay upfront for speed-hump installation and suggested council retain final discretion to override policy thresholds.
Council and residents discussed several technical and process questions: whether the commonly-used 67% neighborhood-support threshold should be counted by household or individual, how the threshold is gathered (door-to-door ballots, mailers, or petitions), what geographic area counts as affected properties, and whether engineering metrics such as volume and 85th-percentile speed should outweigh resident petition results.
Staff noted the budget already includes $100,000 in the capital-improvement program for speed humps next year and that installation costs range from roughly $7,000'$8,000 per hump when coordinated with paving to $10,000'$12,000 for stand-alone installs.
Public commenters urged the city to prioritize engineering studies, pre/post installation surveys, and to avoid letting adjacent-street residents veto installations on the main street. Council moved to forward the concept to the Public Safety Commission for recommendations; the motion passed unanimously.
