The Santa Clarita City Council on Tuesday is expected to bring back a discussion on the process behind how new speed humps, or “cushions,” are installed.
City officials last talked in February about what it takes for residents requesting a speed cushion to have their street surveyed, the removal process and the financial responsibility for the process.
Under the new process, if a property owner wishes to have a street evaluated, the resident can submit a request, and a city official will then “establish preliminary boundaries of the subject street segment” and ask the owner to get support from 10% of owners living in that area.
Once that support is demonstrated, the city’s traffic engineers study the street to make sure the road meets the program’s criteria: In 2018, the City Council adopted a threshold of 1,500 vehicles for an average daily volume requirement.
If the requirements are met, then city staff will conduct a survey of property owners within the established boundary, to see if two-thirds of residents support installation.
“The current program requires that the requester be responsible for collecting signatures,” according to an agenda item prepared by Joel Bareng of the city’s Public Works Division. “The proposed update authorizes the city to conduct the survey.”
The updates to the program also talk about the process for a request to remove speed cushions, which Councilwoman Laurene Weste said has yet to happen, during the council’s February discussion.
Once a speed cushion has been installed, it must stay in place for at least three years before an attempt to remove them can be initiated.
“If the city receives a removal request after sufficient time has passed, staff will survey property owners within the prior established boundary,” Bareng wrote, “and if 67% support removal, the city will remove the speed cushions.” Alternatively, if a request to remove them fails, there will be a three-year period before such a request can be initiated again.
The updates discussed in February also codified a practice the city has undertaken since the program began: While the city’s current program language calls for the property owners in a given area to pay for speed cushions through an assessment, in reality the city has funded all speed cushions. The update on the agenda for Tuesday would make that official.
