October 6 , 2006 

Artesia News

Residents, Business Owners Talk About Pioneer's Revitalization


Approximately 50 residents and business owners attended a town hall meeting to offer questions and comments regarding the revitalization of downtown Artesia and Pioneer Blvd.

The Town Hall Meeting gave engineers working on the project a chance to interact with residents. Residents were able to see the conceptual plans and the presentations and get a better idea of the project.

The purpose of the meeting was to solicit comments and questions. Citizens had an opportunity to have their questions, comments and suggestions noted knowing that additional town hall meetings will be held, and to allow others to attend and follow up on the previous comments.

City Traffic Engineer Hui Lai, City Engineer Carlos Alba, and Consultant Raul Romero delivered an overview of Phases I and II, and an introduction to some of the concepts surrounding Phase III.  Some of the ideas introduced were additional parking, an enlarged median with kiosks, and reducing Pioneer Blvd. to single lanes, as well as widening sidewalks.

Citizens, mostly enthusiastic over the plans, did have some concerns centered primarily around traffic and parking.

Romero reminded the audience, “This is not a conclusive meeting.  We will not have the answers to all your questions at this time.  We want this meeting to be informal, and we really want to hear your concerns. We will take note of the questions we cannot answer and address them at the next town hall meeting.”

Reducing speed on Pioneer Blvd. was a major issue.  By reducing the amount of lanes, engineers hope to reduce speed for the safety of shoppers and to discourage most commuters from wanting to use Pioneer Blvd.

“60 percent of people passing through Pioneer Blvd. are people who are just passing through from one city to the next … in order to bypass the 605 freeway,” said Lai.

Residents expressed a concern that commuters will just start to use residential streets to bypass Pioneer, to which the presenters responded an apt amount of enforcement should correct the problem.

Romero appreciated the comment. “That's why we're having this town hall meeting,” said Romero. “We hope to be able to address this issue at the next meeting.”