Santee City Council and staff agreed that the current state of the blighted dead end at the east terminus of Mast Boulevard is not acceptable, but the council wasn't ready to decide Wednesday if the connection into Lakeside would ever be constructed and didn't seem convinced about the proposed park.
The city presented initial plans for Mountain View Park, and alternative option for the linear 1.8 acre area of "city right-of-way" land at the end of Mast. City staff said the park would "improve the appearance of city property, offer new recreational opportunities and enhance public safety."
The council made no vote, which means the city will not continue developing plans for the proposed park. During discussion the council mostly agreed that the decision on the park was premature, and they should first take a simple up or down vote about whether to connect Mast Boulevard.
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The area in question was built as part of a subdivision 35 years ago and was never connected to the Mast Boulevard in Lakeside. The 1,000 foot gap would cost the city of Santee at least $4.5 million to complete, according to the city.
The main issue at hand was why the road had never been connected, and the pros and cons of doing so now.
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The members of the public focused their comments on the traffic issue along El Nopal, the road the Turko Files called a "deadly detour," where accidents are common in a residential area.
"It's been promised for 35 years, do what you said you'd do," said Lakeside resident Mike Torbett, who spoke during public comments. "You talk about costs- what about costs of residents and students to accidents?"
"25 years ago a commitment was made to put mast through, and I know it because I was the one that did it" said Councilmember Jack Dale.
He explained that it wasn't connected for years because the city didn't want Mast Blvd. to have SR-52 levels of traffic. He said they wanted SR-52 to extend through Santee, which may not have happened if the connection was made.
He then explained in one sentence why he doesn't support the connection now.
"It makes no sense to me to pay $5 million to increase traffic by 35 percent on Mast," said Dale. "It seems to be that we need to make the decision of whats best for the people in town, and if we increase traffic on mast by 35 percent we wont have happy residents."
That 35 percent statistic comes from a city report that said opening Mast would result in an increase of average daily traffic on the road by nearly 7,000 trips when taking into account new developments along the Santee-Lakeside border.
Councilmember John Minto didn't trust the traffic estimates, and wasn't alone when he said it didn't make sense to him that Laksiders would travel on Mast instead of SR-67 and 52.
City staff said most of the new traffic would be morning commuters taking Mast when the 52 backs up.
Another problem with connecting Mast is finding funds that won't drain the city's coffers. City staff said they would have to use transportation funds that are used to resurface the roads, and it would eat up five years of road maintenance citywide.
Minto then pushed the city to explore more funding options for connecting the road outside the city's general fund.
"There are a lot of creative financing tools out there for us that we need to look at," he said.
"Even if we got the money for free, I wouldn't want to put Mast through," Dale replied.
The city said funds for the park, which is estimated cost $500,000, would be available without draining other parts of the budget.
One benefit of the park would be the creation of a safe effective route to school for Santana High School students that live in Lakeside, who take El Nopal now.
Other alternatives were mentioned, including traffic claiming measures in the area.
The council was clearly split on both issues, the connection and the park, and decided to kick the can down the road.
"I'm not too excited about this park, but if we make a decision on that, we need to make it in the proper setting, when looking at the full budget," said Dale.
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