Mission Canyon Safe Passage Plan Winning Favor

Two strategies for fixing the jumble of car, bike, and pedestrian lanes of the often dangerous Mission Canyon corridor were presented to more than 90 people at the Santa Barbara Woman’s Club on April 22, when planners identified a series of changes that could be done in the short-term and others that would require more patience to implement. The long-term goal is to create a safe path for walkers and bikers from Laguna and Los Olivos streets, past the Santa Barbara Mission, and onto Foothill Road, while also making a more streamlined route for vehicles. The quicker fixes include new paths on the mission side of the corridor and a new pedestrian bridge next to the historic sandstone bridge, which would be slightly altered. More challenging to implement, the presenting planners explained, would be a walking/biking path on the Riviera side of Mission Canyon Road, undergrounding utilities, replacing the existing pedestrian bridge, removing the sewer line over the creek, and fixing the intersection at Alameda Padre Serra and Mountain Drive. Those ideas will take a longer process to achieve. The attendees almost unanimously endorsed the short-term fixes, but there was some disagreement on the long term. See longrange.sbcountyplanning.org/planareas/mission_canyon/mc_multimodal.php for more details.