Planned Civita Elementary School To Be Built on Unsafe Street That Leads Directly to Busy Freeway Connector Road

San Diego Unified School District voted to allow the creation of Mission Valley’s first public school, a K-5 charter school in Civita. The school will be built on the corner of north-south running Via Alta and east-west running Civita Boulevard. Construction is expected to start soon.

The proposed Civita Elementary School is to be a technology-oriented school accommodating up to 500 students and a staff of 35 to 40.

The school is located at the base of Via Alta, a steep, densely populated residential street with no crosswalks for a half mile. The road is lined on both sides with townhomes and condos, some no more than 30 feet from the road.

There are many young families living on this road who plan to enroll their children and plan for them to walk to and from the school.

San Diego City Council approved a 4-lane, 55-mph freeway connector through the half-mile stretches of Via Alta and Franklin Ridge roads in Civita funneling traffic to and from the I-805 and Mission Valley.

Based on the City’s final environmental impact report, on the connector’s opening day the average daily vehicle trips for both roads will be 23,217 (16 cars every minute) and by 2035 they will be 34,117 (24 cars every minute).

For Via Alta, the traffic will be approximately 13,000 vehicles a day, including commercial trucks and motorcycles.

These roads are permanently flawed because the steep slope and the curves of the roads prevent crosswalks or traffic calming from ever being installed.

If the speedway connector is completed, the lives of children walking to and from school will be at risk. Because of the permanent flaws, these roadway segments are “unsafe at any speed”.

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