A Yucca Valley businessman has hired an attorney to formally request that the Town Council reconsider its approval of the median and sidewalk project in the west end of town. The project, known as PLHDP, will install medians from Apache Trail to just east of Palm Avenue, to prevent vehicles from making left turns into businesses on the highway. (The project also includes sidewalks, curbs and gutters, and a traffic signal at Church Street, and the businesses wanted to make it clear they were NOT opposed to the sidewalks, as they felt they would keep pedestrians and their customers safer.) Z107.7 has obtained letters from David Bradley, owner of Cowboy Corral, and his attorney to the Town Council, in which Bradley contends that the Town is moving forward with the project without giving proper consideration to the negative economic impacts the businesses will suffer due to the medians. Bradley also argues that the Town skirted state law requirements about providing the affected businesses with adequate notice about the project, and its attempts to mitigate the impacts of the medians on the affected businesses—by forcing commercial trucks to detour through residential neighborhoods—are unacceptable. Furthermore, Bradley and his attorney maintain that the Town did not conduct an environmental impact report, or EIR, and a community impact study on the project as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. Bradley says until the EIR is conducted and the Old Town businesses’ concerns are addressed, the Town should halt the construction on the median project.
