BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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Date of Hearing: April 23, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
ACR 126 (Calderon) - As Introduced: March 13, 2012
SUBJECT : State Route 210
SUMMARY : Requests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
to install supplemental destination signs on State Route (SR)
210, directing motorists to the Western Prelacy of the Armenian
Apostolic Church of America. Specifically, this bill :
1)Describes the history and mission of the Western Prelacy of
the Armenian Apostolic Church of America and states an
expectation that it will attract motorists and tourists from
all over the world.
2)Recognizes the importance of the Western Prelacy of the
Armenian Apostolic Church of America to the people of
California.
3)Requests Caltrans to erect informational signs on the
westbound portion of SR 210 leading to the Lowell Avenue exit,
and the eastbound portion of SR 210 leading to the La Tuna
Canyon Road exit, in the county of Los Angeles, directing
motorists to the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic
Church of America, consistent with the signing requirements
for the state highway system, and, upon receiving donations
from nonstate sources sufficient to cover the cost, to erect
those signs.
EXISTING LAW : Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating
and maintaining state highway, including the installation and
maintenance of highway signs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill calls for Caltrans to provide signing to
the Armenian Apostolic Church of America. In Caltrans parlance,
this is called "supplemental destination signing."
Supplemental destination signs give information to motorists
regarding the location of specific destinations, such as
historical sites, cultural centers, and tourist attractions,
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which are accessible from an upcoming highway exit. In its
Traffic Manual, Caltrans has established specific qualifying
criteria for certain destinations considered traffic generators,
for example:
1)Post secondary schools (public or private) with a minimum
enrollment of 1,000 students each week;
2)Museums, zoos, stadiums, and sports arenas (publicly owned and
nonprofit) with a minimum of one million in annual attendance;
3)Convention centers (publicly owned) with a minimum 500,000 in
annual attendance;
4)Fairgrounds (publicly owned and operated) with a minimum
500,000 in annual attendance;
5)Governmental centers with a 5,000 minimum number of employees.
The operative theory regarding these criteria is that only those
facilities that generate a substantial amount of traffic should
be provided highway signing. Otherwise, the highway may become
glutted with signs and this proliferation will divert attention
away from signs containing critical safety (e.g., "construction
ahead") and regulatory (e.g., speed limit) information.
Typically, destination signs are placed only for those
facilities that draw hundreds of thousands of patrons each year.
For destinations such as churches, for which attendance
criteria are not specifically identified in the Traffic Manual,
Caltrans considers destination signs only when "unusual
operational or safety issues become apparent that would be
mitigated by signing."
Absent this bill, the Caltrans district office would respond to
a request from the church for signage by determining if signs at
this location are justified under existing standards.
Recognizing that, as a resolution, this bill simply represents a
request, Caltrans could choose to do its analysis of a request
without any preconceptions. In reality, however, Caltrans would
probably feel constrained to grant the request for signs,
notwithstanding the request's probable violation of their own
standards.
The Turkish Peace and Justice Committee, in opposing this bill,
contends that it violates the principle of separation of church
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and state in that it subsidizes a religious organization.
Legislative history : AB 793 (Nakanishi) from 2003 would have
required Caltrans to erect supplemental destination signs
directing motorists to blood banks. That bill failed passage in
this committee. ACR 148 (Calderon), Resolution Chapter 10,
Statutes of 2010, requested Caltrans to erect informational
signs on SR 60 directing motorists to the Armenian Genocide
Martyrs Monument. ACR 1 (Gatto) from 2011 would request
Caltrans to erect informational signs on SR 5 directing
motorists to the Armenian Cathedral Complex. ACR 1 has not been
heard.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
Turkish Peace and Justice Committee
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093