Does Marysville need a Highway 70 bypass?
Usually, we keep “What Do You Think?” comments down to a few sentences. We’re making an exception for this important issue and will run long responses. This is the last of three parts.
The topic: “Many Marysville and District 10 residents are concerned with Caltrans plans. The state highway department is working on a major project to widen Hwy 70 between Marysville and Butte County, and a safety improvement project is proposed for the highway as it comes into Marysville.
Some say the plans for widening 70, intended to improve safety on a stretch of road that has more than its share of accidents, could actually make the highway less safe. And opponents argue that bringing extra lanes of traffic up to the Marysville boundary could dramatically increase the traffic count.”
(Responses are straight from Facebook and are not fact checked.)
-- Alton Gabe Wright: District 10 is a neighborhood. Period. We need to treat it as such.
While some of the modifications to H70 are community-agreeable and sorely needed, the overall approach by Caltrans literally “kicks the can down the road,” and dumps a multitude of problems into Marysville. If Caltrans’ H70 plans are implemented, without a guaranteed plan to build a bypass, Marysville will become more of a challenged wasteland than it already is. A bypass could be the spark of revitalization that Marysville needs because it gives us a chance to improve the overall aesthetic and attractiveness of our community.
The Marysville Bypass has been kicked down the road for far too many decades. Misdirected, politicallymotivated fears by a few local government officials, business owners and wealthy farmers always seem to kill the dream. Enough already: It’s nearly 2021, not 1950!
A bypass is a regional need. It will fuel broad-based, future economic growth and facilitate the mass movement of people during a regional emergency. It will improve regional traffic safety and cut travel times. The time has come to gather regional government leaders from several surrounding counties, business influencers and regional visionary planners into the discussion, planning and finalization.
The Marysville Bypass can no longer be a dream of days gone by. It’s a must of today’s generation. Let’s make it happen!
-- Christine Daugherty: Less traffic will mean less money for local businesses.
-- Neil Goforth: ... The City of Lincoln had the same concerns and they have flourished since their Bypass was completed. Shoppers aren’t stopping in Marysville. They’ve told us too many times they just want to get through town and not deal with the traffic.
-- Christine Daugherty: ... there are other towns that had the opposite happen. Towns like Lincoln can expand in different directions, Marysville can’t do that.
-- Kelly Buchanan: ... Downtown Lincoln is sad and the newer shopping center only has a few businesses. I still drive through Lincoln and drive on the old highway 65, but most go on the new bypass. I like driving through Marysville and think it should stay the way it is. Bypasses kill business in small towns that depend on travelers passing through. I am always reminded of the movie “Cars.” Marysville’s restaurants, gas stations, fast food places, and hotels/motels ... main customers are travelers though the city.
-- Alton Gabe Wright: This is a decades-old argument that’s proven faulty: If having a highway plow through Marysville is a revenuegenerating concept, then why has Marysville long suffered with so many closed-up storefronts, no anchor businesses and has too many struggling businesses?
The blame we lay upon bypasses is that they will kill “Main Street,” or in our case “D Street,” is just not valid in this day and age. Let’s face facts, “D Street” businesses packed up shop long ago. Everything moved to Yuba City in the form of big box. Did the locals stay loyal to downtown Marysville businesses? No! They jumped over to Yuba City. Retail follows rooftops and everybody moved west because of tax incentivized policies towards the consumption of new land via subdivisions and the big box strips.
Sure, if you’re a fast-food, national franchise, convenience store or gas station, H70 provides a steady stream of business. However, these are not local businesses and they provide low-paying jobs. ...