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Plan shows SR-67 widening decades away

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Ramonans hoping for a four-lane Highway 67 to get in and out of town will have to wait beyond 2035, according to the San Diego Association of Governments’ draft regional plan released for public review.

“San Diego Forward,” available online at sdforward.com, incorporates the Regional Transportation Plan, Sustainable Communities Strategy, and Regional Comprehensive Plan into one vision for how the region will grow over the next 35 years. Public comments will be accepted until July 15.

The regional agency, which lists Ramona’s 2012 population as 36,502, estimates the community will grow 26 percent by 2050 to a population of 46,041.

In addition to plans for state Route 67, the document addresses other road projects for Ramona, including the Dye Road and Ramona Street extensions.

According to the regional agency, the SR-67 project consists of three separate phases to construct two new lanes — one in each direction.

•From Mapleview Street to Gold Bar Lane in Lakeside, scheduled to open in 2025 at a cost of $79 million.

•From Gold Bar Lane to Scripps Poway Parkway, scheduled to open in 2040 at a cost of $357 million.

•Scripps Poway Parkway to Dye Road, scheduled to open in 2048 at a cost of $982 million.

Under “Phased Revenue Constrained Arterial Projects,” the plan lists the Dye Road Extension, a collector road with intermittent turn lanes, bike lanes and pathway from Dye Road to San Vicente Road, to be built by 2020. The target completion date is 2035 for the Ramona Street Extension, a new two-lane road extending Ramona Street from Boundary Avenue to Warnock Drive with bike lanes and a walkway/pathway.

Also listed is San Vicente Road Improvements, which is underway and expected to be completed in spring 2016, and Route 67 and Highland Valley/Dye Road intersection improvements. In February, Caltrans said the intersection project may start in spring 2016 and finish by fall 2018.

The San Diego Forward draft plan also addresses county-owned airports. Ramona Airport is listed as one that may be considered for additional uses or opportunities but has significant physical or environmental barriers to future development. Among opportunities, it states, are general aviation facilities such as Ramona Air Center, which is under county review, and smaller airport development. The air center is proposed to be a fee simple master planned hangar development.

Other projects could be restricted by large vernal pools in the nearby grasslands, according to the draft plan.

By the year 2050, the agency envisions that about half of the region’s land will be dedicated to open space and habitat.

Increased public transit, trails and bike paths included in the plan are mainly in the more urban core of the county.

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