FCPG seeks additional signage, modifications for Mission/Green Canyon signal

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The traffic signal at the intersection of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road was made operational Nov. 22. The Fallbrook Community Planning Group has expressed its desire for additional notification signage and operational modifications.

A 14-0 planning group vote Jan. 16, with Anna Strahan absent, approved a request to the county’s Department of Public Works for more signage further away from the intersection to notify drivers that a signal exists past the South Mission Road curve. “We want to make sure that drivers are alerted,” said planning group chair Eileen Delaney. “We’re going to ask them to look into that.”

In January 2017, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors added the intersection to the county’s Traffic Signal Priority List. Priority points rather than how long a signal has been on the list determine the next intersection in the unincorporated county to be signalized when funding is available (a signal installed as part of a development is not subject to the Traffic Signal Priority List).

Design issues can also delay the process from a signal being placed on the Traffic Signal Priority List to the beginning of construction, and that includes a “T” intersection in which part of the signal system is placed on private property. In August 2020, the Board of Supervisors approved San Diego County's fiscal year 2020-2021 budget which included funding for traffic signals at the intersections of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road, East Mission Road and Santa Margarita Drive, and Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road.

In May 2021, the county supervisors approved the bid and award process for a construction contract to install traffic signals at five intersections in unincorporated San Diego County including the intersections of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road and of Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road.

When the light is red for South Mission Road, motorists traffic backups may occur. “We also want them to adjust the timing on that,” Delaney said.

The planning group also requested adjustments regarding the strobe system which allows North County Fire Protection District or other emergency vehicles to change a red light to green. “That should be further back from there,” Delaney said.