The city of Rialto, Calif., wants to take over a three-mile stretch of Foothill Boulevard, aka Route 66, that’s owned by the California Department of Transportation, reports the Inland Press-Enterprise.
The city assumes that Caltrans has bigger fish to fry — notably the maintenance of a new stretch of Highway 210 — than worrying about a small piece of local road.
The effort still is in its infancy, but there is precedent.
“We completed a relinquishment with the city of Rancho Cucamonga three years ago, and two years ago with Fontana,” said Rose Melgoza, a Caltrans spokeswoman.
“Caltrans would no longer have the financial responsibility of maintaining the route, and the city now (would) have more creative freedom of doing what they want,” Melgoza said.
Rialto is leaning toward beautifying the street like Rancho Cucumonga did.
That city played up the Route 66 angle through decorative medians and sidewalk monuments with the iconic black-and-white highway shield on river-rock pedestals. […]
City staff is developing a Foothill Boulevard Specific Plan, which spells out goals for the street.
Foothill needs uninterrupted sidewalks; landscaped center medians; smooth pavement with newly painted lane lines; a uniform curb-to-curb width; streetlights; and curbs, gutters and storm drains.
As long as the street’s history is respected, it seems sensible to turn over Foothill to someone who cares more about it.
The “protection” here, though, includes the likely demolition of some structures that are close to the road’s current ROW, including historic hotels and other Route 66-related landmarks. This is something that I know some 66’ers would fight against if they knew the details about it. In fact, some also would have fought the relinquishment in Fontana.
That being said, Rancho Cucamonga is a different beast. Despite being “just down the road,” the 66-related remnants in RC are far less significant overall and were impacted to a much smaller degree than the potential harm in both Fontana and Rialto.