Del Rey Oaks explores taking over Highway 218.

The sound of vehicles screeching to a halt to avoid hitting another car or a pedestrian on Highway 218 has distressed Del Rey Oaks city officials for years.

“We sit here and cringe at the sound of vehicles coming to an immediate stop,” says Deputy City Clerk Kim Carvalho, who works at City Hall, which fronts the highway also called Canyon Del Rey.

The fear that someone will get run over one day is so great that on Jan. 26, City Council voted to begin the process of having the city take over the highway – currently managed by Caltrans – to slow down traffic.

“It has long been the desire of the City Council to reunite the two halves of Del Rey Oaks,” City Manager Daniel Dawson says.

Dawson says a few attempts to install a lighted crosswalk in front of City Hall have been unsuccessful, mainly because Caltrans says there is no data to support such installments, which could exceed $100,000.

Susana Cruz, a District 5 spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, says the amount of traffic, collisions and road projects are among the things considered before installing anything.

“In order to make it a walkable community, crosswalks are an important thing to have, and Caltrans doesn’t want that,” Vice Mayor Kristin Clark says.

The highway stretch from Fremont Street to Highway 68 is Del Rey Oaks’ main drag. It sits in the middle of the tiny town, dividing residential areas from three main city destinations: City Hall, the police department and the dog park.

“We have this beautiful dog park and several people have to cross the highway to get to it,” Dawson says while trying to cross the street as vehicles speed by. “It gets problematic.”

These concerns have also prompted city officials to move the election polling booths for the first time in 36 years from City Hall to Old Town Hall near the dog park. The reasoning: There’s less traffic and a stop sign nearby.

If the city acquires the highway, Dawson’s vision is to lower the speed limit from 45 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour, and add wider bike lanes, lighted crosswalks and roundabouts.

The city would also seek to ban large commercial trucks, including garbage trucks, from the roadway to save on road maintenance costs and prevent littering. It’s unclear how garbage would be picked up if garbage trucks are banned from Canyon del Rey.

As Del Rey Oaks pursues this, the city of Seaside is also at the early stages of taking over its portion of Canyon Del Rey. But before a deal, which could take between two and 15 years, can be reached, a corridor evaluation of the highway needs to be conducted by both cities and by Caltrans. Cruz says there is no estimate for the cost yet, but adds that sometimes it’s cheaper for Caltrans to pay cities to take it over.

To maintain the roadway and traffic installments, Dawson says the Transportation Agency for Monterey County would likely have grants available. Other roadway maintenance costs would be paid by the city’s general budget and the gas tax.

“We would want Caltrans to pave the highway and give it to us in pristine condition,” Dawson says.

Clark agrees. She says the city would not want to buy a “fixer upper.”