Plans to beautify Gaffey Street have taken a detour as objections balloon over a suggestion to reduce traffic lanes to make way for more pedestrian-friendly features.

No definitive plan is yet in place, and a spokesman for Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino said if the community opposes lane reductions, they won’t happen.

But for now, the idea remains at least within the realm of possibility, prompting outcries this week on social media and inspiring an online petition that gathered more than 500 signatures overnight as residents prepare for a joint Neighborhood Council briefing at 6 p.m. Thursday.

“I saw a couple (of) people discussing it on Facebook and recently got a couple (of) emails from the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council,” said Shannon Ross, whose husband, a longshoreman, must use Gaffey Street daily to get to and from work. “I know how difficult it is to travel (Gaffey) already. It really concerns me.”

Gaffey already gets bumper-to-bumper traffic during morning and afternoon rush hours as cars creep toward or from the 110 Freeway on- and off-ramps.

Opponents say taking away one of three lanes on either side of the street, as some design drawings have shown, will create a traffic disaster.

Ross posted the “stop lane reduction on Gaffey Street” petition Monday night and, in just 24 hours, it had 490 signatures. She hopes to have 1,000 to present at Thursday’s meeting at the Croatian Cultural Center, 510 W. Seventh St.

The outcry hasn’t been lost on Buscaino’s office.

“The councilman is not going to support anything that’s not supported by the community,” said spokesman Branimir Kvartuc, calling the response to the petition “significant.” He said the office has been aware of the growing opposition for more than a month now.

“It’s another piece of evidence,” Kvartuc said, that opposition to lane reduction on Gaffey is strong within the community, adding that, “Yes, the message has been received.”

The Gaffey Street makeover, already in the works, has been wrapped into Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Great Streets Initiative, a plan to transform and beautify the city’s main corridors. Gaffey was one of six streets named last May by the mayor in the first phase of the program. Eventually, 40 streets will be targeted citywide.

The goal is to make the streets more pedestrian-friendly by adding lighting, landscaping and “bulb-outs” or hubs at intersections that will provide space for people waiting for public transit, for example.

“This is still in the development phases,” said Kate Mayerson, project manager for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, or LANI, the nonprofit that the city contracted with to oversee the planning. “We’re seeking input on all parts of the plan.”

The Gaffey Street makeover is expected to take many years and cost millions.

A lighting of the arched pedestrian bridge that crosses over Gaffey near the freeway was celebrated a month ago but was not part of the street makeover.

Initially, the focus is on Gaffey from the 110 Freeway to 13th Street.

LANI has held two public workshops so far, but Mayerson said the last session drew little public participation.

Most of the plan looks at beautification elements such as streetscapes. Some of the proposed pedestrian-friendly ideas, such as bulb-outs, or curb extensions, she said, would require reducing vehicle lanes.

Kvartuc said more public reaction is needed on the many other elements of the project, such as beautification, new signage and trees.

“We can’t make this a ‘great’ street just talking about lane reductions,” he said.

The lane reductions, he said, “are off the table,” in light of the public response so far.

“It was just one of the things that was a possibility,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Mayerson said discussions and designs are still very preliminary.

“This is just a conceptual plan, not an implementation plan,” she said, adding that no funding for implementation has been identified.

“We want to make sure everybody’s voice is heard before proposing anything,” Mayerson said. “This is a multi-, multi-, multimillion-dollar project.”

A third public workshop — planned to be the last unless work is extended — is set for 6 p.m. Jan. 15 at the Grand Annex, 434 W. Sixth St., San Pedro.

This week’s meeting was designed for Neighborhood Council representatives only, but has morphed into a larger public session with residents now planning to attend after seeing the alerts about the lane-reduction issue.

“We will be suggesting that people listen and hear us out,” Mayerson said of Thursday’s meeting. “We understand people are concerned.”

Regarding possible lane reductions, she said she’d like to see residents consider trying at least a pilot project to see what might work.

Strategies such as more traffic light synchronization could offset traffic impacts, Mayerson said.

But until then, Kvartuc said, there is plenty of work to do to improve Gaffey.

“In the short-term, (the idea is) to create infrastructure improvements that get investments. We want people to invest, we want new businesses to come to Gaffey and we want good businesses to come to Gaffey.”