A San Marino neighborhood group is demanding the City Council turn down $32 million from Metro and reject projects city staff has submitted as alternatives to extending the 710 Freeway to improve traffic flow on local thoroughfares.

Although other corridor cities have eagerly accepted monies the mega transit agency doled out as part of a $515 million package of traffic management options after both Metro and Caltrans killed the 4.5-mile, 710 tunnel, a large contingent of San Marino residents have greeted their city’s proposals funded by Metro with considerable pushback.

“We are asking them that they not take the $32 million — don’t take it,” C. Fredrick Milkie of San Marino said during a press conference Monday evening held at the Crowell Public Library.

Milkie is part of Citizens for a Safe San Marino, a group formed to bring awareness to a rash of home burglaries in 2017 which is now spearheading efforts to stop the city from moving forward with five transportation projects, including traffic signal synchronization on Huntington Drive and San Gabriel Boulevard, projects the group says will add traffic volume, further pollute the air and increase speeds to unsafe levels.

Ghassan Roumani, a retired urologist and founder of the group, led the press conference and the opposition.

After hoisting a banner that said, “Just Say No” and “No, Thank You, Metro!!!” in bright, red lettering, Roumani said more than 700 residents signed a petition to ask the city to “reject the 710 plan.” That petition, launched by fellow group member Andrew Ko, had 615 signatures Sunday according to the online website but had gained more by Tuesday.

The opposition referred to a second informational meeting the city planned that same night as a waste of time.

“Citizens for a Safe San Marino say enough is enough,” Roumani began. “Yet despite this outcry from homeowners and residents, the city of San Marino called for another meeting for more plans that will choke our town with more traffic. We call on our local leaders to heed the voices of their constituency.”

The City Council met about a half-hour after the press conference, during which Councilman Steve Talt said the city is considering three options:

Accept the Metro money and build all five projects.

Ask Metro to approve different projects amenable to residents.

Don’t accept any Metro money and do nothing.

Leaders are leaning toward coming up with alternative projects the residents would get behind, Talt said. “Now, we are looking for other proposals,” he told about 100 residents jammed into the standing-room only meeting. “There has been no decision made.”

The City Council may make a final decision in a month or so, City Manager Marcella Marlowe said, when all the information gathered is presented in a staff report.

About a year ago, the city appointed a resident liaison to help the staff respond to Metro’s call for bids on projects that would serve as alternatives to the 710 extension. These must improve traffic flow coming from the freeway’s end by adding capacity or smoothing out bottlenecks.

Metro had set aside $780 million from Measure R, a 2008 tax measure approved by voters, for the 710 Freeway “gap” stretching from El Sereno and Alhambra through South Pasadena and Pasadena. The latest 710 extension proposal was for a no-exits tunnel that would’ve cost between $3 billion and $5 billion. That project was turned down by Metro in May 2017 and by Caltrans in November, when the state transportation agency approved environmental documents choosing local transportation improvements instead.

“We put together a list of suggestions so Metro could create a plan locally,” Marlowe told the audience. The plans were submitted by city staff about a year ago. Marlowe called them “placeholders” that could later be changed in design and scope.

Since the awarding of grants by Metro in December — Alhambra, Monterey Park, South Pasadena, San Gabriel and Pasadena are other recipients — the city of San Marino has been alone in voicing objections, yet it has not submitted any public changes to its five Metro-approved projects. They are as follows, according to the San Marino website:

Adding dedicated right-turn lanes on Los Robles Avenue and/or Garfield Avenue to westbound Huntington Drive; adding a left-turn lane at Huntington and San Marino Avenue and an eastbound left-turn lane on Huntington at San Gabriel Boulevard ($12 million) Increasing traffic capacity on Huntington at three locations by eliminating the parkway strip at school sites and improving access to school entrances ($6 million). Install left-turn pockets to reduce congestion at Sierra Madre Boulevard and Euston Road; improve signals at California Boulevard ($4 million). Use advanced signal technology and traffic signal synchronization at 12 intersections on Huntington from Garfield to Rosemead Boulevard ($7 million). Use advance traffic signal controls with signal synchronization at seven intersections on San Gabriel ($3 million).

San Marino resident Karen Habib used a hand-drawn map to show there are many other ways motorists can get from Valley Boulevard at the south stub of the 710 Freeway to the 210 Freeway in Pasadena, including taking the 10 Freeway east and either San Gabriel or Rosemead boulevards north.

“Why would we spend $32 million to let the traffic go through San Marino,” she said.