LATHROP – A traffic signal is needed at Towne Center Drive and Golden Valley Parkway.

But it won’t be coming anytime soon.

The City of Lathrop’s Community Development Department has been working with the developer of the Community Bank project at the intersection of the two roads west of Interstate 5. The city staff is proposing an amendment to the original agreement that initially had the developer footing the bill for the traffic light as well as other on-site improvements in the area.

It’ll be up to the Lathrop Planning Commission that meets Wednesday, July 27, at 7 p.m., whether the improvements will be waived.

According to the proposal, the economic downturn has made it necessary for planners to become more “flexible” in their expectations of developers and the obligations that they initially agreed to meet when inking contracts.

The developer has remained in good standing with the city, and completed all of the street right-of-way improvements as required.

At least a portion of the improvements in the area – just down the street from Lathrop City Hall – is now expected to be completed when the future development in the Mossdale Landing Business Park picks up.

The items on the table Wednesday will be a site plan review revision that would have required not only the traffic signal but also frontage road landscaping and an ultimate landscape median on Golden Valley Parkway.

But while a traffic light was part of the initial agreement, the gold standard in traffic control and pedestrian safety, the developer will still be on the hook for the installation of a pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Golden Valley Parkway and Sommerville Road, near Target. The staff report cites an immediate pedestrian safety need in the area.