Lockyer Decries an O.C. Toll Path

The state attorney general has warned operators of Orange County’s toll road system that plans to build a tollway extension through San Onofre State Beach park are unacceptable.

In a strongly worded letter to the Transportation Corridor Agencies, Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said noise, air pollution, visual and other environmental effects of the proposed Foothill South tollway would be damaging to the park, which is just over the San Diego County line.

“The attorney general cannot state strongly enough the inappropriateness of any alternatives that would allow a multi-lane freeway to be built down the length of the inland portion of San Onofre State Beach,” the letter states. “It is unacceptable to take away this small jewel of undeveloped land in an area undergoing massive development.”

Written on Lockyer’s behalf by Deputy Atty. Gen. Brian Hembacher on Aug. 4, the letter was sent to the TCA during the public comment period for the proposal’s draft environmental impact statement. The report was released in May.

TCA officials say the attorney general’s letter is one of more than 6,000 cards, letters, petitions and e-mails received from individuals, environmental groups and government officials before the comment period closed Friday.

Agency officials are evaluating the public’s reaction and recommendations as they prepare to write a final environmental report, due in early 2005.

The corridor agency, which manages a 51-mile network of turnpikes, plans to build the Foothill South starting at the terminus of the Foothill tollway, from a point just east of Mission Viejo to Interstate 5 in the San Clemente area. Of six possible routes, three bisect San Onofre State Beach, potentially disrupting 160 campsites near Trestles, well-known surf spots.

The attorney general contends that the corridor agency has poorly assessed the proposed tollway’s environmental effects on the state park. Lockyer also contends that the report is legally flawed because it makes only vague references to how the loss of parkland would be offset.

Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the attorney general, said that if the final environmental impact report does not address Lockyer’s concerns, the office might challenge the tollway agency in court.

Lisa Telles, a TCA spokeswoman, disagreed with Lockyer, saying potential effects on the beach park and campgrounds are documented in the recreational section of the draft document. How to replace the parkland cannot be decided until after a route is selected, she added.

“Policymakers will have all the information they need to make a fully informed decision on the road alignment,” Telles said.

Other opponents of a park route include the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, the Endangered Habitats League, Laguna Greenbelt and the California State Parks Foundation. Some oppose such a road entirely.

In addition to concerns about the state park, they contend that the toll road authority has misrepresented the project’s potential fragmentation of wildlife habitat in the area, effects on the endangered Pacific pocket mouse and the amount of traffic generated.

“We oppose all the alignments of the proposed tollway,” said Brittany McKee, an organizer for Friends of the Foothills, a coalition of environmental groups opposed to the turnpike. “The meager benefits of the road are far outweighed by the problems it would create.”