Scenic Drive Is a Risky One for County

It is a wilderness road--narrow, twisting, unpaved, sometimes running at the very edge of cliffs. Often when it rains, sections wash out or become mud holes.

But the 7.8-mile road through Black Star Canyon in the mountains east of Orange rewards those who make the trip. Its verdant mountainsides, running streams, waterfalls and, at the crest, its sweeping view of Southern California are the last bits of Orange County wilderness directly reachable by car.

So in the early 1970s, when canyon property owners wanted to declare the road private, county officials opposed it.

The county counsel insisted that along the road’s entire length the county owned either the land or the right to pass over it.

Public Access Limited

By the end of 1975, the county road commissioner reported that Black Star Canyon Road was secure for public use. The road had been refurbished, all gates had been removed “and the thoroughfare is available to the traveling public without restriction,” he stated.

Now, a decade later, the road is closed to the public for all but two weeks to two months a year because of flood or fire danger, and county road officials would like to see the public banned from it altogether.

They concede that only one factor has caused this turnabout in attitude: the prospect of being sued because of some catastrophic automotive mishap along the road. Nowadays, such lawsuits can cost governmental agencies millions of dollars even if they are judged only minimally liable--the so-called “deep pockets” principle.

Orange County officials say no such accident has occurred on Black Star Canyon Road. But over the ridge in Riverside County, county officials and their insurance carrier recently paid a $3.7-million settlement stemming from a 1982 accident on Skyline Drive, which is the continuation of Black Star Canyon Road that extends to Corona.

Orange County is self-insured. Had the settlement been made in Orange County, the entire amount would have come from the county treasury.

“We just don’t want to get burnt later on,” said Carl Nelson, Orange County’s director of public works. “You know, when somebody has an accident, even if they’re driving unsafely, too often they blame the road.”

Stan Matthews, the County Fire Department’s chief of wildland management, was showing the road plenty of respect as he crawled along it in his four-wheel-drive truck last week.

Under the best conditions, you can travel only at 10 or 15 m.p.h., he said. In some places the road is too narrow to get by an oncoming vehicle. Miss certain curves and you will slide over the side and won’t stop until you’ve fallen hundreds of feet, he said.

Yet some drive the road at 50 m.p.h., he said. “Yes, really,” Matthews said. “Fifty miles an hour.

Drivers ‘Get Crazy’

“I hate to use the word ‘idiot,’ but that’s what they are. They go up there, drink wine and beer, and they get crazy.” They drive their cars and trucks over the side, “then it takes us three or four hours to get to them, and you have to carry them out because a helicopter can’t land.

“And then they want you to tow out their truck, and then they sue you.”

Matthews said some of the mishaps are spectacularly senseless. He recounted the story of one couple who came to a hairpin turn and were captivated by the view. They got out of their car, went down the slope a few feet and sat on a flat rock to admire the vistas. A few minutes later, a car speeding up to the turn launched itself over the side and sailed two or three feet above their heads before it hit the slope and rolled to the bottom.

Matthews said there are slopes in the canyon so steep that cars can’t be pulled up. There are perhaps seven wrecks at the foot of one, one atop the other, he said.

“If they’d just use this road sanely, “ Matthews said.

The fear that even one driver will sue because of an accident prompted Nelson to propose abandoning Black Star Canyon

Road as a public thoroughfare. He had coordinated the timing of his proposal with Riverside County officials, who went to their Board of Supervisors for permission to put up a gate.

The Riverside board gave its approval, and a plan is being formulated to distribute gate keys to those who live beyond the gate, to fire and park officials and to the road department, which will check the keys out for a day to people who want access.

Waiver of Liability

A spokesman said people checking out keys may be asked to sign a waiver of liability. “We haven’t talked about it yet, but it’s not a bad idea,” the spokesman said.

But in Orange County, where virtually all other factors encourage a status quo in Black Star Canyon, the fear of even one lawsuit is nudging county officials toward encouraging development there.

Nelson was ready to ask his Board of Supervisors to block public access entirely, leaving it open only to canyon residents and fire officials. His proposal was stalled, however, when county park officials said they were still interested in obtaining regional parkland in Black Star Canyon. A park will need access, and even if a different road must be built, keeping the old road could give the county something to trade for a new right of way.

But the county probably could not afford to build a new road, any more than it could afford to buy the parkland, said an aide to Supervisor Bruce Nestande, whose district includes Black Star Canyon.

Developers Not Interested

The county, as it usually does, would depend on developers of surrounding land to build the road and give the parkland to the county in exchange for permission to build housing. County park officials even proposed that developers near Mission Viejo buy the Black Star Canyon land and give it to the county in exchange for permission to develop more than the usual housing units near Mission Viejo.

“They were not interested,” said Eric Jessen, planning chief for the county’s harbors, beaches and parks district. According to Nestande’s aide, “They’re more interested in doing improvements that are nearer their own developments.

“I did have one gentleman come to see me (about housing development in the canyon), but once he found out that the county would require an all-weather, two-lane road, it wasn’t feasible,” the aide said.

Even the county itself has considered development in the canyon--it is on the list of “remote” sites for a new county jail--but the county ran into the same problems of having to build long, expensive roads and utility lines. “It’s just not viable,” the aide said.

Parkland Still Desired

Virtually all the economic forces are against development of the canyon, the aide said, and therefore a replacement for Black Star Canyon Road seems unlikely soon. He said, however, that since the county has not abandoned hope of acquiring parkland there, the plans to abandon the road have been shelved.

But the proposal to abandon is still in the public works section’s files waiting for what Nelson believes is both inevitable and likely to be very expensive for the county.

“There are quite a few people who like to go out and ripsnort on their four-wheelers and motorcycles,” Nelson said. “And the courts are so lenient on the crippled driver who was going too fast. The courts will blame the county.”