A Question of Priorities : Laguna Split on Canyon Road
The amateur botanist, plucking plant samples as he walked, was eating his way along a grassy knoll next to the section of Laguna Canyon Road that residents call Big Bend.
Down went the fresh dill. Down went the watercresslike lamb’s quarters. Then came the big leaf of California mustard.
Fred Lang, 71, a South Laguna landscape architect who teaches plant identification at UC Irvine, stood transfixed, his eyes welling up with tears as the taste of horseradish soared to his sinuses.
“That’s fresh,” he exclaimed with an enthusiastic cough. “It’s very hot but very healthy.”
Greens so potent they could blast a head cold are only some of the natural wonders that prompted the California Coastal Commission last month to veto a Caltrans plan to slice through the hill for a road-widening project.
The point of contention is the curving section of the road that, according to Caltrans figures, has claimed 30 motorists’ lives over the past 10 years.
In a strongly worded decision that had the effect of denying $13 million in federal funding for the project for at least a year, the commission cited the “scenic and visual resources” of the “environmentally sensitive habitat.”
“The canyon is predominantly undeveloped, with moderate to steep brush-covered hills, large sycamore and oak trees, unique rock outcroppings and canyon slopes which give the canyon its rural, rustic character,” said a staff report.
It went on to note the indigenous plant life, including the edible flora that now delights naturalists and once sustained Indians who lived there. And it concluded that flooding, a perennial problem along the canyon road, which has been submerged three times in the last 10 years, would increase with further road paving.
Then there is the wildlife.
“This is one of the few open spaces available to them” in Orange County, said Jeff Powers, a landscape architect who lives in the canyon.
Canyon residents said they watch from their breakfast tables as deer stride through roadside meadows. Powers, 36, said a mating pair of red hawks have settled in the trees in front of his house high on the eastern rim. John Hamil, a veterinarian at Canyon Animal Hospital, said he has found two bobcats during his 10 years in practice there. He even operated on one after it was hit by a car. And many wild animals find their way to the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter in the middle of the canyon, manager Nancy Goodwin said.
“We normally take care of cats, dogs, rabbits and ducks, but during the summer months, just after the wild animals are born, we have a tremendous influx of skunks, opossums and raccoons,” she said. “We even have raised a couple of foxes.”
Other indigenous wildlife include coyote, hummingbirds and turkey vultures. Hamil said a tall tree behind his clinic houses “one of the few turkey vulture roosts in Southern California. It’s been in this area for as long as anyone can remember.”
An informal survey conducted in 1984 under the auspices of the state Department of Fish and Game turned up “12 to 15” nesting places for such birds of prey as red tail hawks, kestrals, red shoulder hawks, sharp shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks and merlin, according to its author, Greg Hickman, vice president of the Alliance for Wildlife Preservation.
And an environmental impact report completed in 1974 by Gordon A. Marsh, curator of the Museum of Systematic Biology at UC Irvine, found 10 different species of reptiles in the area, with an additional six expected to occur, and 20 species of mammals, with an additional 11 species anticipated.
The reminders of the way California must have been begins within 15 minutes of Irvine just off the San Diego Freeway.
Flashing lights and “end of freeway” signs mark the beginning of the road, which twists over 8.4 miles into downtown Laguna Beach. Starting as Highway 133, it shrinks from three lanes to two lanes, then expands to four lanes before arriving in Laguna as Broadway Avenue.
Spring-Fed Lakes
Along the way, the ribbon of highway passes cattle grazing on land still owned by the Irvine Co., miles of chaparral, bright green meadows and Orange County’s only spring-fed freshwater lakes--the three Laguna Lakes.
Caltrans had proposed to widen the road from two lanes to four, straighten Big Bend and raise the speed limit from 45 (with a 35 m.p.h. non-binding “advisory”) to 50 miles per hour. It cited the road’s current traffic of 28,000 vehicles a day and predicted 50,000 a day by the year 2005.
Environmentalists, however, objected to the plan, which would have cut approximately 2.3 million cubic yards of earth and rock from the knoll at Big Bend and displaced 60 acres of natural habitat.
They contended that it would upset the food chain by depriving smaller animals of native vegetation and shelter. Larger animals, in turn, might die or leave the area for a lack of prey, and certain tougher species--such as members of the rodent family--could proliferate unchecked.
“Our native wildlife is a biological barometer,” said Hickman of the wildlife alliance. “When it starts to disappear, we need to be wary of our own existence. It not only disrupts the food chain but also a lot of our heritage.”
Before the completion of Coast Highway in the 1930s, Laguna Canyon Road provided the only inland access to Laguna Beach. It still carries a steady stream of traffic that is especially heavy during the summer months and weekday mornings and evenings.
Two major residential developments planned for the northern end of the canyon promise to increase traffic, as does the San Joaquin corridor, a $405-million freeway project proposed to intersect the northern tip of Laguna Canyon Road.
Development Under Way
Construction has begun on the 62-acre Sycamore Hills residential development on El Toro Road, and the Irvine Co. plans to develop 21,050 acres along Laguna Canyon Road after the scheduled certification of the corridor in 1988, said Irvine Co. spokesman Sam Couch. The City of Laguna Beach, which opposed the Caltrans proposal, supports only improvements that maintain the road’s alignment, said Terry Brandt, director of municipal services. It favors banking curves, introducing non-traversable median barriers and maintaining the current 45-m.p.h speed limit, he said.
City officials say they do not want the road to become an even higher speed thoroughfare. “We already have a problem with people flying into town during the summer,” said City Manager Kenneth C. Frank.
Police have found that half of the accidents at Big Bend were caused by drivers exceeding the speed limit. In four of the five fatal accidents occurring there between 1982 and 1985, drivers were found to have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs. There were no traffic deaths in 1986.
About two traffic accidents a month--almost always resulting in injuries--occur along Big Bend, according to Caltrans.
Some residents there say they would be happy to see Big Bend changed if it would bring peace to their portion of the canyon. Georgia Sullender, who lives across the street from the curve in a cluster of cottages, is among them.
“First you hear the screech, and then you hear the bang, and you know someone’s been injured,” she said, describing the nighttime car accidents that awaken her family. “It’s an ugly feeling.”
Sullender, 31, said motorists do not realize that “that turn has a bite in it. People go down to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), have a couple of drinks, then lose it.”
Tom Shannon, who lives less than a mile north along a dirt road running parallel to Laguna Canyon Road, concurred.
‘I Love People, Too’
“I’m in favor of whatever makes the road safer. I love the hills. I love the deer. But I love people, too.” said Shannon, 52.
His daughter, Samantha, was paralyzed three years ago as a result of an accident on the road when the car she was driving crossed the center line north of Big Bend and collided with an oncoming car, killing the other driver. Her passenger--a 16-year-old girl--later died. Shannon was 17 at the time, and her father happened upon the accident while returning home from work.
“I think everybody who drives that road has reason to be concerned about its safety,” he said.
Caltrans spokesman Joseph Sanchez, deputy district director for planning, said he is glad he doesn’t have to make the decision on the future of Laguna Canyon Road. “But it’s a decision that will have to be made,” he said.
Although he said he can sympathize with those who cherish the canyon’s natural beauty, the issues of “safety and aesthetics” are incompatible in this case.
Nonetheless, Caltrans believes “we can’t turn our back on it and walk away. We feel a moral obligation to look for a solution,” Sanchez said. “You either accommodate for the speed being driven or increase enforcement of the existing speed limit, and that (stepping up police patrol) would be very expensive given the level that they would need.”
Caltrans plans to return to the drafting table with an open mind, he said. “We’re going to look at any alternative that keeps the existing alignment, but I think we’ll come to the same conclusion.”
A new proposal probably will not be presented to the Coastal Commission for at least a year, he said, because of the amount of time needed to prepare one.
For its part, the city, in the words of Mayor Neil J. Fitzpatrick, hopes to “romance” Caltrans: “Now that they’re obligated to listen to us, we hope to meet with them and impress them with our needs and why they’re important.”
Failing that, Caltrans can expect opposition, he said. “If all they want to do is rehash their position and not consider alternatives, we’ll fight them.”
On Laguna Canyon’s east side is privately held property. Big Bend lies on the west side in the Irvine Coast Dedication Area, 2,650 acres of open land, slated for preservation under the county’s coastal plan.
A stand of coast live oak brackets the curve at its northern end. At the southern end grow two sycamore trees, which botanist Lang estimated to be between 80 and 100 years old. The face of the slope, rising to an elevation of 912 feet in the San Joaquin Hills, at first resembles a gray-green wall of foliage. On closer inspection, an astounding variety of plant life emerges.
Resemble Holly
Cholla cactus, topped by great, raddishlike fruit, grows beside Mexican elderberry and sumac. Tiny bell-shaped monkey flowers bloom in a peachy color. Also prevalent is the toyon bush, whose deep green leaves and bright red berries so resemble holly that settlers named another toyon patch Hollywood.
Under the discerning eye of Lang, who has served on a variety of civic groups, including the Laguna Beach Beautification Committee, each plant became a story.
“This was used by the Indians to make a medicinal drink,” he said, holding up the stem of an angel’s trumpet, an evergreen covered with prickly fruit casing.
He moved on to a tear-shaped leaf of the Mexican elderberry, whose white flowers once were considered a delicacy. “The early settlers dipped them in batter and ate them,” he said.
Then, under the spiny reaches of a cholla patch, he found what appeared to be a nest.
“This is probably a wood rat colony,” he said, rustling in the dirt. “Yes, here are their droppings!”
Lang found a tough-leaved shrub whose citrusy and gelatinous fruit bears the nickname “lemonade berry,” and rubbed a leaf.
“I once used it to make a margarita,” he said. “It was delicious.”
