Supervisors Handed Initiative to Reduce Traffic Congestion

Orange County supervisors praised their own efforts at solving the county’s traffic problems Tuesday, but within minutes were confronted by residents contending that government had failed to ease traffic congestion and that the people would act instead.

The supervisors approved the outlines of a plan that took six months to develop and will require builders to install or improve roads and intersections in southeastern Orange County before undertaking new development.

No sooner had the supervisors adopted the Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan than leaders of a coalition hoping to put a ballot measure before voters next year formally presented the board with their initiative to limit development because of traffic problems.

Russ Burkett, executive director of Orange County Tomorrow, said the initiative was drawn up to meet “this threat to the quality of life” in Orange County, stemming from “the failure of our government officials and leaders” to enforce regulations already on the books.

“We’re not asking for anything new” in the initiative but are merely seeking enforcement of the county’s general plan, which rules out “imbalances” in development, Burkett said.

However, Burkett, whose 2-year-old group was founded to discuss growth in the county, did compliment the supervisors on the foothill plan, saying that it was “one step” in solving the problem.

“We are not for or against growth,” Burkett said. “We are neutral on growth.”

Playing Role of ‘Traffic Cop’

But he said his group wanted to be a “traffic cop” for development and hang out the stop sign for development until current traffic problems are solved.

Sponsors of the initiative unveiled their plan Saturday, starting the clock on a 21-day period of public comment that precedes the 180 days in which they must gather 66,000 signatures countywide and an additional 10% of the registered voters in each of the county’s 26 cities to qualify their proposed law for the ballot.

The initiative would bar major construction projects in areas where traffic is so bad that cars cannot move faster than 35 m.p.h. and cannot get through an intersection in only one signal change.

It would exempt public facilities such as fire stations and libraries, single-family homes on a single, existing lot, and commercial and industrial development with a gross floor area of less than 10,000 square feet that generate 130 daily trips or less.

Burkett and Gregory Hile, an attorney who is treasurer of a second group leading the initiative attempt, Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control, said backers want similar or identical initiatives to be applied to each of the cities in addition to unincorporated county territory.

The county and the cities can adopt the initiative, in which case it would never reach voters, or the county and cities can reject it, in which case the proposal goes on the ballot if sufficient signatures are gathered and it overcomes legal challenges.

Hile said that his group, which is the official sponsor of the initiative, was acting “not in the spirit of confrontation or defiance of our elected officials” but contended that “a change in our current policy of unbridled growth is inevitable.”

By law, the supervisors were unable to take any action on the initiative because it was not on their agenda. But some of them repeated earlier assertions that even if there are limits on development in unincorporated county territory, unlimited building in cities will exacerbate the problem of clogged roads throughout the county.

Growth Unbridled Nearby

Supervisors also said there were no plans to check development in neighboring counties, whose residents will continue to pour across the border to work in Orange County.

Bruce Nestande, who resigned as a supervisor in January to take a job as vice president of a development company and was succeeded by Gaddi H. Vasquez, told his former colleagues at the meeting that “the issue is not that simplistic” as backers of the initiative portrayed it.

Nestande said proponents of the ballot measure would recognize the complexity of the problem “if they would participate more fully in the system” and attend meetings on traffic woes.

He said that some initiative supporters “want to shut the county down” and that if the measure passes, it will be construction workers, cement pourers and grocery store employees who will be out of work, “not some rich developer whose life will go on.”

Nestande said later that he was not representing his company, Arnel Development, but appeared before the supervisors as a private citizen concerned that initiative backers were “soft-pedaling something that has a very profound impact on the county.” He said backers were refusing to spell out the “terms and consequences” of the measure.

As for the Foothill Plan, Supervisor Vasquez, who represents the Mission Viejo, El Toro and Lake Forest areas affected by the planned project, said construction of $120 million worth of critically needed traffic improvements will begin next year.

Vasquez said the program, to be further refined and officially adopted by the supervisors in August, is a “credible approach” to solving traffic problems because it spells out the amounts to be paid by developers for road improvements based on how much traffic their developments will generate.

The plan shows developers that “it’s not business as usual,” Vasquez said, adding that the final test of the program will be “the presence of asphalt and concrete in south Orange County.”

The program details improvements needed on roads, such as Bake Parkway, Lake Forest Drive, Santa Margarita Parkway and Oso Parkway, in an attempt to provide alternate routes to the heavily congested Interstate 5 and roads leading to it.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said the plan underlines county attempts to solve traffic problems in unincorporated areas where the supervisors have jurisdiction. She called the program a “prototype for other areas of the county, particularly the cities.”

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who, like Vasquez, represents a district with large chunks of unincorporated territory, said a previously adopted program to fill gaps in roads in his district “complements” the plan adopted Tuesday.

“We’re on our way to (solving) that traffic problem in south county,” Riley said.