Assembly Clears Way to Take Toll Roads for a Test Drive

Orange County legislators and transportation officials said Friday that the Assembly’s approval of a bill allowing toll roads in the traffic-choked county means that a testing ground for California turnpikes may be near.

The Assembly early Friday morning reversed itself for the second time in a month, approving a bill by Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) that would allow either the county, a joint-powers agency, or a county-designated corporation to build toll roads to bypass two of the area’s most congested traffic corridors.

The bill, which had been rejected a week earlier, was reconsidered and approved on a 42-35 vote and then sent to the Senate, which has already approved similar legislation by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim).

Both bills would make Orange County the test site for the idea of supplementing tax-financed freeways--a California tradition--with Eastern-style turnpikes.

Frizzelle and Seymour said Friday that they will meet soon in a bid to iron out the differences in their measures, differences both lawmakers called minor. Seymour’s bill is scheduled to go before the Assembly Transportation Committee next month, while Frizzelle’s is headed for a committee hearing in the Senate.

“I think they need to be reconciled,” Frizzelle said.

Seymour added: “I have no pride of authorship. I just want to give the local transportation interests another tool in their kit.”

Seymour’s bill is sought by the Transportation Corridor Agencies, a group of Orange County cities that have joined with the county government to plan, design and build the highways.

Susan Marzec, a spokeswoman for the agencies, said the Assembly’s action on Frizzelle’s bill was “pleasing news.”

“It’s a step in the right direction,” she said. “We’d still like to see both bills become a little more compatible.”

The major difference in the bills is that Frizzelle’s allows a private corporation to build the roads while Seymour’s does not. A companion bill to Seymour’s measure also allows the joint-powers agencies to finance the highways with bonds, while Frizzelle’s bill makes the county responsible for issuing the bonds.

Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission, said the action of the two houses indicates the Legislature is willing to use Orange County to test the idea of toll roads in California.

“I think there’s significant momentum to build one of the new transportation corridors, and one of them will probably be built as a toll road,” Oftelie said.

The three corridors are known as the Eastern, the San Joaquin Hills and the Foothill transportation corridors. The Eastern corridor would connect the Riverside Freeway (California 91) to the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5). The San Joaquin Hills corridor would connect Interstate 405 in Costa Mesa to Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano. The Foothill corridor runs roughly along the eastern side of Interstate 5 from Santa Ana to the San Diego County line.

Empowered to Build Turnpike

Frizzelle’s bill would allow the county to build a toll road on the Eastern corridor and on either the San Joaquin Hills or the Foothill corridor.

The Assembly last month approved a bill by Frizzelle to allow any county to build toll roads, but legislative observers believe that that measure has little chance of clearing the Senate.

“My sense is that the Senate will not approve that bill,” Seymour said. “The issue has already emerged as a polarization of philosophies between those who believe in traditional freeways and those who are trying to do something about the gridlock of California and are willing to at least consider the concept of toll roads.

“I think the statewide concept would have trouble getting out of the Senate Transportation Committee.”

But Frizzelle said he will press forward with both of his measures: “The statewide bill has something for different members in different parts of the state.”