OCTC Approves Proposal for State’s First Toll Road

Following recommendations of a citizens panel, the Orange County Transportation Commission on Monday voted 7 to 0 to make the planned San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor the state’s first toll road.

The action paves the way for the county’s jointly administered Transportation Corridor Agencies to develop a program for levying the tolls, which under recently adopted state legislation would expire after the highway is completed.

The commission also approved a citizen panel’s recommendation that the county seek amendments to federal toll road legislation that would allow federal money to be used for the planned Eastern and Foothill corridors under the theory that the three highways will be part of one “beltway.”

The 15-member citizens panel made its recommendations Sept. 25. The issue generated no debate at Monday’s commission meeting.

Earlier this year, Congress named Orange County as one of seven U.S. sites eligible for a toll road demonstration project that would be eligible for federal aid amounting to 35% of the cost.

As part of Monday’s action, transportation commissioners also voted to seek state aid for the San Joaquin Hills project.

The planned 15-mile San Joaquin Hills route extends from MacArthur Boulevard and Bonita Canyon Drive near UC Irvine to Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano. Construction is scheduled for completion by late 1993.

Apparent Shortage of Funds

County officials sought state and federal toll road legislation because it appeared that there would be insufficient state and federal money to meet Orange County’s projected highway needs.

The Orange County chapter of the League of California Cities has been working on a list of priority road projects and possible ways to pay for them, ranging from an increase in state gasoline taxes to imposition of a local sales tax.

Santa Ana Mayor Dan Young, who has chaired the league’s project, briefed county transportation commissioners about it Monday and came close to calling for a 1988 ballot measure that would seek voter approval of a local, half-cent sales tax for highway projects.

Young cautioned that a “consensus” needs to be built countywide before it is politically safe for any agency to endorse such a ballot measure, which would be similar to one that was soundly defeated at the polls in 1984.

The league’s so-called “Super Committee on Transportation” has raised the possibility of tying any sales-tax measure to specific projects, especially the $1.2-billion widening of the Santa Ana Freeway, considered the county’s most important transportation project.

However, California Transportation Commission member Bruce Nestande--a former county supervisor--told county commissioners that it would be “foolhardy” to raise local money for an interstate highway such as the Santa Ana Freeway. He called for a June, 1988, ballot measure that would establish a half-cent county sales tax for specific, local road projects, such as the three planned transportation corridors.

Nestande Supports Tax

“I stand prepared, as one person, to right now support a half-cent sales tax,” Nestande said following the OCTC meeting. “The need is so readily apparent.”

But Nestande added: “It’s my firm conviction that the backbone of the interstate system (Interstate 5 in California) is going to be financed by state and federal money.”

The issue arises in part because the I-5 widening project in Orange County is behind schedule and has not been paid for past the end of the current five-year state highway budget.

But Nestande said the county would be foolish to assume it can put up local money, including proceeds from a local sales tax, to finish the project and then later ask the state to spend its money on other highways designated by the county.

“The state commission could just say, ‘Thanks for doing our job for us’ and walk away,” Nestande said.

Nestande is the first official in Orange County to publicly call for a 1988 sales-tax election since a one-cent sales tax proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by county voters in June, 1984.

Under current state law, the Board of Supervisors must approve a plan that would create an independent authority to administer the tax. City councils representing more than half of the county’s population would also have to approve the plan, and then the independent transportation authority would seek a sales tax election.

In other action Monday, OCTC members agreed to seek bids from consultants who would help Caltrans better schedule its perennially delayed highway projects.

A recent county report identified 12 of 20 top highway projects that have fallen behind schedule.