Pelican Hill Road Expected to Ease Coast Highway Load

Most mornings Ranz Johnson is a bit edgy, if not downright ornery, when he walks into his office near John Wayne Airport. But Thursday, Johnson was smiling, and his secretary remarked that he actually said hello, despite another hourlong commute up the coast from Dana Point.

The attitude adjustment, he explained, was the result of the California Costal Commission’s approval this week of Pelican Hill Road, a $40 million highway that is expected to help route coastal traffic around Corona del Mar, reducing congestion in the seaside town and trimming the commute time for such people as Johnson.

“That’s the first bit of good news for south county drivers in a long time,” said Johnson, who used to take the San Diego Freeway to work but switched to the coastal route a year ago after growing tired of the bumper-to-bumper freeway grind. As thousands of commuters can attest, traveling Coast Highway north of Laguna Beach is not much better, particularly at commute hours.

But that is expected to improve when Pelican Hill Road is completed in summer, 1990. The 6.1-mile road will begin at Coast Highway south of Corona del Mar, arc through the San Joaquin Hills and end at Bonita Canyon Drive in Irvine. Initially, the road will be four lanes, but two more lanes will be added later, Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas said.

Major Artery

The road will be one of the major arteries in the company’s mammoth 9,435-acre Irvine Coast development--a residential, office, retail and parkland development planned for the pristine ridges and arroyos between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. The road, and the company’s agreement to pay the entire cost of construction, were key factors in getting state and county approval for the project.

Corona del Mar residents and merchants have complained in recent years about traffic on Coast Highway through their community. Because of rapid development in south county and the resulting congestion on the San Diego Freeway, Newport Beach officials said that commute traffic through Corona del Mar has increased 25% in the last three years.

“There’s little doubt that the severe traffic problems on the San Diego Freeway have forced hundreds--if not thousands--of commuters to find a different route to work, namely the coast through Corona,” Newport Beach city engineer Don Webb said.

About 41,000 cars per day travel through the community, Webb said. Pelican Hill Road, based on estimates in the project’s 1986 environmental impact report, will carry up to 12,000 vehicles a day.

“This is a very significant traffic improvement,” Thomas said. “Pelican Hill will become an important alternative for the people in Laguna Beach and points south trying to get to the airport area.”

Clyda Brenner, former president of Corona del Mar’s community association, said many residents “are relieved.”

Brenner lives on Marguerite Avenue, a popular shortcut to skirt East Coast Highway through the city. The line of commuters passing through her tree-lined neighborhood makes it impossible at peak hours to hold a discussion on the front lawn, she said.

“It’s crummy, really crummy what’s happened,” she said. “I just hope Pelican Hill is the answer.”

Pelican Hill Road has been on the county master plan for roads since the 1960s and has been actively pursued by the Irvine Co. since the early 1970s.

During last year’s emotional, often-bitter debate over the proposed expansion of Newport Center between MacArthur Boulevard and Jamboree Road, the Irvine Co. said it would build Pelican Hill Road if Newport Beach voters approved Measure A, allowing the expansion. Despite predictions by company officials then that the measure’s defeat might delay the road project for up to 10 years, voters rejected the Newport Center expansion.

The Coastal Commission first approved the Pelican Hill Road concept in 1981, but it was not until Wednesday that the project got final approval. A commission official said no one spoke against the project at the hearing.

“It’s great news,” said Ellen Buck, administrator of the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce. On a recent morning, she said, northbound traffic was stop-and-go for more than two miles south of town. And in the evening, she said, some residents refuse to cross East Coast Highway.

“I had a lady call me today asking if I could help her find a grocery store on her side of Coast Highway. She was too scared to cross it,” Buck said. “Now maybe we can all live a little safer.”