Laguna Derides State Threat to Give Canyon Road to City

A curving stretch of Laguna Canyon Road that the state wants to widen but Laguna Beach wants to remain two lanes has become the subject of a high-stakes game of political “chicken.” The question is which side will blink first.

The city has for years been fighting Caltrans’s plan to widen the road--California 133--from two to four lanes near “Big Bend,” a curve about halfway between Canyon Acres Drive and El Toro Road. As recently as February, the city persuaded the California Coastal Commission to reject the state’s plans.

Now, the city has received an ultimatum: Let the state widen the road or risk seeing the thoroughfare deleted from the state highway system and dumped in Laguna Beach’s lap. With that would come responsibility for maintaining the road and defending the many lawsuits filed by drivers injured on its treacherous turns, especially Big Bend; 33 such suits are said to be pending now.

Laguna Beach’s response to the threat can be loosely translated this way: “We dare you.”

The issue--subject of a continuing battle involving the city, the county, the state Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Orange County Transportation Commission and the Coastal Commission--flared up again this week when Assemblyman Richard E. Longshore (R-Santa Ana), a relatively innocent bystander, was elbowed into the fray.

Longshore, it seems, was carrying an unrelated measure that the Transportation Commission found compatible with its desire to send the city a message. So late Wednesday, as the Assembly Transportation Committee was considering Longshore’s legislation, commission lobbyist Dennis Carpenter offered an amendment that would remove a 4.5-mile stretch of the canyon road from the state highway system.

The committee promptly accepted the amendment and approved the bill, sending it on to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee for further review.

Interviewed Thursday, Longshore said he amended his measure at the request of the Laguna Beach City Council.

“I’m against that action, but I deferred to their request because it’s their city,” he said.

It may be their city, but it wasn’t their request.

“That’s ridiculous,” Laguna Beach City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said when told of Longshore’s explanation. “It’s a ludicrous piece of legislation. No rational person would support it.”

Frank said the road belongs in the state highway system. Although it is a key artery in the city’s transportation network, Laguna Canyon Road is also an important link between inland Orange County and the coast, he said.

“This is a road that clearly serves a lot of people who come to the beach and through Laguna Beach,” he said.

Frank warned that city officials might refuse to maintain the road if the state foists that responsibility upon them. And he hinted that access to the coast might be hindered if the city took over the road.

“From the state’s perspective, I don’t think they want Laguna Beach to control access on that road,” Frank said. “There are lots of people here who might have thoughts about trying to do things to restrict traffic in Laguna Beach.”

Frank said the city favors minor repairs to the road that he believes would improve safety without disrupting the environment. But Caltrans contends that the road can be made safe only by widening it to four lanes.

Thirty-six people have died on the road in the last 11 years; Frank said just nine of those deaths were on the stretch that Caltrans wants to widen.

Despite Longshore’s confusion, other sources acknowledged that the amendment was prompted by the county Transportation Commission, which has allied itself with Caltrans on the issue in a bid to force the city’s hand.

Stan Oftelie, the commission’s executive director, said the agency is still trying to mediate a compromise between the city and the state.

But in the meantime, Oftelie said: “We wanted to make good on that old Chinese curse--’May your dreams come true’--and give Laguna Beach control of the roadway.”

Albert Miranda, a spokesman for Caltrans’ district office in the county, said the department supports the latest move in this 18-year struggle.

“The commission feels strongly that if the city is not going to allow Caltrans to upgrade that facility, then let’s turn that responsibility over to the city and free up that money so it can be used in another construction project elsewhere in the county,” Miranda said.

But City Manager Frank hardly seemed impressed by that threat.

“We think it’s kind of funny,” he said. “We were joking with some Caltrans people that if they give us the road we might close it down to hold a crafts show.”