Local News in Brief : Tustin : Group to Fight Eastern Transportation Route

An area homeowners group plans to oppose a route for the Eastern Transportation Corridor that had been worked out recently between other homeowner associations and the cities of Tustin, Irvine, and Orange.

Dr. Jeffrey Katz, president of the Tustin Hills Homeowners’ Coalition, which represents owners of about 1,000 homes in the Lemon Heights and Cowan Heights sections of East Tustin, said his group may go to court if the proposed route is adopted by the Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency.

The three cities worked out an agreement with the Eastern Transportation Corridor Homeowner’s Coalition, which represents about 25,000 homeowners, but the Tustin Hills group claims that the coalition doesn’t represent them.

The Eastern Corridor is a planned toll road that would connect the Riverside Freeway near the Riverside County line with the Santa Ana Freeway through the canyons north of Tustin.

Katz said members of his group are upset that the western terminus of the proposed Portola Parkway was recently changed from an intersection with Tustin Ranch Road to one with the planned Jamboree Expressway. He said that is closer to his neighborhood and will add traffic to the narrow, curved streets in an area that has no sidewalks.

Katz added that the western stretch of the proposed corridor would be a major source of noise and air pollution for his neighborhood and that homeowners there don’t want Lemon Heights Drive and Foothill Boulevard to become through streets.