Coastal Board OKs Interim Safety Steps for Canyon Highway

The California Coastal Commission Thursday approved a series of interim safety improvements along a 2-mile stretch of Laguna Canyon Road, silencing for now two decades of battles over whether the twisting highway should be widened.

The interim safety steps along the route between Canyon Acres Drive and El Toro Road include more and possibly larger warning signs, stepped up enforcement of traffic laws by Laguna Beach police and possibly a traffic signal at Canyon Acres Drive.

As part of the commission’s unanimous approval, an independent consultant will review the effectiveness of the safety measures for one year before any discussions about widening can be renewed.

Approved by Council

The Laguna Beach City Council, long at loggerheads with Caltrans over plans to widen the state route, unanimously approved the proposal earlier this week but sought to have the consultant’s review extend over two years. The Coastal Commission denied that request.

Still, Thursday’s vote seemed to make everyone in the dispute happy.

“We’ve maintained all along that safety is the issue and not movement of traffic,” said Laguna Beach Mayor Dan Kenney. “This is a step forward. The safety of the canyon will be improved and not at the expense of the beauty of the canyon.”

In addition to the new safety measures, the city also won an agreement that no attempt would be made to widen the road or grade any earth until the consultant’s study is completed. The city had earlier requested median barriers, but this was not included in Thursday’s plan.

Caltrans agreed to pay for the extra signs and any traffic signal. The Orange County Transportation Commission, which requested the new agreement, will pay for the independent consultant. Laguna Beach will pay for the police.

Officials estimated that it would take another six months before the safety improvements are completed and an independent engineering consultant is selected and approved by the city, Caltrans and the OCTC. At that time, the one-year review would begin.

The consultant is then to come back with a report on safety recommendations that everyone hopes will finally settle the dispute.

“I think if we get a third party in here to look at the whole situation . . . we’ll come up with something we can all live with,” said Keith McKean, Caltrans director for Orange County.

“Obviously we’re pleased because it doesn’t entail large earth movements, straightening the road,” said Richard Harris, a spokesman for the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, an environmental group that protested Caltrans’s widening plan before the Coastal Commission in February.

“We’re not against safety. . . . At least this gives the city a chance to do the safety measures and see if they work,” Harris said.

“It’s a good deal for everyone, and the safety issue is the main point” said Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes Laguna Canyon.

“The last action by the Coastal Commission seemed a dead end,” added Riley, who is also on the Transportation Commission. “Everything seemed to have gone down the tube, and there wasn’t anything left we could do.”

Caltrans Plan Rejected

Last February, the Coastal Commission voted 6 to 5 to reject a Caltrans plan to widen the route to four lanes and straighten a notorious curve called Big Bend.

Opponents of the widening, including the city, said it would bring too many people through the pristine canyon and lead to more development along hills overlooking the road.

The Transportation Commission and Caltrans maintain that the winding two-lane road from El Toro Road to Canyon Acres Drive is unsafe and that an extra lane in each direction is needed to reduce accidents.

The Transportation Commission turned to the state Legislature for help in pressuring Laguna Beach after the Coastal Commission denied Caltrans’s widening plans. Stan Oftelie, executive director for OCTC, said that if the city did not want the road widened, then it could accept liability for lawsuits filed against the state over accidents along the road.

But the state Assembly Ways and Means Committee this month rejected a bill that would have removed California 133 from the state highway system, the first step in turning the road back to the city.