Scenic Road Is Key to Future of Rustic Canyon : Development: The number of new homes allowed in Trabuco by a forthcoming growth plan hinges on controversial improvements to the picturesque but perilous highway leading into the rural area.

After years of debate and stacks of paper work, the thorny issue of how many new homes should be built on 6,500 remote acres that hug the Cleveland National Forest may boil down to a bucolic country road that twists and turns through this tree-covered canyon.

The four-mile-long stretch of rural highway--known as Live Oak Canyon Road--is covered in places by a natural canopy formed by oak trees, creating a tunnel effect that has been called one of the most beautiful rural scenes in Orange County. The road carries 4,200 vehicles a day and is the major route into and out of Trabuco Canyon.

“It is something that if it were ever destroyed, it would come back to haunt the people who did it,” said county Planning Commissioner Stephen A. Nordeck.

But beyond its beauty, the road is also deadly. “It is dangerous, and we hope to see some upgrades, turnouts and boulevard stops that will stop people from traveling so fast,” said Nordeck, who owns a restaurant in Trabuco Canyon. “We have to control the amount and speed of traffic on Live Oak Canyon Road.”

More bluntly, an official in the county’s Environmental Management Agency called the road “one of the most dangerous highways in the county that needs some immediate improvements to make it safe.”

The Planning Commission is expected in the coming months to debate the future of Live Oak Canyon Road as county planners and the five commission members formulate a growth plan for Trabuco Canyon, which has a current population of 450. The commission has been working on the complex plan for more than a year and has already decided against a proposal to cut a new road through the sparsely populated foothills northeast of Mission Viejo, relieving Live Oak Canyon. The Board of Supervisors should take the final vote on the plan by the end of the year, planning officials predicted.

The plan not only holds the fate of Live Oak Canyon Road and Trabuco Canyon, but, according to environmentalists, it will set the tone for the future development of the foothills and backcountry in the east and south parts of Orange County.

“That road will dictate the density of the development in Trabuco Canyon,” said Bruce Conn, a canyon resident and member of an advisory planning committee. “The idea of isolationism is not a bad thing.”

Without any new roads and minimal improvements to Live Oak Canyon Road, says Ray Chandos, an environmentalist and canyon resident, the maximum number of homes that could be built in the area would be between 160 and 200, well below the 1,700 new homes last suggested.

Many times, perhaps unfairly, Live Oak Canyon Road--which is shorter and carries less traffic--has been linked with Santiago Canyon Road and Laguna Canyon Road as among the most dangerous in the county.

The eight-mile-long Laguna Canyon Road, which connects the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways with Coast Highway at Laguna Beach, has been the site of more than 30 traffic deaths in the last decade and has been called one of the most deadly highways in California.

Santiago Canyon Road, a 13-mile stretch running between Trabuco Canyon and Orange, carries as many as 16,000 cars a day and in the last 15 months recorded a total of 94 accidents, including 36 injuries and five fatalities.

Each day, thousands of impatient foothill commuters from Coto de Caza, Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch and Rancho Santa Margarita hurry over Live Oak Canyon Road to Santiago Canyon Road to Chapman Avenue and into the cities of Orange, Anaheim and Santa Ana. They take the “rural route” to avoid the crowded Santa Ana Freeway.

In a 15-month period ending March 31, California Highway Patrol statistics show a total of 40 accidents on the four-mile stretch of Live Oak Canyon Road, resulting in one fatality and 14 injuries. Excessive speed and following too closely were the two major causes of the accidents, CHP officials said.

The poor safety record has also cost county taxpayers millions of dollars in payments to settle lawsuits filed by injured drivers who claim that the road is unsafe.

The county agreed to pay $1.94 million in 1987 to Jeffrey Heckendorn, who suffered severe head injuries in an accident along Live Oak Canyon Road. His car left the roadway near the entrance to O’Neill Regional Park, and, in an attempt to get back on the highway, he overcorrected and drove into the path of an oncoming truck. The accident left Heckendorn a quadriplegic, said Maria Bastanchury, manager of the county’s risk management program.

Another expensive lawsuit followed the 1985 death of Curtis DeSoto, 26, of El Toro. Officers said DeSoto was riding alone on his motorcycle when he lost control on a series of turns, struck an embankment and was thrown into an oak tree. The county settled with the man’s family for $321,167, Bastanchury said.

Nine other claims resulting from accidents along the short stretch of highway have been filed against the county. Of those, Bastanchury said, seven have been settled for $500 or less and two remain outstanding.

Some in the community have suggested making Live Oak Canyon a private road, relieving the county of any liability--much like what officials did when they began charging a toll to enter the famed 17-mile drive on Monterey Peninsula.

“ Private is a dangerous word,” said Bruce Conn, a resident and a member of the Trabuco Canyon Advisory Committee. “I think it should be more of a controlled road. The problem that exists is that the road, by its nature and by its design, is a dangerous road. One or two things have to be done. Either reduce the limits of traffic on the road, or upgrade it to become a safe road.” But, he said, improvements would “wipe out” all the benefits of what is considered a scenic road.

Richard Adler, the county’s lead planner for the Trabuco Canyon area, agreed: “Widening Live Oak Canyon Road would drastically impact the canopy. There are a lot of people who care about those trees.”

The Orange County Planning Commission has gone on record to reject what some see as the answer to the dilemma of providing safer travel without destroying the fragile environment.

Commissioners voted 3 to 2 to delete a proposed highway called Rose Canyon Road from the county’s Master Plan for Arterial Highways. The proposed road--once four lanes but reduced to two--would have run north of Trabuco Canyon along the Cleveland National Forest, connecting both ends of Live Oak Canyon Road and thus protecting the half-mile-long canopy of trees. The bypass was designed to funnel traffic around to El Toro Road, Plano Trabuco Road and Santa Margarita Parkway.

CHP Officer Toni Kodera said most of the drivers involved in accidents along Live Oak Canyon Road do not live in the canyon and “use the road as a shortcut” to other places in the county.

NEXT STEP

The Orange County Planning Commission will move to eliminate the proposed Rose Canyon bypass from the county’s Master Plan for Arterial Highways. The bypass, designed to protect the most fragile parts of Live Oak Canyon Road, fell out of favor because of the damage it might do to the hills just below Cleveland National Forest. Under a new timetable, commissioners will hold hearings on a new, lower-density building plan for the sparsely populated area in Trabuco Canyon and the nearby foothills. The final plan is expected to be before the County Board of Supervisors for final approval by the end of the year.