Building Corridor in Open Space Likened to Defacing Mona Lisa : Environment: Laguna Beach’s opposition to the San Joaquin Hills toll road surfaces in a report by a private consultant.

The construction of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor through Laguna Canyon’s open space “is the equivalent of painting with indelible ink a thick black line down the face of the Mona Lisa,” according to a report that is expected to become the foundation for the city’s opposition to the proposed six-lane toll road.

The study, prepared for the city by a private consultant, also faults the project for not adequately addressing the “number of significant animal species” that live on the environmentally sensitive land where the road will be built, and for not exploring other alternatives more fully.

“The corridor poses the largest threat to the Laguna Greenbelt and other contiguous open-space lands of any recent development project to date in southeastern Orange County due to the magnitude of the project and extent of its adverse environmental effects,” according to the study prepared by the city’s planning consultant, Terri Watt.

Laguna Beach is the only city officially opposed to the toll road that is expected to stretch approximately 15 miles from Newport Beach to just south of Mission Viejo. On Tuesday, council members are expected to adopt the consultant’s findings as their formal response to the Transportation Corridor Agencies’ draft environmental impact report.

“Our feeling is that the document (the environmental impact report) needs major modifications which would require them to do the additional studies we are calling for,” City Manager Kenneth Frank said.

Having just signed a deal to purchase part of Laguna Canyon from the Irvine Co. in order to preserve open space, city officials and environmentalists are now turning their attention to the corridor.

But just how far the city will fight construction of the new roadway may be tempered by a threat from Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley to withhold the county’s $10-million donation to the land purchase unless the city promises not to sue the county to block the corridor.

Mayor Lida Lenney and Councilmen Neil Fitzpatrick and Dan Kenney agree that while the city is still opposed to the project, no overall, long-term strategy has been defined.

Ken Bruner, Riley’s executive assistant, said Friday that the corridor “has to proceed to the point where it’s under control” and past the environmental review before the county formally approves funding for the canyon land.

Since the city’s first payment to the Irvine Co. is not due until next June, Bruner said there is no immediate pressure for the county to formally approve the funding. But when it does happen, he said, it will be based on the condition that the city not sue over the toll road.

That requirement, however, would not apply to environmental groups that may choose to file lawsuits to block the roadway’s construction.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, a 150,000-member national organization that often battles in court for the protection of natural resources, will also file its formal opposition before the Nov. 26 deadline to the environmental aspects of the project.

“We are not against dealing with traffic congestion. But you have to make judgments. And when there is a proposal to provide a transportation corridor through some of the last remaining open coastal space in Orange County, it certainly requires another look,” senior attorney Joel Reynolds said from the group’s Los Angeles office.

The city and the private organization are voicing similar objections, including arguments that while future studies to reduce the environmental impact are promised, they are not certain, and that the air quality will be worsened by opening up a new roadway.

Transportation Corridor Agencies spokeswoman Donna Stubbs said studies show the corridor would reduce air pollution because it will relieve traffic on other major freeways, including the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways.

“There’s nothing that contributes more to air pollution than frequently stopping traffic on the freeways,” Stubbs said.

But Lenney said the transportation agency’s rationale “sort of flies in the face of logic” because the road will only increase traffic and spur more growth.

The city’s study amplifies that point, calling the corridor agency’s assertion “illogical.