LAGUNA NIGUEL : Report Criticizes Toll Road Routes

Fifteen Laguna Niguel businesses would be eliminated and more than 100 others would be hurt if one proposed route is chosen for the San Joaquin Hills toll road, according to a report by the city released this week.

The highly critical 28-page report was submitted to the Transportation Corridor Agency on Monday, the deadline for responses to environmental reports on the project. The agency is charged with building three proposed county toll roads, including the six-lane San Joaquin Hills corridor, which is expected to stretch about 15 miles from Newport Beach to just south of Mission Viejo.

While the city of Laguna Niguel generally supports construction of the corridor, City Manager Tim Casey said one of two possible routes would require that Laguna Niguel “bear the brunt in terms of housing and business displacement.” The result would be catastrophic to local businesses, he said.

“It translates most directly to a dollars-and-cents loss to the city of Laguna Niguel,” Casey said. “If all the businesses slated to be acquired under alternative No. 2 are lost to us, that’s worth about $1 million a year in lost revenues. That’s a significant part of our general fund budget.”

The city is concerned with how the toll road would connect to the San Diego Freeway in Laguna Niguel. The original plan calls for the corridor to join with the freeway south of Avery Parkway. The second would fuse the corridor and freeway just north of Avery Parkway.

If the northern connection is chosen, 15 businesses, including the warehouse outlet Costco, would be condemned and purchased by the agency. In addition, a major access route to more than 100 businesses along Camino Capistrano would be eliminated.

Drivers would no longer be able to turn right onto that street from the Avery Parkway exit. In addition, the only direct access to the businesses from within Laguna Niguel would be eliminated, causing residents to take a “circuitous route through Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano,” the report says.

Agency spokeswoman Donna Stubbs said neither alignment is favored over the other by the agency at this point. “They both have their advantages and disadvantages,” she said. The choice will be made in February, she said.

Owners of Camino Capistrano businesses formed a committee last week, and some have individually submitted responses to the environmental document, said property owner Michael Pinto.

“They don’t buy us out, they don’t compensate us, they don’t do anything,” Pinto said. “All they do is go a long way toward destroying us.”

Stubbs, however, said traffic flow would improve near the corridor and freeway connection under plan No. 2, partly because of accompanying improvements planned for the intersection of Avery Parkway and Paseo de Colinas.