Tollway Debate a 2-Lane Road : Traffic: To build or not to build the planned San Joaquin Hills artery was the only issue during a crowded hearing. There were no shades of gray.

A spillover crowd weighed in Thursday during a long-awaited hearing on the $680-million San Joaquin Hills tollway, with supporters saying the highway will ease South County traffic and opponents warning that it would cause severe environmental problems.

Like a heated Town Hall debate, about 300 people jammed into the Santa Ana City Council chambers and another 125 were left outside during the first of three sessions to decide the fate of a key document detailing the environmental merits of the 15-mile toll road.

The three-hour hearing was rife with invective, but both sides agreed that little new ground was covered. Instead, most people avoided the intricate details of the environmental document to focus on the simple question of whether the controversial highway should be built.

Boosters said the highway is a vital missing link in the county’s traffic network, and suggested that development will happen even if the road isn’t built, spawning worse traffic jams than exist now.

By 2010, a trip from Laguna Niguel to Costa Mesa will take 30 minutes on the tollway, but would balloon to 75 minutes if it isn’t built, tollway agency officials contended.

“This represents a unique opportunity to relieve our transportation problems,” argued Paul Mitchell, chairman of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce. “Now is the time to move forward . . . for the good of business, employment, residents and all of Orange County.”

Opponents countered that the project would do little to help traffic. Instead, they argued, the tollway would cause more air pollution, open up vast tracts of land for new development and more families with cars, irreparably harm wildlife in the sensitive coastal foothills and lower property values for some homeowners.

In addition, foes voiced support for alternatives such as a light rail system, something that tollway boosters have maintained cannot cure the current problems alone. They also pleaded for a public vote on the project.

“At 69, I’m not going to be a victim of this road,” said Ed Kendzierski of San Juan Capistrano. “But my grandchildren are. . . . This is a disaster in the true sense of the word.”

A second hearing on the tollway, which would link San Juan Capistrano with Newport Beach, is scheduled Feb. 28. The Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies will then vote on the environmental impact report March 14. If approved, the project moves on to the Federal Highway Administration, probably in early summer.

But opponents have promised to file a flurry of lawsuits if the tollway agency acts. Moreover, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed severe reservations about the highway’s impact on air quality.

Thursday’s hearing was repeatedly marked by applause, catcalls and hissing, particularly when representatives of developers voiced their support.

Armed with placards bearing slogans like “Heads We Win, Toll We Lose” and “Let Citizens Decide,” tollway opponents repeatedly blasted the agency board for scheduling the environmental review hearings during working hours and in the relatively cramped council chambers in Santa Ana.

When John C. Cox Jr., chairman of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency and a Newport Beach councilman, declared after three hours that the meeting would be adjourned to the all-day hearing in two weeks, several foes jumped to their feet and shouted in protest.

Outside the hearing room, about 125 people who were shut out because of the hall’s occupancy limit grumbled about the board’s refusal to find larger accommodations. About 100 folding chairs were provided in a brick-paved courtyard and loudspeakers piped out the audio portion of the session, but it did little to placate those left outside.

“They need to see us too,” complained Elisabeth Brown, president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc. “If you have a Town Hall kind of meeting, which is what these public hearings are, people should be accommodated.”

Cox said afterward that the board considered moving the hearing to a bigger location and holding it at night but opted not to because of scheduling concerns. Quipped Cox: “Just to rent Dodger Stadium to do a thing like this hardly seems appropriate.”

Supporters outnumbered opponents 24 to 20 at the speaker’s podium during the hearing, prompting Cox to suggest that the vast majority of residents support the San Joaquin Hills tollway and two other pay-to-use highways planned by the agency in South County.

Times staff writer Gebe Martinez contributed to this report.