COUNTYWIDE : Reform in Regional Transit Policy Urged

Charging that Orange County is not getting its fair share, frustrated transportation officials voted Monday to pursue drastic reforms in the way the Southern California Assn. of Governments approves highway and transit projects, including replacing SCAG altogether.

The action by the Orange County Transportation Authority came after OCTA staffers released a report alleging that the county’s clout is diluted through membership in SCAG, a six-county regional planning agency whose power is derived from state and federal governments.

“Neither Congress nor SCAG have been responsive to giving Orange County a fair share of federal funding,” OCTA’s staff report stated. “For example, while Los Angeles builds the $10-billion Century Freeway, Orange County is forced into financing with tolls. Metrorail (in Los Angeles) soaks up a predominant share of rail money. Bus assistance is allocated on the basis of existing route miles, not population, thus favoring pre-existing bus service and preserving the status quo.”

As part of Monday’s action, OCTA Chairman Roger R. Stanton, who also chairs the Orange County Board of Supervisors, will write a letter to SCAG seeking “fundamental reforms,” including the possibility of a new metropolitan planning organization just for Orange County.

Fearing that decisions about airport sites and highways would be made at Orange County’s expense, the Board of Supervisors recently voted to resume paying dues to SCAG for a six-month period. The county had stopped paying a few years ago.

But Orange County and SCAG have sparred for more than a decade, and Orange County officials believe the agency is too large and too dominated by Los Angeles-oriented interests to be responsive to local needs.

SCAG’s executive committee this week will consider a plan to expand membership from 23, which includes both counties and cities, to 67, organized into dozens of numbered districts. Orange County, for example, would consist of SCAG Districts 12 through 30. Each district would encompass several cities. But Orange County officials oppose the plan as both weak and cumbersome.

A major concern: The 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act gives SCAG power to determine whether transportation plans and projects conform with regional anti-smog policies as well as federal requirements. “This becomes a powerful veto power and de facto means of withholding money from specific projects,” according to OCTA’s staff report.

The issue arose recently when SCAG officials insisted that car-pool lanes be available to motorists on the San Joaquin Hills tollway, before traffic volumes show a need for them. A compromise was negotiated whereby car-poolers will be charged lower tolls than other motorists.

Also recently, SCAG officials forced Caltrans to eliminate a planned auxiliary lane on the Santa Ana Freeway out of fear that the lane would promote additional freeway use instead of reducing existing congestion and thus air pollution.

SCAG officials complain that Orange County consistently takes a dim view of regional rule-making, often fails to participate and then tries to dump unwanted facilities such as airports and jails in neighboring counties.

SCAG is the largest federally sanctioned metropolitan planning organization in the United States, encompassing 14.5 million people. Almost all other counties with a population of 2 million or more have their own regional planning organization.