Sierra Club Defends Push to Settle Road Lawsuit

Opponents of a controversial east-west freeway to connect Interstate 15 with Del Mar condemned the Sierra Club on Wednesday for proposing to settle its lawsuit against the project.

Sierra Club officials defended their action, saying it would protect wetlands near Carmel Valley Road.

The settlement still needs approval from the club’s San Diego chapter--and freeway opponents are marshaling forces to keep the lawsuit alive.

On Monday, the Del Mar City Council criticized the proposed settlement and said it would send Mayor Rod Franklin and former Councilwoman Gay Hugo-Martinez to the Sierra Club’s next meeting, tonight, to urge continued support for the suit.

“They’re letting us down,” Hugo-Martinez said Wednesday. If the Sierra Club drops its opposition to the freeway, any remaining attempts to block the road lose credibility, she said. “We’ll look like extremists.”

Freeway opponents are particularly worried that the Sierra Club’s action could undermine the strength of their own legal challenge to State Route 56, which would link I-15 at Rancho Penasquitos to I-5 at Carmel Valley Road.

The Sierra Club suit was filed two years ago against the state Coastal Commission, seeking to overturn that agency’s approval of the western link of State Route 56, including widening of I-5 through Sorrento Valley. The other lawsuit, which was filed by the Del Mar Terrace Conservancy, challenged the environmental studies used by the city of San Diego and the California Department of Transportation to justify the project.

The focus of the Sierra Club lawsuit was to protect Los Penasquitos Lagoon, said Larry Silver, staff attorney for the club’s Legal Defense Fund, in San Francisco. Silver said he sympathizes with residents who oppose the freeway but said their objections are mainly aesthetic--”They don’t want it in their back yard”--whereas the club “has broader concerns.”

Under the proposed settlement of the Sierra Club lawsuit, the city of San Diego and Caltrans would pay nearly $1 million to restore and protect the lagoon, which lies near Torrey Pines State Park, with a long-term erosion control program, regular opening of the lagoon mouth, and construction of a fence along Sorrento Valley Road.

But that hardly satisfies the freeway opponents who held a press conference Wednesday at a park-and-ride lot near the lagoon.

“This settlement . . . is grossly inadequate and does nothing to alleviate any of the damage” from the freeway project, Hugo-Martinez said.

Several items in the settlement are already under way, opponents said, and none of it makes up for the destruction of wetland that the freeway will cause.

Moreover, the Sierra Club reneged on its promise to keep Del Mar officials and residents posted on the lawsuit’s progress, said resident Dee Rich, even though the city chipped in $7,000 for the suit and residents contributed $2,000.

Rich said she was told the club decided to settle its lawsuit because it has limited funds and wants to pursue other projects instead. “That analysis should have been made before they solicited funds,” she said.

Sierra Club officials disputed the claims by the other freeway opponents.

Although it’s true that the settlement covers some wetland restoration projects already under way, Silver said, the agreement brings in new money--about $400,000--for lagoon-protection measures that are needed but have no funding.

Silver acknowledged that the freeway would destroy some wetland--25 acres according to the Coastal Commission, 50 acres according to others--but said 69 acres will be restored.

“We consulted wetland biologists and state parks officials” before proposing this settlement, club spokeswoman Joan Jackson said.

As for the charge that club officials failed to let Del Mar officials and residents know what was going on, Jackson insisted that both were kept informed by club attorneys.

And what about the suggestion that the club abandoned the lawsuit because it wanted to devote money to other projects? Silver noted that the Sierra Club usually has several hundred lawsuits filed around the country at any one time and has to constantly evaluate which are worth continued investment.

One factor, he said, is the likelihood of winning in court. Although he wouldn’t indicate whether that influenced the State Route 56 settlement, he said that not settling is often risky and that sometimes it’s better “to get some positive gains for the environment rather than going full-bore.”

Jackson said the club still supports the lawsuit filed by the Del Mar Terrace Conservancy. If that suit wins, the Sierra Club settlement won’t take effect, she said, but, if it fails, nothing will be done to protect the lagoon. “If their suit loses, and we don’t have (our) settlement, then the result is zip.”