LAGUNA BEACH : Survey Finds 74% Oppose Tollway

In a poll of Laguna Beach voters, three-fourths of those surveyed oppose construction of the San Joaquin Hills toll road, according to results released this week by the Laguna Canyon Conservancy.

The unscientific poll was conducted by Cal State Fullerton public relations students who questioned 133 registered voters during a telephone survey in March. The survey included questions about traffic, transportation and the environment.

Of those interviewed, 74% said they oppose the toll road and 19% support it. Most of those surveyed--95%--said they were familiar with the plan to build the corridor, a 19-mile roadway that would stretch from Newport Beach to San Juan Capistrano.

In preparing for the school project, the students selected as their “client” the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, one of several environmental groups involved in a lawsuit to block construction of the corridor.

Cal State Fullerton public relations professor Coral Ohl said the students were neither biased nor trying to prove a point.

“It really started from a very non-biased viewpoint,” Ohl said. “They wanted to go and find out, ‘What do the people feel about this issue?’ ”

The San Joaquin Hills tollway has been of particular interest to Laguna Beach residents because it would cut across a pristine section of Laguna Canyon.

Seventy-seven percent of the poll respondents said the road would have a “substantial impact” on their community.

“I think the results are indicative of what people in Laguna Beach feel,” said Mike Phillips, the conservancy’s executive director. “I believe they overwhelmingly oppose the toll road and are champions for preserving Laguna Canyon.”

However, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies, the group charged with building three toll roads, said other polls have shown strong support for the San Joaquin corridor project elsewhere in the county.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a question that the opposition of the toll road is concentrated in Laguna Beach,” Lisa Telles said.

Phillips said the conservancy helped prepare the questionnaire based upon a technique used by J. Moore Methods, a Sacramento company which polled residents regarding Laguna Laurel, an open-space parcel in Laguna Canyon, which the city is in the process of buying.