What Did Vote for Toll Road Really Allow?
Californians again did it to themselves! Under the guise of creating 1,500 jobs for a period of three years, eight coastal commissioners, by voting for the San Joaquin (Hills) toll road, voted for more asphalt jungles, more pollution and higher population density.
The jobs will be gone in three years, but the environment will be ruined forever. The Coastal Act specifically forbids consideration of socioeconomic factors to void concerns of the environment.
If the commissioners were sincere about creating jobs, they would have sent developers back to the planning board to design a feasible light mode of transportation. Such light vehicles/rails could connect all of Orange County, dissolving the traffic gridlock and create jobs well into the second millennium--while leaving our precious natural heritage undisturbed.
TRUDY TOPIK
Laguna Beach
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