TAKING ITS TOLL: Newport Coast Drive has...

TAKING ITS TOLL: Newport Coast Drive has proven to be a speedy shortcut between the John Wayne Airport-UC Irvine area and Pacific Coast Highway. But when it opened last year, officials didn’t mention that part of it will be included in the county’s first toll road in 1997. . . . The section between Coyote Canyon Road and MacArthur Boulevard is planned as part of the proposed San Joaquin Hills tollway, and you’ll have to pay 50 cents to travel that stretch in either direction. The Laguna North Neighborhood Assn. is among vigorous protesters, calling it “outrageous.”