NEWPORT BEACH : City May Leave Tollway Agency

On a controversial split vote, the City Council decided to reconsider its membership in the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency unless it gets a guarantee that a bypass road will be built so that motorists from Newport Beach will not have to pay a toll.

The resolution, authored by Councilman Phil Sansone, generated heated discussion among council members Monday night before it was passed on a 4-3 vote.

Sansone’s main concern is a proposed tollbooth to be placed on the corridor that would force northbound commuters on Newport Coast Drive to pay a 50-cent toll to travel less than two miles.

There are plans to build a bypass road to eventually connect Newport Coast Drive to MacArthur Boulevard via the new Ford Road and Bonita Canyon Drive to save commuters the toll. Sansone’s resolution asks that the route of the proposed bypass be finalized by July.

Council members Evelyn R. Hart, Jean H. Watt and John W. Hedges joined Sansone in voting for the resolution. Mayor Clarence J. Turner and council members John C. Cox Jr. and Janice A. Debay voted against it.

The resolution states that the city may vote to cancel its membership in the tollway agency at a meeting on July 26 unless there is progress in obtaining the money for the bypass road. In addition, the resolution seeks a commitment that the bypass road be available before major construction begins on the tollway.

Cox, who is also the corridor agency’s chairman, argued that the city has nothing to gain by abruptly pulling out of the agency.

“I don’t think that will buy you anything,” Cox said. “The rest of the cities in the county think of us as a bunch of fools . . . and (that we’re) acting like children” for threatening to back out of the agency.

If the city leaves the agency, it will not be part of the decisions made on the project. The project, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion, is expected to be completed by 1997.