LAGUNA HILLS : Toll Road Meeting for Residents Set

Representatives of agencies involved in building the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor will meet with residents Wednesday to discuss the project.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers at 25201 Paseo de Alicia, Suite 150.

“It will be more of an informational meeting so people who live near the corridor aren’t surprised one morning when they get up and they hear a tractor out there,” said Don White, the city’s director of administrative services.

Speakers will include representatives of the Transportation Corridor Agencies and the contractor, California Corridor Constructors. City staff will also be present.

The toll-road corridor enters Laguna Hills on the city’s south side near Greenfield Drive and straddles the city border with Laguna Niguel for about 1.5 miles. The area most affected by the road will be the Nellie Gail Ranch subdivision.

Andy Ulich, president of the Nellie Gail Ranch Homeowners Assn., recently told the City Council that residents want contractors to erect a barrier between construction and the subdivision to keep displaced wildlife from moving into the neighborhood.

Construction of the 17.5-mile corridor from Interstate 5 in Laguna Niguel to the Corona del Mar Freeway is set to begin soon, if a U.S. district judge rejects environmentalists’ attempts to block its development. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.