SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Group Fails to Win Change in Toll Road

About 100 residents in a packed City Hall this week failed to persuade the City Council to consider a new design for a controversial segment of the San Joaquin Hills toll road.

Despite the pleas of members of Save Our San Juan during a four-hour special meeting Wednesday night, the council voted 4 to 1 to go ahead with the controversial design for the interchange linking the toll road and Interstate 5. Councilman Jeff Vasquez cast the dissenting vote.

Members of SOS contend that the interchange as currently designed--derisively dubbed the “San Juan Y”--comes too close to their homes and will pollute their neighborhoods and destroy their property values.

Construction of the interchange includes widening Rancho Viejo Road--a frontage road next to the freeway--to four lanes, bringing traffic closer to the Spotted Bull and Village San Juan neighborhoods.

Although the 461-member SOS group created its own interchange alternative, it was declared too costly and impractical by an Irvine-based traffic consultant hired by the council.

William M. Huber, the city’s director of engineering and building, said his staff tried unsuccessfully to find an alternative that worked.

“The city staff has worked very hard and very diligently to try and find an option . . . that did not create further impacts to the surrounding area,” Huber said. “We frankly did not find an alternative that accomplished that goal.”

Robert P. King, a spokesman for SOS, said the city consultant was biased in favor of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the countywide organization that oversees construction of the toll roads.

Irvine-based UMA Engineering Inc., which did the report, has worked for the corridor agencies, King said.

“We think the report is tainted. . . . We think the consultant is tainted,” King said. “There is a better way than what the staff has recommended.”

Vasquez was the only council member the SOS group convinced.

“I think a better compromise could have been reached,” Vasquez said. “The bottom line is we did nothing. Basically we just laid down our sword. The TCA said this was the alignment it wanted, and we said OK.”

Councilman Gil Jones said that the people of SOS have been misled by inaccuracies and that it is time to move forward.

“There were a lot of misstatements made (Wednesday) night,” Jones said. “We have scrutinized this thing for a long time.”

The $1.1-billion toll road will run for 15 miles from Newport Beach to San Juan Capistrano.