ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Prudent Delay, While Trees Still Stand

If the San Joaquin Hills tollway were being proposed for the first time today, there would be serious questions about whether it should be allowed to cut through pristine coastal canyons in the beloved environs of Laguna Beach and about whether such a project were needed at all.

But the fact is, the corridor has been in the works for a very long time, and it has worked its way tortuously through various stages of review and approval, all in the face of serious and sustained opposition from environmentalists.

Although the issues largely have been resolved, a few legal wrinkles still are to be worked out, even as much antagonism and bitterness about the project remain.

Now it has come to this in the disputed 4.6 miles of the tollway that cut through the Laguna Greenbelt between Newport Coast Drive and El Toro Road: The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal has issued a temporary injunction to stop clearing while it considers an attempt by environmentalists to halt work until a U.S. district court judge’s ruling can be appealed.

In any event, the tollway planners appear headed for a resolution in their favor before much longer. But let the courts sort things out before the bulldozers roll on and knock down the trees and coastal sage and with them whatever hope may remain of somehow constructing a modest accommodation between road proponents and opponents for the long term.