Ban on Laguna Tollway Construction Extended

A ban on building a toll road through Laguna Canyon was extended at least through September when a U.S. appeals court Wednesday issued an injunction allowing the road’s opponents time to prepare a suit claiming federal officials illegally approved the project.

The two-page ruling by a three-judge panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a significant setback to the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, which is building the tollway.

The injunction affects only a 4.4-mile link between Newport Coast Drive and El Toro Road that cuts through the environmentally sensitive Laguna greenbelt, including Laguna Canyon, and 1.7 acres owned by UC Irvine. Plans for the thoroughfare call for it to stretch for 17 miles from San Juan Capistrano to Newport Beach when completed in 1997.

However, the appellate court ruling raised doubts about the tollway agency’s plans to finish the six-lane toll road on schedule. Work on the disputed segment of roadway that bisects the Laguna greenbelt has been halted since Sept. 7, when a U.S. District Court judge in Santa Ana issued a preliminary injunction against construction at the request of environmentalists.

The judge lifted the injunction June 14, and transportation officials immediately dispatched bulldozers to the site. Opponents, led by Laguna Greenbelt Inc., quickly countered by sending protesters to the construction site, and lawyers for environmental groups went to the federal appeals court the same day to contest the lifting of the injunction.

On June 15, an appeals court justice temporarily stopped the bulldozers. Attorneys for the tollway agency petitioned the court to let work resume. A judicial panel from the appeals court denied the petition Wednesday, but ordered a hearing in September.

The appellate ruling means that construction will not have been allowed in the area for a year. Transportation officials said construction delays cost about $5 million each month, and they said taxpayers will eventually have to pick up the cost.

But Joel Reynolds, attorney for the environmental groups that sued to stop construction, said the delays and additional costs could have been avoided if the tollway agency and Federal Highway Administration had followed U.S. environmental laws.

“We wouldn’t be embroiled in this if they had complied with the law in the first place,” Reynolds said Wednesday.

Local transportation officials tried putting on the best possible face when told of the appeals court ruling.

“While it is disappointing that the court did not lift the injunction, we are pleased that there will be a hearing on this matter in just a few weeks,” William Woollett Jr., chief executive officer of the tollway agency, said in a statement.

Opponents of the project said the Federal Highway Administration violated environmental laws when it approved construction of the toll road.

In addition, environmentalists argued that federal officials should have filed a supplemental environmental impact report after a massive fire burned a large part of the Laguna greenbelt in October.