Court Extends Ban on Building O.C. Toll Road

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

The brief ruling by a three-judge panel of 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 constructing the tollway.

The court’s action means construction will have been stalled for a year, a delay that transportation officials said will eventually cost taxpayers about $5 million for each month.

The injunction affects only a 4.4-mile, six-lane 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. The thoroughfare will stretch 17 miles between San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach and was scheduled for completion in 1997.

However, work on the disputed segment of roadway that bisects the Laguna Greenbelt effectively has been halted since last Sept. 7, when a U.S. District Court judge in Santa Ana issued a preliminary injunction against construction at the request of environmentalists.

The same judge lifted the injunction on June 14, and transportation officials immediately dispatched bulldozers to the site, where protesters were already waiting. Lawyers for environmental groups, led by Laguna Greenbelt Inc., went to the federal appeals court the same day to contest the lifting of the injunction.

A day later, 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.

Although transportation officials are upset over the costly delays, 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. “This is a Neanderthal project that cannot pass environmental review. It’s clear that (federal officials) simply rubber-stamped this project. They never studied it.”

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 C. Woollett Jr., chief executive officer of the tollway agency, said in a written statement.

At issue is the Federal Highway Administration’s role in approving the tollway project. Opponents said the federal agency 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.

“The bottom line is the environmental review required by federal law was inadequate and illegal,” Reynolds said. “The federal government never really paid attention to this project.”

Mike Stockstill, spokesman for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, said both the agency and the Federal Highway Administration followed the law. He said the issues that have been raised in the appellate court already have been raised in other courts, where the tollway has been challenged by opponents.

“We’ve won at every level,” Stockstill said. “Given that track record, we’re hopeful the (appellate) court will rule in our favor.”

Protesters who had maintained a vigil at the construction site since the June 14 ruling were jubilant when they received word about the appellate court’s action. About 30 demonstrators were present Wednesday.

“It’s proof positive that if people organize, they can make a difference,” said Tim Carpenter, a founder of Alliance for Survival, an activist group based in Santa Ana. “It’s a great moment. It’s made our summer.”

Laguna Beach City Councilwoman Lida Lenney, who has been a steady fixture at the protest site, said she was “ecstatic” at the “almost unbelievable” news.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Lenney said. “It’s Christmas, the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve all rolled into one.”

Lenney and Carpenter said tollway opponents will meet with tollway agency officials today and demand that they fund a project to replant the hillsides and meadows that were graded when bulldozers were at work for 12 hours last week.

“We’re going to call on the (Orange County) community to come out this summer and replant the canyon and restore it,” Carpenter said. “They’re not going to get an opportunity to bulldoze it again. We’re going to continue our court challenge. . . . Ultimately, we will save the canyon. There will be no road there.”

News of the injunction was also celebrated in San Francisco, at the office of Lawrence Halprin, a landscape architect hired by the county to design the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.

The nationally renowned designer said he has been following tollway-related events in Orange County and was relieved by the court’s ruling. “I think it’s wonderful, just wonderful,” Halprin said.