Foes’ Suit Urges Further Tollway Study

A skeptical U.S. appeals court heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit by environmentalists seeking to force a key federal agency to further study a 4.7-mile section of tollway that would cut through Laguna Canyon.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard Joel R. Reynolds, attorney for Laguna Greenbelt Inc., criticize an environmental study of the roadway and offer several alternatives to having the toll road cleave the environmentally sensitive canyon. But the concept was questioned by one of the judges.

“If alternatives are proposed, is there anything in the law that says they have to be considered?” Justice Alex Kozinski asked.

The appeals court is expected to issue a ruling later this year in the suit, which charges that a key federal agency performed an inadequate environmental study of the project before giving its approval to the current route, which runs 17 miles from San Juan Capistrano to Newport Beach.

Work on the disputed stretch in the canyon has been stalled for a year. A federal judge issued an injunction on construction in the canyon last September so both sides could argue the issue in the courts.

Lawyers for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation, which want to build the disputed link between Newport Coast Drive and El Toro Road, countered the environmentalists’ charges, saying many alternatives were considered by the agency and the government.

In addition, attorney John L. Flynn said much of the greenbelt surrounding the proposed road through Laguna Canyon would be targeted for development today had it not been created as part of the controversial tollway.

“Thousands of acres of this greenbelt would not be committed to open space” were it not for the toll road, Flynn said. Reynolds did not dispute that assertion.

Reynolds said the Federal Highway Administration, the agency of the Transportation Department that approved the tollway, did not study the use of bridges, viaducts and tunnels as alternatives to leveling hills and filling in ravines in the canyon. However, Flynn said the tollway agency plans to build 78 structures, including bridges and animal crossings, in the canyon.

Environmentalists have offered to compromise if the tollway agency agrees to reduce the number of lanes cutting through the canyon from six to four. That would reduce environmental damage, they said.

“Redesigning the project as a downsized facility would be beneficial, but there was never any discussion of it,” Reynolds said.

But eliminating two lanes would defeat the purpose of the tollway, Flynn said. “That’s simply not going to accommodate the volume of traffic required by (the project).”