U.S. Court OKs Laguna Canyon Tollway Project

In a stunning blow to Laguna Canyon environmental groups, a federal court Friday cleared the way for construction to resume on the final phase of the 17-mile San Joaquin Hills tollway.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco unanimously affirmed a 1993 lower court decision allowing the project to proceed. A coalition of environmental groups had won an injunction from the appeals court in June to stop bulldozers from grading along an environmentally sensitive 4.7-mile section of the road that would cut through the canyon.

Friday’s decision “means we can start construction on the tollway in that area as soon as we get the (court) mandate,” said Lisa Telles, a spokeswoman for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency. The ruling, she said, “is fantastic.”

Environmentalists, about 30 of whom gathered at the proposed grading site in Laguna Beach to protest the decision, expressed deep disappointment and vowed to keep fighting.

“It’s not over until I’m physically moved out of the way,” said Marion Pack, a Riverside County resident who drove an hour to join the other protesters. “We are prepared to block the bulldozers and do whatever it takes to stop this.”

Construction began more than a year ago at both ends of the tollway, which will run between San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach. The June injunction halted the work while the two factions argued whether the project’s environmental studies were adequate.

The area includes eight coastal canyons, the county’s only natural lakes, and habitat for several rare species, including the California coastal gnatcatcher, a bird listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The ruling means that grading can resume within 21 days, Telles said. But Joel R. Reynolds, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Los Angeles and attorney for Laguna Greenbelt Inc., said the environmental groups may seek a rehearing or other legal remedy. If that happens, he said, grading would not resume for at least 45 days.

The appeals judges said that the tollway does not violate the National Environmental Policy Act and that the roadway’s main builder does not need a supplemental environmental impact report to proceed. Environmentalists had argued unsuccessfully that a supplemental EIR was needed after last year’s devastating Laguna Beach wildfire, which damaged or destroyed 441 homes or businesses, charred 16,682 acres and caused $528 million in damage.

The protesters who gathered Friday vowed to be relentless in their efforts to halt development in the picturesque canyon.

“This means a disaster,” said Robert King of Save Our San Juan, a 550-member group fighting the tollway route through San Juan Capistrano. “It is a roadway that isn’t needed, that will never pay for itself and will end up destroying the unique canyon and unique community of San Juan Capistrano.”

Elizabeth Leeds, who co-founded the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, said, “What is lost? Everything.”

But Laguna Beach residents know how to “pop back up after a major blow,” Leeds said. “The citizens of Laguna Beach in 1990 passed a bond issue for $20 million to help leave the canyon in its natural state by buying the land. They voted against development and the toll road.”

The activists, some of whom were arrested for trespassing in September, 1993, when they chained themselves to heavy earth-moving equipment, said they will monitor the canyon regularly to ensure that no grading is done before all legal means of halting the tollway are exhausted.

The opposition of environmentalists has focused on the 4.7-mile middle section of the road, known as the Laguna Greenbelt. In an injunction issued in September, 1993, to block construction there, U.S. District Judge Linda McLaughlin described the area as the last significant open space in Orange County.

McLaughlin lifted the injunction in June, however, and bulldozing proceeded for a day. But the appeals court immediately imposed a new order that has stopped further work.

Lawyer Reynolds said Laguna Greenbelt has a federal lawsuit pending that contends the tollway violates the endangered species law because it could destroy or severely alter the gnatcatcher’s habitat.

A federal judge in Washington has postponed that case until next year while another case involving the gnatcatcher is heard, Reynolds said. “Obviously, we will try and activate our case on an emergency basis, if we need to, to protect the greenbelt.”

Reynolds said the tollway route could be altered so that it would be consistent with the area’s ecology and landscape. That possibility was proposed to the Transportation Corridor Agency, he said, but “it was ignored, and the 9th Circuit Court didn’t buy it. Unfortunately, the decision today sends a message to the agency that they can do it their way.”

The ruling stated that an environmental study “need not consider every conceivable alternative,” rejecting environmentalists’ contention that the government had failed to take seriously their proposal to minimize the effect of the road by using bridges and tunnels.

One plan offered by the environmentalists would not have left enough space in the middle of the roadway for a proposed rail line, the court said. The official study examined all feasible alternatives, the court said, including the option of not building a road, in light of the potential effect of traffic congestion on the environment.

Although the tollway could encourage population growth, the evidence supports federal officials’ conclusion that the project would not affect the amount and pattern of growth in the county, the court said.

“The county’s population probably will grow in the coming years” even without the road, the court said, citing population growth of 2.1 million between 1950 and 1989 with little new highway construction.

The corridor agency had estimated that it stood to lose $5 million in revenue for each month the tollway was not completed as scheduled. It is due for completion in March, 1997.

Construction delays caused by numerous lawsuits have added $8.9 million to the original $793-million cost of the project. In addition, the tollway agency has paid more than $2.9 million in court-related legal fees.

Times staff writer Tina Nguyen contributed to this report.