Regional Road Plan Attacked by Supervisors

County supervisors on Tuesday attacked a regional transportation plan that would deny funding to dozens of Orange County road projects in favor of a controversial new freeway through the Cleveland National Forest.

Several supervisors also said they would support new legislation aimed at shifting power for transportation spending to the county and away from the Southern California Assn. of Governments, whose staff currently prepares long-range transportation planning.

The most recent SCAG plan failed to include a third of Orange County’s priority transportation projects, including the widening of the Garden Grove Freeway, a light rail system and several railroad grade separations in the North County.

If the SCAG board approves the plan later this year, the projects would have to be abandoned or delayed.

“The deletions and omissions in this report would be catastrophic for the county,” said Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson.

In Wilson’s South County district, several key road improvements--including the Moulton Parkway smart street project and the widening and straightening of Laguna Canyon Road to improve traffic flow and safety--were left off the SCAG long-range plan.

“These are projects that are important to residents, and they expect results,” he said.

Wilson and other supervisors were particularly critical of the SCAG report’s support for a tunnel and freeway through the Santa Ana Mountains that would connect the Foothill Transportation Corridor with Interstate 215 in Riverside County.

The so-called Cajalco Corridor would cost at least $1.4 billion, though some insist the price tag would be much higher. The county and Orange County Transportation Authority studied the tunnel concept in 1990, but rejected it as prohibitively expensive and environmentally unsound.

“It’s a bad idea that had no place in Orange County,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer. “I don’t consider myself a tree hugger. But I would chain myself to the trees of the Cleveland National Forest before I would let them tunnel through there.”

SCAG officials on Tuesday defended the Cajalco Corridor and other elements of the long-term plan, saying a solution must be found to ever-worsening gridlock between Riverside and Orange counties.

The Riverside Freeway, they point out, will be swamped with three times its vehicle capacity by 2020, and few other major highways connect the two counties.

“My question for the county supervisors is, what is their alternative?” said Ronald Bates, a Los Alamitos councilman and member of the SCAG board. “Even if you think one project or another is good or bad, we still have to create a plan that addresses the community’s needs. We need solutions.”

The SCAG transportation plan is one of several that the association will consider in coming months. The recommendations will be modified based on comments from public agencies, Bates said.

SCAG is a regional planning agency composed of government officials from the six Southern California counties. The transportation study is a 20-year blueprint of regional projects required by state and federal law.

Supervisors on Tuesday complained that under SCAG rules, supervisors and city council members from other counties often make crucial decisions on Orange County road projects.

Several board members expressed interest in seeking federal legislation that would give a county agency--perhaps the Orange County Transportation Authority--more authority in funding road projects.

“Orange County has to make decisions for Orange County,” said Supervisor Jim Silva.