An Appropriate Skepticism

The Orange County Board of Supervisors expressed the proper skepticism this week about parts of a regional planning agency’s blueprint for transportation in the next 20 years.

One suggestion by staffers of the Southern California Assn. of Governments was construction of a new freeway between Orange and Riverside counties. Improving transportation between the two counties is worth study because if jobs keep growing in Orange County and the only affordable housing is in Riverside, the roads will become even more clogged.

The problem was that SCAG planners suggested building the freeway by tunneling into the Cleveland National Forest, thereby connecting the Foothill Transportation Corridor with Interstate 215. That’s a bad idea.

Several years ago, the Orange County Transportation Authority and Orange County looked at the possibility of a tunnel between the two counties and found it was an environmental and financial nonstarter.

The SCAG study also suggested levying a 2-cent-per-mile tax on motorists, based on odometer readings each year, starting in 2012. That proposal also seems unlikely to go anywhere.

Orange County supervisors rejected those SCAG proposals and noted a need for the transportation projects sought by the county’s own planners, including widening the Garden Grove Freeway and straightening and improving the safety of Laguna Canyon Road. The SCAG board, made up of elected officials from the six Southern California counties, would be wise to listen to the Orange County supervisors, who, in this instance, have the benefit of previous county studies and are in touch with the needs of their own communities.