Environmentalists Protest 2 Proposed Toll Roads

Environmental activists are expected to converge on a public hearing today to protest two proposed toll roads that would cut through a national forest and state park and other protected areas.

The public hearing at 2 p.m. at the Brea Civic Center is being held by the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which has proposed the new roads as part of a regional transportation plan.

The purpose of the new roads--which have not yet been approved by any public agencies--would be to relieve traffic congestion created by commuters from San Bernardino and Riverside counties who work in Orange County, according to officials.

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One, called the Northern Corridor, would connect San Bernardino with the Eastern Transportation Corridor (which is now under construction) in Orange. It would cut through Chino Hills State Park, according to the agency.

The other road, called the South Pass Corridor, would run east-west between the Foothill Corridor (now under construction) with Interstate 15, to serve commuters from Riverside County. That route would cut through Cleveland National Forest and other environmentally sensitive lands, said Dan Silver, coordinator of the Endangered Habitats League, which opposes the proposal.

The regional transportation plan was released by SCAG in November, covering the counties of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, Ventura and Orange. The association is expected to vote on it in April, and it would be enacted over 20 years. No local transportation agencies have yet endorsed or opposed the plan.

But environmental activists said Wednesday they only recently found out about the proposed roads through the parks and wilderness areas. These are concerns that must be addressed immediately, despite the long-range nature of the plan, because the approval process already has begun, they said.

“It takes 20 years to create a park,” said Claire Schlotterbeck, a chief activist for the creation of Chino Hills State Park. “Then in one map, they can start the process to get a road to undermine it.”

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Chino Hills State Park was designed so that there is no view within the preserve of the urban development around it, she said.

“So now to bring a road right through it, with thousands of cars, is simply ludicrous,” she said.

Silver said the planners “appear to have environmental blinders on.”

The Southern Pass road, he said, would go through an area called the Nature Preserve of Orange County as well as the national forest. “It is a road that would be going through one of the most environmentally damaging areas you could pick.”