Toll Road Agency Land to Be Opened to Public

The agency that built Orange County’s toll roads is planning to open to the public some 2,000 acres of land it set aside to make up for environmental damage caused by construction of the highways.

But activists say the move is merely a publicity stunt to deflect attention from the environmental toll the roads have taken on open space in Orange County.

“If they really cared about it, they wouldn’t have carved the landscape up in the first place,” said Claire Schlotterbeck, president of Hills for Everyone, the group that helped create Chino Hills State Park.

Officials with the Transportation Corridor Agencies, however, say they are bending over backward to serve the environment, as well as motorists. Although the agency was required by regulators to set aside the land, officials say they have more than made up for damage done by not only preserving, but also restoring wetlands and other important habitats.

“We can’t just build the roads--we have to be mindful of the environment,” said toll road spokeswoman Lisa Telles. “We have to put together a program to compensate for the impacts. In the planning, we created these resources.”

The agency’s eight so-called mitigation sites include portions of San Diego saltwater marsh; Bonita Creek wetland; Coyote Canyon; San Joaquin Hills; Canada Gobernadora wetland; Siphon reservoir site; Limestone Canyon wetland; and Chiquita Canyon.

A biologist-led tour program will be in place by spring, and public access will hopefully be expanded in the future to include bird-watching in the wetlands and other activities, Telles said.