Foothill South: A Big, Ugly Mistake

* The Oct. 10 Times had three letters (“Blessings for Toll Roads”) praising the personal convenience of the toll roads. What none of these writers mentioned was the destruction of prime open space that has occurred in placing these roads, and which would occur if the Foothill toll road is extended.

Also missing from their letters is the obvious fact that the Foothill extension just adds more traffic--no more lanes--to I-5 going south, just as the San Joaquin Toll road did to I-405 going north from Newport Beach.

ROBERT SIEBERT

Orange

* I don’t know what Rep. Ron Packard is up to, but the people of San Clemente deserve a better solution to the proposed toll road extension through the heart of their city.

I want to see the toll road finished, and to connect it to I-5 to channel all that truck and through interstate traffic beyond our local commuter driving, but it doesn’t have to go into San Clemente. It can go through Camp Pendleton. The federal government does not need all of that land. It is time to think about reducing the size of Camp Pendleton.

JOE MICHAEL COBB

Candidate for Congress

48th District Libertarian Party

* Once again the pro-toll road groupies have proved to me how effective those with the money and plenty to lose can be.

Unfortunately, those with any sense about what development brings have not let this deter our quest . . . for clean(er) air, less sprawl and maybe, just maybe, some remaining open space to remind us of what it used to be like.

We have all heard the arguments for and against. So why not carve it down to what is a reality to all. Those with the investment dollars in their pockets have a mission that has nothing to do with preserving what most of us came here for in the first place.

What would be your stance if you were being paid megabucks to blacktop and commercialize every last foot of Orange County?

MICHAEL ANFINSON

San Clemente

* Most people age 40 and older who grew up in south Orange County had the blessings and opportunities to live fairly close to a wilderness, back-country type of area when they were children.

Less than 25 years ago, one could head east out of the Mission Viejo-El Toro area on a bicycle and be in the “country” in a few minutes, where one could see road runners, bobcats, coyotes, butterflies, etc., in a clean, wild state. This type of country still exists south of Ortega Highway, and within it is the pristine San Mateo Creek.

All of this is in grave danger of disappearing.

If the “Foothill South” toll road is built, there will be no “wilderness” for the youngsters to enjoy and to later retain childhood memories of. To all you citizens out there: Think back to your childhood and bring back to mind what the availability of open, undeveloped space meant to you. Let us leave some of that for our children’s children and their children. Let us not think of how much tax revenue, jobs and business opportunities the toll road would bring with the ensuing development. Greed is an awful thing.

ALLAN ROY

San Clemente

* Very sad to see the three letters promoting the further destruction of our Orange County open space.

I am also a frequent traveler to Oceanside and never find the traffic on I-5 to be “unbearable.” I have also used the train from Oceanside to Anaheim and wonder if these letter writers have tried alternate methods of transportation to ease their traffic woes. The diamond lane on I-5 through San Juan Capistrano northbound is usually open, and these three complainers might try car-pooling to reduce

congestion on the freeway.

A good friend of mine is in favor of building the toll road through the state park, but complained bitterly when he could not find any open campgrounds to take his family to on a late summer weekend!

Open space in Orange County is now a very valuable commodity. Let us not destroy it by paving over our remaining hills, valleys and canyons just to (very questionably) shave a few minutes off travel time.

CHARLES JENNER

Los Alamitos

* In contrast to the arguments of toll road proponents (Letters, Oct. 3), I am not persuaded that the “booming” Orange County economy requires the destruction of the San Mateo Campground in order to remain strong.

Nor do I believe that saving a few minutes on a trip from Carlsbad to Costa Mesa somehow justifies the extensive and permanent degradation the proposed Foothill South toll road will bring to San Mateo Creek and Trestles beach.

In a region where virtually every significant waterway has been converted into a gutter in the name of flood control, and most natural spaces relentlessly “developed” in the name of “progress,” to sacrifice these last remnants of Orange County’s natural heritage to this dubious, unnecessary, destructive project is unconscionable. How many more thousands of acres of asphalt and concrete will our “fast-paced society” require to service the needs of the automobile? And what will we have left, if the value of moving traffic trumps all other values?

TIMOTHY R. RYAN

Capistrano Beach