Demise of Bill Allows Disputed Toll Road Routing

A fiercely contested plan to construct the Foothill South toll road through narrow San Onofre State Beach park has moved a step closer to reality, after a bill that would have banned such construction died in the Assembly.

The bill, SB1277, by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) had been acclaimed by environmental groups battling roads proposed in Orange County and other parts of the state. But transportation lobbyists spent months fighting it and this week proved victorious. In a vote Tuesday, the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee mustered only five of the six votes needed to bring it to a full vote.

On Thursday, elated Orange County toll officials burst into applause after Mike Stockstill, spokesman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, announced the bill had “died a quiet death.”

“It’s clear to us that this was introduced as a way to kill the Foothill South project,” said Stockstill, who praised the efforts of the agencies’ lobbying firm Nossaman, Gunther, Knox & Elliot.

Supporters of the bill decried its fate but vowed to try to bring it back. They said the fight against the toll road would also continue.

“The TCA had paid lobbyists who worked feverishly to quash the bill,” said Bill Corcoran, conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter.

“Urban sprawl and the Foothill South toll road are joined at the hip,” he added. “[We are] deeply committed to stopping the toll road and stopping the devastation of the last wild lands in south Orange county.”

Orange County toll officials insist the extension is necessary to relieve growing congestion on the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways, as well as Ortega Highway. If the new road had to go through developed areas, they say, it would be more disruptive. They say also that their agency was mandated to build 67 miles of toll road and that they have so far built only 51.

“This road is needed,” said TCN spokeswoman Barbara Daly.

Supporters of the bill insisted that it was not aimed solely at the Orange County toll road, that it was prompted by a perceived trend among transportation agencies in building roads through state-owned parklands. They said the bill would return in a very similar form next legislative session.

Hayden’s bill in some respects mimicked national efforts to ban new roads in national forests. His bill would have required any proposal for a new road in a state park to be reviewed by two state Cabinet secretaries. To be built, any such road would have to: not jeopardize current uses of the park, do everything feasible to minimize effects on the park, and fully mitigate construction impacts.

Biologists have long warned that road building can endanger forests and other natural areas by cutting the land into islands. Such fragmentation hinders wild animals’ ability to roam and fosters inbreeding, heightening their vulnerability to disease and even hastening extinction. It can also cause “edge effects” such as soil erosion, road runoff and off-road vehicle use.

Such concerns sparked the Clinton administration’s controversial initiative to prohibit road construction on one-fifth of national forest land nationwide. Unveiled in May, the plan has been praised by many environmentalists and criticized by timber industry officials and some rural residents.

Times staff writer Deborah Schoch contributed to this report.

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Road Planners Win

A bill making it tougher to build highways through state parks died in the Assembly, moving Orange County’s Foothill South toll road a step closer to reality.