Tollway: The Road to Ruin?

* Re “Tollway Runoff Filtering Approaches Total Failure,” April 6:

The Transportation Corridor Agencies runoff failure is no surprise. This was expected and predicted, but the real failure is the agency itself. The TCA is unaccountable and irresponsible. It is a quasi-government agency that has removed itself from the public dialogue. It is financed by bonds and is answerable to Wall Street, not the Orange County community.

This is a clear case of special interest vs. public interest. The TCA is irresponsible because they left the taxpayer dirty streams, dirty oceans and a $2-million bill to fix their dangerous roads.

However, the biggest failure is that the TCA is an aberration of the public process. It was set up exclusively to build a toll road for profit, irrespective of the need. That is their charter and goal, yet the way the road is financed is through developer fees, which means more urban runoff, more sewage in our oceans, higher energy bills, more traffic.

No one is surprised by the failure of the tollway runoff filtering system, just the failure of our Orange County politicians. When the citizens of Orange County speak up against their poorly planned tax-eating projects, the TCA hides behind its PR firms. Watch out, Orange County taxpayers. There go your beaches, your streams, your hills, your air, your utility bills, your taxes.

PAUL ARMS

Huntington Beach

* It worries me that as the TCA begins the environmental analysis of the toll road extension, we are learning that the existing mitigation measures for the current tollway do not work. To top it off, Caltrans cannot maintain the existing filters because it is too expensive and impractical.

Shouldn’t the existing problems be solved before we create more?

NORA JANS

Laguna Niguel

* Re “Transit’s Critical Mass,” March 26:

Your article on the hearings for the proposed Foothill South toll road highlighted the kind of rhetoric the TCA continually uses to mislead Orange County residents. In reference to citizens planning to attend the meeting, TCA official Susan Withrow stated a lot of them are going to have to be trucked in from outside the county, giving the illusion that opposition is not locally grown. If Withrow were present at the hearing, she would have realized the absurdity of her statement. The community church was filled with Orange County residents, overwhelmingly expressing their concerns. It was quite evident that local homeowners, parents, children, business owners, scientists and surfers alike do not want the urban sprawl, pollution and loss of open space associated with this proposed toll road.

BLAKE STORIE

Laguna Niguel

* As a 25-year resident of Orange County, having moved here in 1976, I can still remember the bountiful orange groves and family farms which inspired the very name of our county. Virtually all of what existed then is now but a memory, having been replaced by cookie-cutter housing developments, unsightly strip malls and graffiti-covered walls.

While the first shot in this environmental battle has been fired in San Clemente, it is abundantly clear that the deleterious effects of this proposed toll road would be felt not only by all Orange County residents, but by residents of north San Diego County as well. And that is why, even though the impact of this proposed toll road upon San Clemente would be devastating, all of us in Orange and San Diego County would be impacted and therefore have reason to be here and to voice our concerns.

Make no mistake about it. Toll roads do nothing whatsoever to ease traffic congestion. What toll roads do is facilitate future development. Toll roads are, in fact, a precursor to future development and as such are a major contributor to what we have come to recognize as urban sprawl.

Open space, whether it be in the form of vast regional parks or smaller community parks, greenbelts, hiking and bicycling trails, wildlife sanctuaries, wetlands and other natural habitats, is not replaceable.

If we do nothing else in office, at the very least we can leave a legacy of open space and a clean and healthy environment in our respective communities for future generations to enjoy and respect.

EDDIE ROSE

Former Laguna Niguel

City Council member