Hearings Focus on Plan for Final Leg in Tollway System

Environmentalists see it as a pristine stretch of rolling brushland, home to endangered shrimp, mice and toads, and an unspoiled buffer between two teeming Southern California counties. Transportation planners see that too, but they also view this stretch of the Santa Ana Foothills as the only viable pathway for the final leg of a 67-mile tollway network--a pay-as-you-go turnpike that is intended to ease gridlock in picturesque South Orange County.

The fate and future of this hotly contested and biologically diverse back country will be debated starting today when the Federal Highway Administration holds the first in a series of meetings aimed at sounding out environmental concerns on the proposal. The meetings, which will take place in San Clemente, Rancho Santa Margarita and Oceanside, will mark the first time toll road opponents have been given the opportunity to discuss the matter before federal officials.

As such, environmentalists are calling on busloads of like-minded individuals to attend and hope that a strong showing will persuade officials to abandon the proposal.

Environmental Concerns

In e-mails and fliers, opponents say they hope to attract as many as 1,000 protesters and have planned for transportation and parking. Opponents complain the Transportation Corridor Agencies have given scant attention to what they fear the toll road will bring with it: urban sprawl, doomed endangered animals, polluted storm water runoff and fouled air. The hearings, they say, will supply them with an administrative record that will preserve their right to sue later in the process.

“Basically, this is going to be the most people to be in one place to say we don’t want a toll road,” said Bill Corcoran of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club--one of several groups opposed to extending the tollway. “There’s a lot of pent-up frustration among people who’ve been dealing with the TCA and who feel they’re an arrogant agency.”

The rumblings have made officials at the TCA uneasy, as heavy and continued public opposition have stymied such ambitious projects as the El Toro airport and CenterLine light rail system.

“Sure it concerns me,” said Susan Withrow, a TCA official and Mission Viejo councilwoman. “I know what strong and passionate opposition can do to a project like this. It needs to be taken seriously.”

Although Corcoran and others insist that much of the opposition is locally grown, Withrow doubts the claim. “My first instinct on hearing how many people they plan on attending is that they’re not all local,” Withrow said. “I think a lot of them are going to have to be trucked in from outside the county.”

Federal highway officials will oversee a planned 18-month environmental study of the proposed toll road and other options. This week’s meetings are designed to let people suggest areas of study in the environmental review.

Andrew Wetzler, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said environmentalists want information on whether construction of the toll road will encourage new housing development and what sort of traffic that development might generate. He said he also wanted the study to investigate the impact construction would have on archeological sites, water and air quality.

“We’ve been concerned for some time that this is an enormously damaging project,” Wetzler said. “It’s going to bisect the 10th most popular park in the state, and traverse critical habitat for five endangered species.”

Toll road officials planned initially to construct a 16-mile toll road that would run south from the existing Foothill Toll Road and swing east toward Camp Pendleton, through San Onofre State Beach Park before connecting with the San Diego Freeway. After a lengthy mediation process involving state and federal agencies however, the TCA agreed to also consider several optional routes, as well as a plan to upgrade existing roadways and--even--to dump their project altogether.

Among the mix of possibilities are:

* Plans for expanding Antonio Parkway and Avenida La Pata into eight-lane, fast-moving roads with synchronized lights to keep traffic flowing and possible freeway-style flyovers and interchanges at key cross streets.

* Adding a carpool lane and regular traffic lane in both directions on the San Diego Freeway.

* Three possible toll road corridors with numerous variations.

* No upgrades other than those already planned by Caltrans and local officials.

Mitigating Damage

Withrow said that although environmentalists oppose construction of the tollway because it encroaches on habitat for endangered animals, the TCA has been successful in mitigating such damage in its earlier project. She said opponents should look at those past examples when considering the new route.

“I think we’ve done a very good job to this point,” Withrow said. “I think we have a success story.”

Opponents, however, remain skeptical.

“This road is qualitatively and quantitatively different,” Corcoran said. “They want to put this road on land with more endangered species than they have ever dealt with before.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Extensions

A series of hearings is scheduled to begin today on a controversial plan to extend the Foothill toll road south into San Diego County. The five options under discussion:

1 Far East Corridor: Officials preferred route

2 Central Corridor

3 Corridor 7: New toll road alignment

4 Arterial Improvement: Expand Antonio Parkway to 8-lane “smart street”

5 I-5 Improvement: Add general-purpose carpool lane both directions

Source: Transportation Corridor Agencies