Public hearing on the California 241 toll road extension

A Del Mar Fairgrounds events coordinator tries to quiet the crowd before the doors opened to start a public hearing on the proposal to extend the California 241 toll road through San Onofre State Beach.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Both sides wear T-shirts to make their views known during the public hearing on the proposed extension of the California 241 toll road through San Onofre State Beach.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Vickie McMurchie of the Surfrider Foundation casts a suspicious eye at Tran Peng Guo, a design engineer and member of the building trades union. Tran Peng Guo said he was attending the hearing, on the proposed toll road through south Orange County and north San Diego county, as a volunteer with about a hundred union members. A union official said the members received no compensation, although a chartered bus brought most of them from Orange County.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The rules for the hearing at the Del Mar Fairgrounds: no cheering and no booing; people wanting to express their views could do so through by making a thumbs-up or thumbs-down gesture. The guidelines were intended to prevent a repeat of February’s raucous hearing -- derided by some as a circus -- on the toll road. Despite officials’ plea for quiet, though, audience members made plenty of noise.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Dave Crowell of Oceanside displays a photo of his 2-year-old daughter, Amber, and a message for the Department of Commerce about the 241 toll road.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Jane Luxton of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration -- an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department -- reads from a roster of 657 people who signed up to speak at the hearing the 241 toll road.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)