241 Toll Road Decision – Orange County CaliforniaOC Gov.com
Ladera Ranch Times Submission
Improvements to La Pata Road have already been identified as necessary – but they are to be completed in conjunction with the Toll Road completion, ..
The Santa Barbara Independent Political Sludge Match
The Santa Barbara Independent, By: Nick Welsh
A year later, Jordan was locking horns with Schwarzenegger again, this time over a proposed toll road he was pushing through the San Onofre State Park. The proposed toll road met the same fate as the LNG terminal. …
Return of the 241 Toll-Road Extension: South County Officials Pen Scary Letter to Feinstein
OC Weekly Blogs
By Spencer Kornhaber
“Gridlock” and “congestion” are more than phrase-making words. Indeed, the determined obstructionists which have poisoned the public debate over the 241 with absurd deceptions would have you believe traffic messes in Southern California are acceptable abstractions–mere nuisances as benign as a seasonal cold or Thanksgiving gluttony.
Orange County Register
(GreenOC.FreedomBlogging.com)
Posted by: Pat Brennan, Green Living, environment editor
“A possible new route for the Foothill South toll road through part of Camp Pendleton has been rejected by the Navy, sending Orange County’s tollway agency back to the drawing board to try to complete its toll road network.
The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency began working on the new proposed route after state and federal officials rejected its previous proposal in 2008.”
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Union-Tribune Editorial
The proponents of a proposed 16-mile extension of an Orange County toll road from the inland city of Rancho Santa Margarita to Interstate 5 in northern San Diego County are still at it. Despite the firm opposition of the California Coastal Commission and the decision last year of the U.S. Commerce Department not to intervene on grounds of national security in favor of the $1.3 billion project, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency continues to lobby interest groups and military officials.
This effort may be a huge long shot, but we welcome it. The fact is the project has been undercut by a deeply misleading narrative that misrepresents or gets wrong virtually every crucial detail.
Opponents like to give the impression that the toll road would bisect the state beach at San Onofre. It doesn’t touch the beach at all. It connects to Interstate 5.
Opponents like to say the toll road would be an environmental disaster. They don’t acknowledge that two federal agencies – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – signed off on the project and that the California Department of Fish and Game did as well after the developer agreed to some mitigation measures. Nor do opponents acknowledge that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is on the shortlist of the world’s leading environmentalists, personally inspected the proposed toll-road route and gave it his blessing.
Opponents like to depict the toll road as being solely about relieving congestion in southern Orange County. But each weekday 150,000 vehicles travel back and forth between the two counties. Of course San Diego County motorists would benefit from the project. It’s bizarre to argue otherwise.
Opponents like to say the toll road would spur huge, unwanted development in south inland Orange County. But a building boom is coming to the area no matter what because huge parcels of ranch land are now being actively developed. All approvals are already in place for 14,000 new homes.
But the most annoying and insidious claim of opponents is that they are the noble good guys facing the evil special interests. Instead, what we have is surfers with unsubstantiated fears about alleged impacts on the Trestles surf spot in San Onofre serving as the front group for environmentalists who reflexively oppose construction of any new roads because they want growth to be as painful as possible. The bogus narrative trumpeted by this combination has made the toll-road project a popular proxy issue through which greens can demonstrate their fealty to the environmental movement.
The truth, however, is that the surfers are the special interests. The noble good guys? They’re the drivers who are likely to be stuck in horrible congestion on Interstate 5 from Irvine to Encinitas for decades to come.
Unless, that is, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency’s long-shot bid to revive its project pays off.
We wish the agency the best of luck. So should any county resident who ever uses Interstate 5.
