Toll Roads

The contentious proposal to extend a toll road 16 miles, part of that through San Onofre State Beach in northern San Diego County, has been moving slowly through the bureaucratic process for decades. The $1.3-billion road is intended to connect Rancho Santa Margarita in southern Orange County with Interstate 5 at Basilone Road just south of San Clemente. The U.S. Department of Commerce is now considering whether to override the state Coastal Commission's rejection of the project this year.

As the federal government undertakes the largest financial bailout in history, Orange County's toll road agency is asking for its own hefty government handout. The agency is seeking a $1.1-billion loan of taxpayer money to shore up the finances of its network of turnpikes. The reason? As gas prices gyrate and the economy flounders, drivers -- and the revenue they bring -- have been deserting the toll roads.

Beginning this month, Orange County's toll road agency will monitor water in creeks that would be crossed by a proposed extension of the 241 Toll Road through north San Diego County. The Transportation Corridor Agencies have hired an engineering firm to test water for metals, urban runoff and other roadway contaminants during storms at eight spots along San Juan, Cristianitos, San Mateo and San Onofre creeks, officials said Tuesday. These creeks will be monitored for two years in wet weather months before potential construction of the 16-mile road that would connect Rancho Santa Margarita and Interstate 5 at Camp Pendleton.

The U.S. Commerce Department came, it saw (or at least heard), and now it gets to decide whether to allow the Foothill South toll road to be built even though the project was rejected by the state. The Bush administration has displayed a generally hostile attitude toward public parks and environmental protection. So let this serve as a reminder that federal officials are not supposed to act as a second Coastal Commission in deciding the merits or demerits of the Foothill South.

Thousands showed up to voice their opinions on a proposed toll road through a state park in north San Diego County; tens of thousands more have written to federal officials about the hotly debated project. Now that the time for public comment has ended, the turnpike's future rests not with Southern California residents or lawmakers, but with a member of President Bush's cabinet. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M.

Federal officials hoping for decorum laid down the rules at the outset of Monday's public hearing on whether to build a toll road through a state park: no booing, no cheering. The public's response: Boos and cheers reminiscent of February's raucous marathon public meeting here in which the California Coastal Commission turned down the proposed road through San Onofre State Beach.

With a hearing to determine the fate of a proposed toll road through south Orange County a few weeks away, the agency backing the project issued a report Wednesday arguing that the new road would adequately protect water quality at San Onofre State Beach. Plans proposed by the agency to protect the San Mateo Creek watershed and famous Trestles surf break from erosion and contaminated storm water "should do as good a job as needed," said Derrick Coleman, a senior project manager with environmental consulting firm Tetra Tech.

Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved a plan to give control of 1,200 acres of open space to a land trust backed by a developer that supports building a six-lane toll road through the property. The developer, Rancho Mission Viejo, says it plans to add the land to its own 17,000-acre open space preserve and maintain it as undeveloped land. The land was originally set aside as part of an earlier agreement to offset the environmental and wildlife effects of housing developments.

A coalition of environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging that U.S. wildlife agencies violated endangered species protections in their support of the proposed toll road through San Onofre State Beach. The suit, filed Wednesday in San Diego County District Court, calls the conclusions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service biased, potentially leading to an "ecological disaster."

One of the worst possible reasons for not holding a public hearing is that too many people are passionately interested in the outcome. Yet that's precisely the illogic contained in a U.S. Department of Commerce letter indicating that the agency might cancel its hearing on the proposed Foothill South toll road after learning that perhaps 10,000 people want to attend.