Streetsblog Los Angeles

Rendering of Project Produced by the Save San Onofre Coalition

Yesterday, the United States Commerce Department surprised both detractors and supporters of the plan to build a $1.3 billion, six to eight lane extension of California 241 in Orange County, when it decided to uphold a decision of the California Coastal Comission to halt the project.  The appeal to the Bush Administration drew more than 35,000 written comments following a hearing that attracted more than 6,000 attendees.

The Commerce Department’s decision, while great news for highway construction opponents isn’t a condemnation of giant highway construction projects in general.  Rather, because there were other options to build other highway projects the Department could find no reason to overturn the state’s environmental board.

Nobody was more surprised than Jerry Amante, the Chair of the partially-publicly funded Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency which had pulled out all of the tricks to try and get the project passed including smearing opponents in pieces produced with agency funds.  He tells the Times:

"I’m stunned that any right-thinking secretary of Commerce could make
this disastrous a decision," Amante said. Anti-road activists have
"been able to throw a roadblock in the path of progress . . . and to
mire our residents in a poor quality of life for the sake of their
interests."

While the decision was cheered in many quarters, including the Times’ editorial page,  this matter is by no means settled.  While playing coy with his options, Amante has vowed to keep fighting to build his highway project of choice.  When other giant road projects, such as a 8.7-mile extension of the Foothill South through San Clemente that would join with arterial roads to connect with the I-5, isn’t a big enough highway project for your needs, Jerry Amante is your man.

Yesterday, Orange County Planners and Toll Road advocates had "their day in court" at a public hearing in front of federal officials who they hope will overturn a state decision stopping construction of $1.3-billion extension of California 241 in Orange County.  After the California Coastal Commission sided with opponents of the road stopped the project, which would cut through San Onofre State Beach, the state created Transportation Corridors Association appealed to the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to overturn the state decision.

Over 6,000 people attended yesterday's hearing, and the Times reports that the federal officials had difficulty controlling the crowd as the day was dominated by chees and boos.

The Save San Onofre Coalition charged in a press release that the 241 extension would cause irreprable damage to the local environment, especially some of the nations most beautiful beaches, and that any proposed traffic benefits will be more than outweighed the catastrophic damage to the environment.  Opponents also scoffed at the claim that the road would improve national security pointing out that the Marine Corps. is against the proposal because it would cut through Camp Pendleton.

In addition to the "usual suspects" of environmentalists and surfers, politicians and community leaders also arrived to testify against the project.  California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer; State Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego); Santa Monica Councilman Bobby Shriver; Irvine Councilman Larry Agran, who as a TCA board member cast a vote against the proposed toll road alignment; and San Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye all spoke against the road extension.

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The Transportation Corridors Agency, an organization founded in the 1980's to help build more highways through privatization,  has thus far been stymied by local opposition from building a sixteen mile freeway extension for the I-241 through San Onorfre State Park by a coalition of environmentalists, surfers, concerned citizens and civil rights advocates.  From packing a 14 hour hearing on the project with over 3,500 opponents of the widening to lobbying government officials, the groundswell against the extension project in conservative Orange County has been impressive and effective.

However, toll road agencies traditionally don't roll after a major setback when there's a road to build, so the TCA is fighting back.  In addition to appealing the CCC's decision, they're also working to turn public opinion against their opponents by attacking them in mailers sent to Orange County households.  The best part?  The mailers are being paid for by tax payer dollars.

A TCA mailer sent to O.C. homes in July includes a photo depicting freeway gridlock. The caption reads, “Driving home just got harder,” and in bolder red text, “They don’t want you at ‘their beach’ even if it means double the time you spend driving home.”

Like other TCA opponents, Sierra Club attorney Mark Massara is outraged by the tactic. “The saddest part of their entire multi-million dollar ‘blame it on the surfers and environmentalists’ PR campaign is that it is entirely financed by public taxpayers’ dollars in the form of federal loans and gifts to TCA. What a sick scam: the public is financing a project the public is dead set against,” he complains.

The United States Secretary of Commerce will hear the TCA's appeal later this year.  A public hearing on the complaint was postponed after it was estimated that 10,000 people would show up for a hearing at a UC Irvine Auditorium that only holds 5,000 people. 

Image: OC Voice

Back in December, Hunting Beach Planning Commissioner Joe Shaw wrote an op/ed for Street Heat about the challenges in trying to do smart growth planning in the O.C.  Now that Shaw is a candidate for Huntington Beach City Council, it seemed like a good time to blow the dust off this excellent piece for all the readers that have joined us in 2008.

 Anyone interested in reading more of Joe's work should head over to his website Greetings from Huntington Beach.

Greetings from Huntington Beach! Most of Orange County and Huntington Beach as well, was built on the back of the mighty interstates, which led to the massive development that is Southern California. I want to tell you a little about my town and our challenges as a pedestrian and transit friendly town.

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The Coyote Creek Bike Trail, Our Only Hope to Improve Connectivity Between the OC and LA

Back in July of last year, Metro and the Orange County Transit Authority (OCTA) joined forces to draft a joint study on how to improve mobility between the counties. The final report isn't due until this summer, but the draft report has a list of interesting projects but there's a glaring hole in the overall plan. The plan calls for dozens of new projects to improve bus flow between the counties, nine projects to increase highway capacity but only one bike project.

It seems like I'm forgetting something. Oh wait, it wasn't me. There are no pedestrian improvement projects listed in the report.

Now there is a lot of positive language, but the challenge bike and pedestrian advocates now face is how to get agencies such as Metro and OCTA to move from the "flowery language" phase of looking at bike projects to actually funding the bike trail and sidewalk projects that we need.

For example, on page eight of Attachment B the report authors recognize the problem but can only come up with that one project as a potential solution.

The existing network of bikeways serving the study area is in need of better connections across the county line and more continuous corridors that link major activity centers. The presence of bikeway facilities varies on a city by city basis, creating gaps and reducing the ability of bicycle commuters to make longer regional trips. The Coyote Creek Bikeway is a good candidate for improvement to connect bikeways in the study area.

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Last Friday, Metrolink announced plans to raise fares and cut service effective on July 1. Wait a second, you might be thinking, Metrolink announced these hikes over a year ago. True, but these fare hikes are in addition to the ones passed in 2007. From Metrolink's press release:

Because of the escalating cost of diesel fuel, scheduled increases in costs for operating services contracts and new start-up costs related to the arrival of additional passenger cars in 2009, the Board is considering a fare increase of up to 7.5%, instead of the previously approved 3.5% and potential reductions in service to take effect on July 1, 2008.

The Metrolink Board is also considering changes to the Group Travel Program. The proposed changes to the program are as follows:

Increase the discounted Group Travel fare for a round trip ticket from $7.00 to $10.00 beginning July 1, 2008

Increase the minimum number in a group to qualify for the discounted fare from 10 to 15 beginning July 1, 2008

Index future increases in the Group Travel fare to system-wide fare change proposals but only increase the fare when the cumulative total of increases is equal to or greater than $1.00.

Much like Foothill Transit during its recent fare increases and Metro during its public process for service cuts; Metrolink is avoiding laying blame at the feet of the governor and other elected leaders in Sacramento who consistently under fund transit operations and sometimes rob dedicated transportation funding to balance the general fund.

Unfortunately, our local media is doing nothing to help pick up the slack. Metrolink used the oldest media suppression trick in the book, releasing major news on Friday afternoon, and so far it's paid off. No stories on the fare increase appeared in the Daily News, LA Times, or Orange County Register. The only story I found was a reprint of the press release in California Newswire.

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