Legislation Against 241 Toll Road Moves Forward

Video From a bunch of Trestles Surfers, News today from the San Diego Union Tribune, with my comments at the end:

San Onofre toll road foes get key Congressional assist

By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

10:05 a.m. December 7, 2007

SAN DIEGO – A previously stalled effort to put the brakes on the controversial toll road through San Onofre State Beach, which opponents say would damage environmentally sensitive park land and diminish a world-renowned surfing spot, got back on track Friday.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, had inserted language into the House defense authorization bill requiring the Foothill/South Toll Road project to adhere to state environmental laws.

The project can't be built unless the state Coastal Commission grants a permit for its construction, and a commission staff report issued in September already has recommended that the permit be denied.

The Davis “rider” has now passed all procedural challenges and will be part of the full defense authorization bill when that measure goes before the full House of Representatives, probably sometime next week, Davis' press secretary, Aaron Hunter, said Friday morning.

It would effectively undo a move in 2000 by three Republican Congressmen – Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Ken Calvert – who used the same mechanism to specifically exempt the toll road project from state and federal environmental laws, Hunter said.

The proposed toll road would extend the state Route 241 toll road from Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita to Interstate 5 at Basilone Road, south of San Clemente and north of Camp Pendleton.

The 16-mile alignment would pass through the Donna O'Neill habitat preserve and cross the San Mateo campground and San Mateo Creek in the park land on the eastern side of San Onofre State Beach.

The issue has been especially passionate among surfers, who said the toll road would harm Trestles, a venerable and surfing spot.

Greg Gross: (619) 293-1889; greg.gross@uniontrib.com

My comment (lucky number 32 in the list):

By Beezling on 12/07/2007 at 9:05 p.m.

The toll road is illegal according to California state law. No one disputes that. The Transportation Corridor Agencies used their political connections (all roads lead to The Irvine Company) to sidestep California law as the road travels through federal land.

Problem is, that federal land is San Onofre State Park (and before that the road would bisect the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy). Both are mitigation for previous development - favors offered by developers willing to pave California at any cost, even if it means promising to protect little pieces of land. Until they want to run a toll road through them, that is.

A quick glance at the Response to Comments section of the projects's Environmental Impact Report, available at www.thetollroads.com, makes it clear that, if forced to abide by California State Law (which also says it is illegal to disturb a Native American sacred site on public land - like Panhe), this toll road extension (not completion) will require a complete rethink. Either that or it's just doomed.

Doom on you, Foothill-South. Doom on you.

By Beezling on 12/08/2007 at 9:12 p.m.

These road-builders ignore the law (like California state law) whenever they can, then hide behind it whenever it purports to validate their often fallacious claims.

The OC Weekly has been reporting on the incompetence and ineptitude of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the agencies' complete financial disarray, and the devastating environmental and socioeconomical consequences of their toll roads for years.
http://www.ocweekly.com/investigations

I have personally read the EIR for this project and I can tell you it's a joke. Once the Democrats took over, the whole thing was doomed, as the whole thing relied on riders put in place by Republicans that would allow the road to IGNORE (BY WHICH I MEAN BREAK) CALIFORNIA STATE LAW. I live in California. I may have broken a law or two in my time but I believe public agencies ought to abide by the law. Call me crazy.

Now that the Republicans no longer have the influence to do whatever they want, not to mention most of the toll road supporters (Ken Calvert, Gary Miller to name a pair) are caught up in their own corruption scandals at the moment, the TCA's congressional connection might go totally limp.

Here's to the flaccidity of the TCA's political connections!

With respect,
Alex Brant-Zawadzki