Army Kills Toll Road

When supporters of the 241 (Foothill-South) toll road and its builder, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, hear opponents claim they'll stop the project, the reply is usually along the lines of, "You and what army?"

The United States Army, assholes. That's right, the Army is finally providing the necessary firepower to blow the TCA's lies clean out of the sky.

Colonel Thomas H. Magness is District Commander of the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE). You may remember their fine work on the levees in New Orleans. Colonel Magness sent a letter (Download file) dated April 7 to Thomas Street, staff attorney for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, "to clarify and augment the project's administrative record before you...." The project in question is the Foothill-South extension.

"My staff consistently endeavors to render fair and balanced decisions within the bounds of our implementing regulations and based on the best available information. For this reason, I am compelled to highlight a few areas of the public record where I have found inaccurate statements as well as inferences that misrepresent the Corps preliminary determinations within the context of our CWA and NEPA statutory responsibilities."

Would you believe it gets better?

Read the rest HERE on the OC Weekly's World Famous Staff Blog, Navel Gazing

Schwarzenegger Fragged By Lieutenant

(CROSS-POSTED ON THE WORLD FAMOUS OC WEEKLY STAFF BLOG, NAVELGAZING)

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi has just fragged Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over the 241 (Foothill-South) toll road. The road, proposed by the Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies, would cut through the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy, itself mitigation for the Talega development, and the inland portion of San Onofre State Beach, not to mention disturb a site sacred to the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians.

In Vietnam, it was not unheard of for unhappy soldiers to toss a fragmentation grenade into the tent of, or "frag," the lieutenant or commanding officer. The enemy could always be blamed, and while it did not guarantee superior leadership in the future, at least it made for a nice change of pace.

Garamendi, along with State Senate President pro tem Don Perata, Senate Natural Resources Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg and Senator Christine Kehoe, signed a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez. (Download file)They made three simple demands:

1) You reject TCA’s appeal and uphold the California Coastal Commission’s legitimate authority to deny consistency certification for the Foothill-South Toll Road; 2) Should you take up the issue, hold a public hearing in Southern California and extend the public comment period accordingly; and 3) You prohibit federal agencies from meeting or negotiating with the TCA on this matter while the appeal is pending.

The last politicians who vocally opposed the toll road, Santa Monica City Council Bobby Shriver and his former colleague on the State Parks Commission Clint Eastwood (that's right, Dirty Harry fights to protect dirt), were not asked back to their seats on the Commission. But luckily these new politicians are not the Governor's appointees, and cannot be unjustly sacked in such a fashion.

Governor Schwarzenegger remained publicly undecided about the toll road for years before sending the Coastal Commission a letter of support for the project in the run-up to their February meeting in Del Mar, at which they soundly vetoed the project to the tune of an 8-2 vote against as well as a ruthless grilling and embarrassment of the TCA's new Grand Poo-bah, Tom Margro.

Margro recently penned a Sacramento Bee editorial purported to be a response to the Bee's criticism of Schwarzenegger's replacement of Shriver and Eastwood, but in fact it amounted to little more than the same tired old lines TCA hacks have parroted for decades.

What is much more intriguing is the request that the TCA not meet or negotiate with federal agencies until this is all over. Watch for more on THAT juicy piece of meat.

(Digg this post HERE)

Robert Thornton, Professional Bitch

In a move so non-rare it could be called well-done if it weren't less crispy and more slimy, Transportation Corridor Agencies counsel Robert Thornton has resorted to erroneous presumptions and dubious assertions in a pointless attempt to prevent the Department of Commerce from holding a hearing on the Foothill-South toll road extension. Who ever thought a lawyer would be sleazy?

Let us begin not with Thornton's bitchy March 28 letter (Download file) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, written on Nossaman Gunther Knox & Elliot letterhead, but with the April 3 response Download file on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups, including Surfrider and the California State Parks Foundation, who took a pantload of umbrage at the TCA's request:

This remarkable request is not based on the absence of controversy in this project, but on the very existence of controversy. TCA claims that providing a forum to the public will “drown out” discussion of the project. In fact, it is TCA —which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money on public relations and lobbying firms in an effort to promote the project—that is seeking to drown out meaningful discussion by foreclosing an important public forum on the issues raised by its appeal.

In addition to the Coastal Commission's request for a hearing, the environmental coalition requested one as well, citing 15 C.F.R. § 930.128(d):

(d) Except in the case of appeals involving energy projects, the Secretary may hold a public hearing in response to a request or on the Secretary's own initiative.

Well, that seems pretty straightforward. A hearing has been twice-requested. You can check the law yourself but take my word for it, there's nothing about requests to deny hearings. Thus Thornton's whining seems pointless. But what may be more important to note is that his whining includes falsehoods—falsehoods reported to a governmental agency. Stick with me past the jump for more on the lies as well as an alternative to the 241 from none other than Mike Dukakis, who is not only a visiting professor of public policy at UCLA during the winter quarter, but is also actress Olympia Dukakis's cousin. And something of a politician I hear.

More at blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/241-toll-road/

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