Want to speak out on the O.C. toll road? Better plan ahead

Anyone wanting to speak at the public hearing next month about the controversial Foothill South toll road, which would cut through San Onofre State Beach, must submit a written request 10 days ahead of the Sept. 22 hearing. That means you've got less than two weeks for your request to be received by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The O.C. Register has the details:

The hearing, to be held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, had been scheduled for the UC Irvine's Bren Events Center in July. But that hearing was canceled amid fears that the crowd could grow too large for the facility.

The 16-mile Foothill South, a proposed extension of the 241 toll road, would cut through San Onofre State Beach park and across wild land in southern Orange County.

Toll road builders say it is the last link [in] the county's network of toll roads, and is needed to relieve future traffic congestion.

Want to speak out? Your request has to be in writing, via snail mail (USPS or other commercial carriers, such as FedEx, Airborne, UPS) and must be received by Sept 12. No e-mails, faxes, voice mails or, I'm guessing, texts or Twitters will be accepted.

Here's the address: Thomas Street, Attorney Advisor, NOAA Office of General Counsel for Ocean Services,1305 East-West Highway, Room 6111, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

More specifics about the how and when of the hearing at the NOAA site here.

--Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
 

Comments

[spence]

America, the best participative democracy of the nineteenth century!
Seriously, I don't know the last time I bought paper envelopes.

[Jozef Goj]

Build all the roads you want but when you load them with traffic you will get jams gridlock and congestion.
Why?
Because even the latest interchanges under traffic load are designed to stop and slow traffic.
Go to www.ubtsc.com.au and find intersections that get you across town faster safer in peak traffic all without stopping at a single intersection. .
If funded by the same amount lost to the economy then you will forever eliminate jams gridlock and congestion as well as saving on fuel bills while reducing your carbon footprint.
Jozef Goj UBTSC PTY Ltd

[Cindy]

Really the toll road company has many reasons, I have links to the documents they have filed with NOAA on my website at www.caopenspace.org/action.html plus other info and pictures of the area proposed to be paved if anyone wants to learn more about this issue. Bottom line is highways do not belong in our state parks and there are other alternatives. Our transportation system design needs to be improved. I talked with many people who travel other countries who tell some very interesting stories of how the rest of the world handles things. The US should look into what other countries are doing rather than turning our wild and scenic places, state parks, open spaces, etc. into concrete.