U.S. Commerce Department rejects Foothill South toll road

The controversial Foothill South toll road, proposed to connect south Orange County with north San Diego County, was handed a major blow this morning when the U.S. Commerce Department announced it would uphold the state Coastal Commission's rejection of the plan.

Federal officials could only override the state's decision if the project had no alternatives or was necessary to national security, and the announcement this morning said neither of those criteria was met.

Today's decision is another -- and perhaps fatal -- setback for the proposed 16-mile turnpike, which had been blasted by environmentalists for cutting through a popular beachfront state park and lauded by transportation planners as vital to easing the region's gridlock.

The California Coastal Commission rejected plans for the road earlier this year, saying that the six-lane road -- which would run from Rancho Santa Margarita to Basilone Road at Camp Pendleton -- violated the state's coastal management program.

The toll road agency backing the plan "may pursue another route" consistent with coastal zone protections, according to the Commerce Department announcement. Since 1972, the department has ruled on 43 such appeals of state coastal zone decisions, overriding 14.

-- Susannah Rosenblatt

Comments

[Da Maverick]

In case the planners and builders are bummed by this, there's lots of open space out in the IE. Oh wait, you're not interested in providing congestion relief to working-class regions, just affluent OC Desperate Housewives. I get it now..

[Still Waiting in Traffic]

Stunning decision...

This road can be built without costing the state a dime. It'll create tens of thousands of jobs. It'll provide traffic relief to milions.

No wonder our inept government officials rejected it.

[Diane]

This is GREAT news! Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen! We get to keep our State Park !! Yaaaaayyyyyy!

[stewart]

Ya had half the freekin county show up at the meetings yet the gov and his crowd still tried to slam this through and went so far as to give the boot to Shriver and Eastwood for disagreeing with him and his cronies...
WILL YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE NOW?

[jimthzz]

So even the Commerce Department recognizes that the road is not a necessary thing. There are alternatives! And national security risk to mitigate with this road.

Pavers--go back to the drawing board. Leave the park alone.

[Traffic Nightmares Continue...]

So if this were to be built, the State Park would be closed? Are you even living on this planet? Well, I hope you have fun in the State Park you would have "lost" (roll eyes) even though it will take you 3 hours sitting in traffic to ge there!

[Amadeus]

Our environmental problems originate in the hubris of imagining ourselves as the central nervous system or the brain of nature. We're not the brain, we are a cancer on nature.

[Laure Dunne]

This is exciting news for all of us who love California's coastline and its parks! To blast a road through San Mateo Park and ruin Trestles... the exceptional and world-class surfing location... would have been a tragedy for all! Thanks to everyone who worked so very hard to protect these national treasures! It was a long, hard fight, but WE WON!!!! Oh, happy day!

LI'L a happy camper!

[MedRat]

VICTORY !! SAVE TRESTLES!!!
Its a State Park)

[Well Said Amadeus]

Amadeus said it beautifully. Opponents to this road see people as a "cancer on nature."

Believe me, stopping the completion of this road won't stop people from having babies, immigrating to Southern California or turning 16 and getting their drivers licenses. It'll just worsen the congestion on I-5.

Have fun with that everyone!

[Phil]

The decision makes sense. The proposed route is far from the only route available. What has long bothered me about the route proposal is how a park and nature corridor are valued over existing developed land. Plenty of Southern California freeways have been built by removing existing homes and businesses from the route. But in Orange County the morality of the place seems to be that a freeway, ok a tollway, but still another big divided highway, is more important than nature itself. Maybe some homes could go to make room for this highway? Nah, never happen, mansions are always more important than nature.

[Brent]

Sick!!! Thanks for saving the park feds..

[Dave Corsaro]

Excuse me If I'm missing something here but what California coastline is everybody talking about ? This road was supposed to cross empty hills with brush and jack rabbits and finally end up connecting with I-5. at the Orange /San Diego County Line. What coastline ???? What Parks ???
And. . . . How many people spend their spare time walking thru all that ? You'd rather jam up traffic through San Clemente and Capistrano and create more carbon emissions than allow San Diego / Los Angeles commuters a more efficient way to move around a bottleneck..

[pete van nuys]

1.) 241 S. was an unnecessary road, connecting San Onofre to Yorba Linda.
2.) 241 S. would have provided no service essential to national security
3.) 241 S. alternatives are numerous-- and will finally get the attention they deserve.

TCA will, of course, continue to beat this dead horse. They are consumate dead horse beaters, advertising their 51 miles of underused roads, drawing barely 9 to 20% of the traffic on parallel freeway segments.

Next, let's abolish TCA and free up our roads.

[eric kapan]

Thank God!!!

[Mike in SD]

Those of us living in San Diego think one road coming from L.A. is one more than any of us want!

Oh, and leave our open and preserved spaces alone, too, development hacks!

[San Clemente Surfer]

Great news, the war is over. Finally the evronment wins out over development. To all you people who thought tha the toll road had any chance to lessen traffic on the I-5, you need to educate yourselves, that would have NEVER happened. The answer to that is to FIX the 5!!!

SaveD Trestles, I am a believer!

[Shannon]

This is wonderful news. Thank you to everyone who fought so hard to uphold the integrity of the State Park system. Now get out there & enjoy the park & Trestles! :)

[BrodyMan]

Lets pave paradise a build a parking lot

[Fix the 5 with what?]

Fixing the I-5 consists of bulldozing 800 homes and 400 businesses (according to Caltrans) and costs about $2.5 billion.

Is the state of California that flush with cash that they can afford an extra $2.5 billion to widen the I-5 through South OC?

[The TCA sucks!]

Thank God! Common sense has trumped the almighty dollar...for once! I’m so happy to see that the Feds had the intelligence and foresight to make the right decision. The LAST thing OC needs is yet another of the TCA’s financially-shaky, ineffective, pay-to-drive highways…especially right through the middle of our state park!

One thing that caught my eye though:
According to the article the TCA's proposed toll highway has been "lauded by transportation planners as vital to easing the region's gridlock". Lauded?! Really? The transportation planning gurus known as the OCTA released a study just within the last couple of years which says that even if the TCA's proposed toll highway is completed, I-5 will STILL be mired in gridlock. Basically, the OCTA admits that the toll highway would do little, if anything, to fix the traffic mess on I-5! And an independant peer-reviewed traffic study has shown that upgrading arterials and widening I-5 are much more practical solutions! No, the only people "lauding" the TCA's proposed highway-for-profit are the people who stand to make a profit from it: The TCA, big land developers, etc.

[The TCA sucks!]

"So if this were to be built, the State Park would be closed? Are you even living on this planet?"

Well, according to the CA State Parks Commission: Yes, should the 241 toll highway be built through the state park, at least 60% of the park would have to be closed down, including the more popular of the park's two campgrounds...But hey, what do they know anyway, right? After all, they're only the CA STATE PARKS Commission.
Are YOU even living on this planet? Ha, ha!

[The TCA sucks!]

As for the misguided blogger who posted: "This road can be built without costing the state a dime. It'll create tens of thousands of jobs. It'll provide traffic relief to milions."

Ha, ha, ha! That sounds like something straight from one of the TCA’s glossy brochures! Too bad it’s all a pipe-dream. Obviously this person is ignorant of (or in denial of) the fact that...

...the 241 toll highway extension WILL cost us citizens. The TCA claims their roads pay for themselves, then turn around and go after our tax dollars. Kind of like when the faulty run-off water filters they installed on their 73 toll road failed and created a tremendous mess...which had to be cleaned at the taxpayer’s expense! Or, just recently, when the TCA asked the government for millions of our tax dollars to bail out their financially sinking ship.

...the 241 toll road extension probably WON’T create as many jobs as the TCA keep promising. Maybe the author of that post has forgotten about how the construction of TCA's other asphalt money pit (the 73) created FAR fewer jobs than the TCA had promised. Or maybe he (or she) has forgotten about the fact that just as many, if not more, jobs would be created widening I-5, upgrading arterials, and improving and expanding OC's mass transit systems.

...that the proposed 241 toll highway extension will do NOTHING to solve our traffic problems. All it will do is jumpstart MORE development, resulting in MORE suburban sprawl, which results in MORE traffic...not less. Maybe the author of that post doesn’t know that the TCA’s other toll highways have been dismal failures at solving our traffic woes. Maybe he’s forgotten that the TCA's other toll roads are losing money hand-over-fist in part because they are sorely under-used. Why? Because the average citizen can't/won't pay the over-priced tolls and, as a result, is forced onto already over-crowded freeways while the useless and ineffective toll roads sit practically empty.

But sadly, the TCA and their fan club are still clinging to the lies that the 241 toll road extension will somehow “relieve traffic” and “pay for itself”…despite the fact that any of their other tolls roads have yet to do either of these things!

[G]

Let me clear a few things up:

"Excuse me If I'm missing something here but what California coastline is everybody talking about ? This road was supposed to cross empty hills with brush and jack rabbits and finally end up connecting with I-5."

Yes...and that's the beauty of it! Empty, natural open space is becoming increasingly more rare in OC. Why throw it away for an asinine toll highway that WON'T relieve traffic but WILL give us more unwanted cookie-cutter track homes and mini-malls?
Plus there's that other little thingy...the one about how those "empty hills" are protected as a CA state park.

"What coastline ????"

That would be the world-class surf break at Trestles. You know, the coastline that would be affected by the filthy highway runoff from the toll road, not to mention the road's added visual blight and noise pollution? Yeah, that one!

"What Parks ???"

San Onofre. (You obviously have never looked at a map of the proposed route, have you?)

"And. . . . How many people spend their spare time walking thru all that?"

Me. My wife. Our friends. And MILLIONS of other Californians, apparently. San Onofre is, after all, CA's 5th most popular state park (out of over 200 state parks). And San Mateo campground (the one in the hills, not the one by the beach) is the more popular of the park's two campgrounds.

Thankfully, both the State and the Feds were smart enough to recognize an idiotic idea when it slapped them in the face and they shot it down.

[Cindy]

The State rules the toll road unlawful, the Feds rule the toll road is unlawful, there is so much evidence the toll roads don't work and don't relieve traffic it is unreal. There is also proof widening the I5 would not cause major bulldozing of homes and businesses like some claim, there is already room for one more lane in each direction--once again more propaganda, not true.

Thank god the right choice was made. Abolish TCA so responsible transporation choices for OC can be made in the future! TCA is a waste of the taxpayer's dollar and is costing US a lot of $$$ with their poor plans and determination to be above the law.

Thanks to all the responsible citizens who stood up to this madness and both the California Coastal Commission and US Secretary of Commerce for upholding our laws!