Traffic Snarls Spur Sentiment to Slow Development Pace Throughout County

ESCONDIDO —  Jerry Harmon loathes traffic. Hates it with a passion.

Each weekday morning at 7:15 the Escondido councilman slides reluctantly behind the wheel of his ’65 Mustang and begins a frustrating journey along a network of freeways and surface streets to his office near Sorrento Valley.

It’s slow-and-go on Interstate 15--worse now, the Pacific Bell engineer says, than in the old days when the modern, eight-lane freeway was a two-lane rural route. And the chrome parade slows to a virtual crawl along Mira Mesa Boulevard, inching forward optimistically in some stretches only to grind to a standstill at yet another stoplight.

“It’s miserable,” the councilman says of his 40-minute commute. “No fun at all.”

But in an odd sort of way, traffic is helping Jerry Harmon. As North County’s local roads and highways have become increasingly congested, aggravated old-timers and new arrivals alike have begun to hunt for the culprit. The guilty party, many have concluded, is growth.

For Harmon, a vigorous advocate of measures that would rein in the North County development boom, that’s good news.

“It may seem strange, but there is some good beginning to come out of this mess,” Harmon said. “Because the truth is, people will not be motivated to action until things get so bad, it’s unbearable. That is what’s happening with traffic. People realize it now takes twice as long to get from point A to point B and they’re starting to get mad.”

Indeed, growth has roared to the top of the region’s civic agenda and it is traffic that has helped fuel its ascent.

Officials throughout North County say that traffic congestion--on local roads, state highways and Interstates 5 and 15--is the key argument voiced by leaders of burgeoning slow-growth campaigns. The reason, they say, is simple: traffic is the most obvious sign that the herds of newcomers stampeding into town are straining the area’s ability to accommodate them.

Traffic “is one of the most common complaints I get,” Carlsbad Councilwoman Ann Kulchin said. “When you can’t get to work in the morning and you can’t get home at night, you get a little irritated. I think that feeling has been a real plus for these slow-growth movements.”

So, is traffic in North County really that bad? The answer depends on one’s perspective. According to transportation planners with the San Diego Assn. of Governments (Sandag), North County’s congestion woes are, overall, no better and no worse than those besetting the rest of the county.

Certain stretches--California 78 between Oceanside and Escondido and the junction of Interstates 5 and 805 at Sorrento Valley, for example--are at or over capacity, meaning they are carrying more cars than they were designed to handle. And because North County’s growth rate is higher than that of the rest of the region, its traffic troubles may have gotten worse more quickly, Sandag planners say.

Moreover, there are dynamics that make the traffic story north of Miramar Road distinct from the situation in the county’s southern reaches. Parochialism and community opposition have conspired to stall construction of key highways, leaving North County with only one major east-west route. And, not anticipating the development bonanza, civic leaders didn’t require builders to bear the burden for their projects’ traffic impacts.

Nonetheless, the message from transportation planners is clear: If you think it’s bad now, try driving in the year 2005.

Then, even under the best of conditions--including the addition of 84 miles of freeways and expressways and the expansion of the trolley countywide--33 miles of the county’s freeway system will be at “heavy congestion” during commute hours.

Topping the list of trouble spots? Interstate 5 from its intersection with Interstate 805 north to Del Mar Heights Road. Traffic along that two-mile stretch will be as bad as the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles is today.

For many North County residents, traffic headaches are already a part of the daily routine. The congestion appeared, many say, seemingly overnight.

Only 5 or 10 years ago, longtime residents recall, you could breeze down the interstates to work and find clear sailing on California 78. A trip across town to the bank was hassle-free. A Sunday drive through the peaceful San Luis Rey Valley on California 76 was a leisurely joy.

No longer.

As residential development has flooded the region, local officials have either been caught unprepared for its impacts on traffic or unable to muster funds for needed road improvements. Eager to encourage developers to invest in their corner of the world, North County leaders until recently never considered making builders pay for road construction and improvements, even though their projects ushered in new residents who clogged existing streets.

“We were all young, naive, and we viewed development as a blessing, pure and simple,” said Oceanside Councilman Ted Marioncelli. “I mean, we didn’t want to scare anyone off or anything.”

San Marcos Councilman Lee Thibadeau said the problem in that city was that “we had something like one planner for everything and a city manager who also served as city engineer. There were no experts; we couldn’t afford them.”

When suddenly in the mid-1970s San Marcos became one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, “we were shocked, we couldn’t respond,” Thibadeau said. “We didn’t have anyone who could foresee what all this growth would do to the streets and what we could do to anticipate it.”

Money was a problem as well. The state gas tax revenue each city receives was barely sufficient to cover maintenance of existing roads, let alone any improvements or new construction. And road fees for developers, already common in Orange County and other rapidly growing areas, were all but unheard-of.

Meanwhile, despite lobbying efforts by county and state transportation officials, critical links in North County’s road and highway network remained unbuilt. The routes, in particular several inland-to-coast connections that would alleviate the overburdened California 78, were blocked both by funding shortages and by residents claiming the highways would trigger growth and disrupt their neighborhoods.

In addition, North County leaders concede that progress on transportation issues often has been hampered by a stubborn parochialism that kept the region splintered into half a dozen small fiefdoms.

County Route 680, that controversial roadway that would link Interstate 15 at Rancho Bernardo with Interstate 5 at Leucadia, was the most obvious casualty. The highway, which is on county road maps but may never be built because of budget constraints, was the object of an intense tug-of-war between planners and residents of Olivenhain and neighboring communities, who claimed its alignment would spoil the character of their community.

Resistance also blocked completion of County Route 728 between Del Mar and Escondido. While a section of that route has been built by developers to serve the posh Fairbanks Ranch area, Del Mar residents, worried that the road will bring thousands of inland dwellers to their beaches, have successfully fought any connection of the highway with Interstate 5.

County Route 56 is another badly needed inland-to-coast connector. Planned to spin off Interstate 5 at Carmel Valley Road, cut through Rancho Penasquitos, cross Interstate 15 north of Poway and link up with California 67, County Route 56 has had its share of foes as well. A lingering squabble over the route’s alignment in the Poway area has delayed progress toward its completion.

Failure to build these routes has saddled North County with an onerous 22-mile gap between California 78 and the nearest major inland-coast artery to the south--County Route 52, as yet uncompleted.

“We drew up the plans that had the critical linkages, but in every case there were vocal publics saying no for one of two reasons,” said Rudy Massman, who was director of public works for the county until July, 1985.

“It was either, ‘You can’t build that through my neighborhood,’ or ‘I’m here, so now let’s shut the door and not build any more roads.’

“A lot of these people falsely believed that roads induce growth, rather than follow it. The bottom line is, the growth came anyhow and North County doesn’t have the roads it critically needs.”

Still, Massman conceded that even without the opposition, roads like County Routes 680 and 728 would not have been built because “we just didn’t have the dough.”

As for California 78--which Sandag planners fear may become as congested as Interstate 8--Escondido voters in 1972 vetoed plans to extend the freeway through their city to Ramona and ultimately to the Salton Sea. It is only recently that efforts to win funding to widen the curvy, 16-mile route to six lanes have shown a glimmer of promise via federal legislation sponsored by Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad).

Jake Dekema, who retired as state highway director for the San Diego region in 1980 after 25 years in the post, remembers how he was “laughed right out of town” when he went to Sacramento in the late 1950s attempting to win funds for a six-lane, rather than a four-lane, California 78.

“They thought I was crazy,” Dekema recalled. “They said, ‘What do you want a six-lane freeway out there in the boonies for?’ It was all I could do to get the right-of-way for six lanes.”

On the local front, North County’s cities, saddled with their own individual road problems, failed to band together and fight for funding needed to carry out the California 78 widening, officials say.

“Until recently it’s been murder trying to get the cities up here to get together and take a regional approach,” said North County’s outgoing supervisor, Paul Eckert.”They all had their own little street problems and they didn’t recognize the urgency of cooperating on major projects like 78. It’s hurt them.”

But little by little, the congestion on California 78 and other traffic snarls are capturing the attention of North County motorists. And more and more, residents are starting to wonder who or what is to blame for the problems.

“When people are sitting in a traffic jam in the middle of the day, and it’s 95 degrees out, and the stoplight wasn’t even there five years ago, they begin to ask themselves some questions,” Harmon said. “They begin to wonder how they got into this mess.”

Many residents then conclude that “land-use policies permitting over-development--and the elected officials who adopted those policies--bear responsibility” for the situation, said Carlsbad Councilman Mark Pettine, who was elected on a slow-growth platform in 1984.

Their reaction, increasingly, is to call for a halt to the rapid pace of growth that is sending more motorists onto an already heavily burdened system of local roads and highways.

In Carlsbad, for example, traffic headaches on La Costa Avenue, Palomar Airport Road and on Elm Avenue downtown have boosted a citizens’ initiative calling for an annual cap on residential building. The stringent measure is due before voters in November. In Oceanside, activists point to intolerable traffic tie-ups on Mission Avenue between downtown and the San Luis Rey Valley as grounds for a similar limit on housing construction.

There is also a growing chorus of cries for growth restraints in Escondido and San Marcos, where a citizens group hopes to hold a special election on a measure limiting residential growth.

Finally, many observers in Solana Beach and Encinitas credit increased traffic congestion--caused, many residents believe, by a legacy of irresponsible land-use decisions by county supervisors--with propelling the two communities to incorporation victories in June.

Some cities have already responded to the traffic woes, slapping developers with road “impact” fees that go beyond paying for construction of streets immediately adjacent to a new project.

“It is only in the last four years or so that local municipal governments have turned to the builder for help with (roads or freeway interchanges) that his project may impact in a general sense,” said Kim Kilkenny, legislative counsel for the San Diego Construction Industry Federation.

Poway, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista and Escondido now all charge some sort of specific road or traffic-impact fee, and Kilkenny said he expects the newly incorporated cities of Encinitas and Solana Beach will probably adopt road charges as well. The county does not charge any traffic fee; San Marcos recently replaced its thoroughfare fee with a 2% public facilities fee which funds parks, roads and other infrastructure projects. Oceanside and Vista collect an additional fee specifically for traffic signal construction.

Ten years ago, developers paid no traffic fees in North County.

Builders seem to take the new requirements in stride, although they stress that they cannot and should not be asked to underwrite solutions to all of the region’s road construction needs.

“I think the building community agrees with the concept that we should pay our fair share for road improvements in areas where we create (increased usage),” said Ken Lounsbery, vice president and general counsel for the Lusardi Construction Co. “But it would be unreasonable to expect us to bear the burden for all the region’s transportation problems.”

Indeed, Sandag officials note that road construction is not enough to prevent North County from facing a future of Los Angeles-style gridlock. Rather, the region must expand--and use--its public transit system.

Even if Packard’s funding plan materializes and the widening of California 78 occurs, for example, some officials believe the development of a trolley between Oceanside and Escondido is imperative.

As envisioned by Sandag, the light rail line would follow the Santa Fe railroad tracks between Escondido and Vista and then run along California 78 to Plaza Camino Real mall. The trolley would run every 15 minutes and carry 3.2 million riders per year at a cost of $7.35 per rider, Sandag predicts.

In addition, many transportation experts say a trolley or commuter rail line between downtown San Diego and Oceanside is crucial to prevent gridlock on the Interstate 5 corridor. Now under study by Sandag, the trolley wold run along the Santa Fe tracks from downtown to Old Town, then along Interstate 5 to North City West, then back along the train tracks from Del Mar to Oceanside. It would cost $470 million to build and would carry 18.6 million riders annually.

Also being considered is a trolley alignment along El Camino Real, which some people favor because of its accessibility to a greater number of people. Ultimately, a trolley line may be constructed along the Interstate 15 corridor as well.

To pay for all of this--and for other transportation projects countywide--Sandag is proposing a half cent sales tax increase for the November, 1987, ballot.

While the menu of improvements needed to protect North County from traffic gridlock contains some expensive items, most leaders in the region seem confident that residents will be willing to foot the bill.

“If we don’t band together now and plan for our future 20 years down the road, I see nothing but a traffic horror story for North County,” said San Marcos Councilman Thibadeau. “Because, short of a lot more earthquakes, we will not stop the growth so long as the sun shines down on our communities.”

Tuesday: Car pools and public transit offer alternatives to crowded highways, but the alternatives are slow to catch on in San Diego County.