Group Assails Irvine’s Limiting Toll Road Size

A recently formed group that favors construction of a long-proposed toll road through south Orange County on Monday assailed the Irvine City Council and Mayor Larry Agran for trying to scale down the highway.

Spokesmen for Citizens Opposed to Gridlock said they oppose a plan announced last month to limit the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor to six lanes in Irvine and Newport Beach.

At one time, the toll road’s plans called for up to 10 lanes. The proposal to reduce the number of lanes to six and to encourage more mass transit on the toll road was announced Nov. 1 by Agran, who said at the time that the reduced number of lanes would be less “environmentally destructive.”

Traffic Will Worsen

But Richard G. Munsell, an Irvine resident and chairman of COG, said at a Monday press conference that he thinks Agran’s proposal is shortsighted. Munsell said Irvine traffic will worsen because of Agran’s and the City Council’s unanimous support of a scaled-down toll road.

Agran was in Boston on Monday and could not be reached for comment. But Councilman Cameron Cosgrove said: “When these people talk about their concern about traffic, it’s just a smoke screen. What they’re really interested in is uncontrolled growth in the south county, with no checks and balances.”

Cosgrove charged that Munsell and Howard J. Klein, another COG member who took part in the press conference, are “citizen-surrogates for the developers.”

Munsell and Klein both said they have no financial interest in supporting the toll road. They said their concern, as Irvine residents, is that the toll road be built to relieve traffic congestion in the city.

Sizeable Contribution

Munsell acknowledged that the Mission Viejo Co. has said it will be among the financial donors to COG, and that although he did not have a “breakdown on figures,” he said he expected the development company’s donation to be “a sizable contribution.”

Both Munsell and Klein said traffic congestion is a major issue on the minds of Irvine residents. They said that Agran’s proposed limits on the San Joaquin Hills toll road would not allow traffic engineers to work out the best solutions to Irvine’s traffic. “I would leave it to the experts to determine how many lanes are needed,” said Klein.

Munsell said COG was formed in October to try to convince Agran and the City Council that full-scale development of the toll road is needed. Klein said COG has more than 100 members.

Munsell said COG is circulating a petition asking Agran and the council to be supportive of the proposed toll road. Munsell said COG currently has about 2,500 signatures on the petitions. “We’ll turn them in to the council when we get about 8,000 signatures,” he said. The petitions are not intended to launch a voter initiative.

Klein said COG is not advocating that all restrictions on the toll road be lifted. “We’re not advocating a blank check because environmental considerations must be taken into account (on the size of the toll road),” said Klein. “But we’re saying that to impose artificial constraints determined by political considerations is not constructive, is not a solution.”

Munsell is the vice president of land development for Psomas and Associates, a Costa Mesa firm of engineers, surveyors and planners. Klein, a patent attorney, is president of Irvine Pride, a civic organization.