ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Toll Road: Response to Growth or Instigator?

The mounting controversy over the southern section of the Foothill tollway, one of three new roads proposed by quasi-public agencies in Orange County, says something about a lingering chicken-or-egg debate: Are these new toll roads really needed as a response to previous growth or are they themselves a catalyst for future intrusive development that may kill the county’s golden egg?

That question still has not been fully answered, at least for the southern section of the Foothill Corridor, which will run roughly parallel to Interstate 5 and cut through the southern tip of Orange County, the northern end of San Diego County and Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.

HEARINGS: There are some crucial public hearings this summer in San Clemente and before the Tollway Corridor Agencies that will determine much about how this road fares in the continuing public-relations battle. The burden of proof is very much on the sponsoring agency to demonstrate that the need for the road exists at all and that environmental concerns raised by federal, state and regional agencies will be addressed.

The demand for a northern section of the Foothill corridor is more clearly established. That’s because the north is already heavily developed and because relieving traffic congestion there is paramount.

In the southern part of the county, public sentiment for easing congestion has been quite solid in recent years. And it’s apparent to any stalled commuter that there’s a traffic mess. Yet there are persistent rumblings of discontent--even from people who bought their homes with the knowledge that new roads were planned--as homeowners and local officials contemplate altered vistas and new intrusions on pristine canyons.

Many of the newcomers to Orange County’s newest suburbs arrived with the expectation that more roads would be built to serve them. But some are alarmed about growth and damage to the environment. Last month, under increasing pressure from opponents and from governmental agencies worried about environmental impact, tollway officials announced that they were realigning the proposed route of the southern section to hide it from the view of nearby San Clemente homes and also adopting modifications to preserve nine animal migration paths.

But a report that might otherwise have been regarded as an olive branch was met with a drumbeat of opposition. For example, Karoline Koester, a former San Clemente mayor and a member of a local group that gathered 7,000 signatures in opposition to the tollway, dismissed the modification outright.

‘NIMBY’ WORRIES: Proponents face a tough combination of “Not in My Backyard” sentiment, environmental concern and adverse public perceptions about politicians and developers. The latter, especially, is fueled by such instances as an astonishing request made recently by the state’s two U.S. senators that a Senate committee exempt Orange County sfrom a federal transportation rule passed to protect the environment.

On top of these things, there are other questions. Even with a proposed realignment, the tollway agency’s new environmental document acknowledges that the road still will have “significant, direct impacts” on the landscape and wildlife.

Moreover, with concerns mounting about endangered birds, it will take three years more to prepare a separate environmental document for the federal government on endangered species, air quality and wetlands.

With all this, the need for the Foothill tollway in the southern part of the county may prove to be there, when all is said and done. But the summer’s coming hearings will be a true test of merit.