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The Foothill South toll road–in whose interest, exactly?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 3, 2008 at 5:32 am

From the LA Times ‘Opinion LA’ Blog:

The California Coastal Commission has already said no way. Now the fate of the proposed toll road lies with the Bush administration–and given the administration’s distaste for environmental protection and near-hostility toward parks, that can’t be a good thing for the “Save Trestles” crowd.

But the feds aren’t supposed to just decide based on how much they like the road. The criteria are supposed to be narrow–the road’s supporters are supposed to show that it’s in the national interest, overriding local and state interests.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies have come up with some creative arguments for why the road, which would travel the length of the inland canyon that’s also part of the state park, as well as running through a nature preserve in south Orange County, is in the national interest. Like it would make coastal access easier. Actually, I always thought coastal access was supposed to mean people’s ability to use the beach up to the high tide line, not to provide high-speed transit from, say, the desert. Another argument involved quick evacuation in case of an accident at the San Onofre nuclear plant. Not only has the plant been operating for decades without one, but it’s odd to think that residents of San Clemente, by far the closest community to the nuclear plant, would escape it by driving south to the entrance of the freeway.

Read how the Transportation Corridor Agencies framed the San Onofre toll road as in the national interest by clicking here.

October 3, 2008 · Filed Under San Onofre Toll Road

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