Community Corner

241 Extension Hits Roadblock

The Water Quality board rejects a permit that would have allowed a nearly 6 mile expansion to the toll road, a project environmentalists fear that would pave the way for a longer extension into coastal habitat.

After more than six grueling hours of presentations and testimony on Wednesday, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) denied the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) a permit to move forward with a project to extend the 241 toll road 5.5 miles further south into Orange County.

The board voted 3-2 not to approve the project, with board members Eric Anderson and Gary Strawn casting the dissenting votes.

The board majority, including chairman Thomas Morales, who cast the fifth and deciding vote, felt that [Highway] 241 Extension (also known as the Tesoro Extension) was not indicative of the entire scope of the project, and felt it was misrepresented. 

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Knowing that the TCA ultimately plans to extend the toll road by another 11 miles, the board majority said they didn’t want to approve the project piecemeal

Board member Sharon Kalemkiarian said she agreed with the staff’s recommendation to approve the permit under review, but added that the TCA was being disingenuous with calling the 241 Extension “the project.”

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“I think that this is not the project,” she said. “I think the staff evaluated what it was presented with, and they did a great job, but we have a different function. The environmental impacts for the entire project have not been evaluated.”

However, that same rationale led board member Strawn to vote the other way.

“Yes, it’s blinders on, but looking at the project we were presented, likewise, I don’t think we can expand it out to a larger project, even though we all might think it is – looking at the evidence in front of us, I reluctantly think I need to vote in favor,” he said.

More than 300 people packed the RWQCB chambers for the public meeting that began at 1 p.m. By 7 p.m., when the public comments were finally closed and the board finally rendered its decision, about 50 people remained.

Opponents of the project, who had been vocal during much of the proceedings, erupted when the vote was announced, feeling they had won a hard-fought victory to help protect San Onofre State Beach from being damaged by the eventual extension of the toll road into San Diego County.

TCA officials claim the 5.5 mile Tesoro Extension should have been considered on its own merit and that eventual plans to extend the toll road 11 additional miles from Camp Cow Road to Interstate 5, should not be considered. 

“The project did have independent utility. The fact is we wouldn’t have moved forward in this process if we weren’t confident we could get a permit,” said Lisa Telles, TCA spokeswoman.

She said she didn’t know at this point what the agency’s next steps might be.

“I can’t comment on what we’re going to do next,” she said. “Certainly we’ll go back to the office and look at the situation and determine what we are now dealing with. But the problem has not gone away. We still have a critical issue in South Orange County.”

Backers of the project, including a number of elected officials and Chamber of Commerce members from various Orange County cities, cited the need to mitigate ongoing traffic congestion on local roads, especially in areas when there is a lack of alternatives to Interstate 5.

Some pointed out that drivers were stuck on the 5 Freeway for up to four hours without access to alternative routes after a propane tanker overturned in San Clemente last week.

TCA councilman Robert Thornton also asserted that there were no facts to contradict the findings of board staff in support of the extension.

However, the project’s opponents, who included mostly representatives and scores of volunteers from environmental groups like Save San Onofre and the Surfrider Foundation, argued that the ultimate goal of extending Interstate 5 to San Diego County “threatened one of the last natural watershed areas in the region.”

Additionally, they argued that it was simply an attempt by TCA to get approval for “one piece of the larger project,” a project that was rejected in 2008 by both the RWQCB and the California Coastal Commission.

“This is simply a regurgitation of the same project, but in an unlawful piecemeal manner,” said Esther Sanchez, councilwoman for the City of Oceanside. “The developer admits that this is just one part of the original project, and that it is the original project that they are pursuing.”

Also at stake is the impact the full project would have on Trestles, the world-renown surfing spot near San Onofre State Beach.

Various supporters of the iconic beach spoke up, but perhaps the most emotional testimony on that topic, which drew the most praise from supporters, came from Jim Moriarty, CEO of Surfrider.

“Why are we talking about putting a fee-based road through a state park? Would we allow the same thing in Yosemite? Would we put a toll bridge from one rim to the other in the Grand Canyon? Of course not,” he said.

When Moriarty’s time was up, he was immediately ceded time by two other speakers.

“The road is a horrible idea,” he continued. “It’s insulting to the very idea of democracy. National parks and state parks are one of America’s greatest ideas, and we are sitting here and are about to throw that out.

“We are talking about our collective legacy. Let’s leave what is special about California special. Don’t pave it. It’s already a gem. We already have paradise. Why change that?”

Tesoro Extension supporters also had strong opinions.

Sam Allevato, mayor pro tem for City of San Juan Capistrano and a director on the board of Foothills-Eastern TCA, took offense at continued reference to the toll way being labeled, “a road to nowhere,” a description coined by the California Attorney General.

“My city has been disparaged as ‘nowhere’ by the California Attorney General, when she says the Tesoro Extension is ‘a road to nowhere,’” Allevato said. “We have attractions from a premier equestrian center to the famous Mission of San Juan Capistrano. It’s the birthplace of Orange County. So we’re pretty far from nowhere.”

In total, the board received more than 100 speaker slips from both opponents and proponents of the project. After each speaker was done, members of the crowd clapped and cheered.

As testimony continued, some cast the issue as a case of Orange County capitalism vs. San Diego County environmentalism.

“We in Oceanside are always thankful for Camp Pendleton which serves as a buffer and definite change from the horrible urban sprawl and bad planning of Orange County,” said Sanchez.


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