Countywide : Bill’s Form Pleases Environmentalists

Local environmentalists expressed relief Thursday that the U.S. Senate approved a major transportation bill without an amendment that could have eliminated a legal weapon for blocking construction of three proposed Orange County toll roads.

A campaign is now under way to make sure a similar amendment is not added when the House of Representatives considers its own transportation bill later this summer.

Tollway opponents were upset last month when they discovered that U.S. Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and John Seymour (R-Calif.) had written a letter asking a Senate committee to exempt Orange County from a federal rule that makes it difficult to obtain federal funding for highways that border public parklands.

The proposed San Joaquin Hills toll road through Laguna Canyon would run next to several parks, including Crystal Cove State Park and Aliso/Wood Canyons Regional Park. The proposed Foothill and Eastern toll roads would run near land that is expected to eventually become public parklands.

Landowners who favor the toll roads hesitate to dedicate those parklands, fearing that such action would trigger the federal rule and make it more difficult for the roads to be built.

The roads are important to the landowners because plans to build thousands of homes throughout the county could be thwarted if the corridors are not built. Development approvals often hinge on the assumption that the toll roads would eventually be in place.

The exemption was requested by the Irvine Co., which owns the majority of the proposed parkland, and the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which plans to build the roads. They argued that the exemption would allow the parklands to be dedicated without jeopardizing funding for the roadways.

But when environmentalists balked, saying the exemption would violate the spirit of the federal regulation and would set a dangerous precedent, both senators backed off the amendment.

“We’ve been burning up the phones and the fax machines,” said Michael Phillips, executive director of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy. “It’s incredible that grass-roots organizations in this day and age still have the ability to affect change by their national leaders. It’s a great lesson in democracy.”

Environmentalists are now turning a wary eye toward the House, where they expect Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) to fashion an amendment similar to the one Seymour and Cranston proposed. Cox said Thursday that “something probably needs to be done.”

“What I’m hearing from the landowners is they are unwilling to dedicate the parklands,” said Cox, a member of the Public Works and Transportation subcommittee where the House bill is likely to originate. “I think the sense is the landowner doesn’t want to dedicate the land without knowing with some reasonable certainty whether the roads are going to be built.”

Since 1956, federal spending for public roadways has been governed by a comprehensive highway act that Congress generally re-examines every five years.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted 91 to 7 to approve a $123-billion measure that would dramatically overhaul national transportation policy.