MISSION VIEJO : Alicia Extension May Open Sooner

The city Planning Commission will decide today whether to expedite construction on a long-delayed major arterial road in the city.

Commissioners will look at canceling an agreement between the city and the Mission Viejo Co. that tied the opening of the Alicia Parkway extension to the completion of Oso Parkway. Both roads are partially completed major connector streets between Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo.

The Oso Parkway project has run into several delays, the latest involving problems with naturally occurring wet soil along the construction route. In order to expedite the completion of Alicia Parkway, the City Council asked its staff last May to come up with an agreement to release the Mission Viejo Co. from the tie-in with the Oso Parkway project.

The proposed amendment to the development agreement removes the clause that states “the segment (of Alicia Parkway) . . . shall not be opened to traffic prior to the completion of Oso Parkway.”