SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : City Removes Alipaz from Highway Plan

Changes may be in store for the future of Alipaz Street, a four-lane roadway that runs alongside San Juan Creek, dubbed by some “the road to nowhere” because it stops abruptly at its north and south ends.

With no discussion, the City Council last week unanimously passed a resolution removing Alipaz Street from the county master plan of arterial highways. Taking the roadway off the county master plan would allow the city to reconsider the future of Alipaz, long considered a future major commuter thoroughfare by county planners, said Mayor Gil Jones.

In so doing, city officials joined a similar effort already launched by officials of Dana Point, where Alipaz Street stops at its southern end.

Because of the way the two cities have grown around Alipaz, most city officials now think it should not be converted into a commuter route, Jones said.

“That was the old plan, which has been on the books for years,” said Jones. “There are now a multitude of reasons to abandon that idea.”

Among them is the cost of expanding the roadway, he said. With no development planned at either end of the street, the costs would be “prohibitive,” Jones said.

More important, people who live around the roadway, particularly at its southern end, do not want commuter traffic rushing through their neighborhoods, Jones said.

The development of Alipaz’s northern end in San Juan Capistrano is considered a separate item, but city officials do not want commuter traffic there, either.

“We want that off the arterial highway map also,” said Councilman Kenneth E. Friess. “We would probably extend it some day as an access road, with maybe a small bridge over the creek at Oso Road. Right now, the maps show it as a commuter route crossing at Junipero Serra Road.”

Before Alipaz Street can be removed from the county master plan, however, the cities must conduct traffic studies showing that the surrounding streets can handle additional traffic, said Bill Huber, city engineer. The final step would be approval by the County Board of Supervisors, he said.