Politics & Government

San Juan Backs New Toll Road Plan—With a Few Strings

Some local roads need to be widened and extended before city officials will support an extension of the 241 tollway that ends at or near Ortega Highway.

If San Juan Capistrano's thoroughfares are widened beforehand, the City Council would support having the first segment of a 241 tollway extension end at or near Ortega Highway, it said Tuesday.

In a 3-1 vote, the council urged the toll roads' governing board, which meets Thursday, to approve a new proposal to build the extension in three phases. There are, however, concerns that the small community doesn't have the infrastructure to support thousands of cars exiting the area if the initial segment ends in Capistrano.

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The first segment would be a 4-mile extension from the 241's current terminus at Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita to north of Antonio Parkway at either Ortega Highway or two future streets: Cow Camp Road or G Street. Either way, the initial segment would end in the .

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"If this is the easiest way to get some movement. ... I agree with it," Councilman John Taylor said of completing the long-stymied tollway project so it connects to the 5 freeway at Camp Pendleton.

But first, the City Council wants to see three other major Caltrans transportation projects completed:

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  1. Construct the new Ortega Highway and
  2. Widen Ortega Highway from two lanes to four north to Antonio Parkway.
  3. so it connects to San Juan Capistrano.

Proposals to finish the last 16 miles of the 241 toll road have drawn crowds of thousands, for and against, at mass meetings of the California Coastal Commission. In February 2008, the Coastal Commission rejected an extension to the 5 freeway at San Onofre State Beach in an 8-2 vote.

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Councilman Derek Reeve was absent from the special meeting convened Tuesday by Mayor Sam Allevato, who represents San Juan Capistrano as a member of the Transportation Corridor Agency's board of directors.

Laura Freese cast the dissenting vote against the new plan, saying she'd prefer the initial segment to end at Avenida Pico in San Clemente so the two cities could share the burden of traffic.

About 7,000 drivers traveled the 16-mile stretch of the 241 daily in 2010. That's down from an estimated 10,000 in 2007, before the economy took a dive, TCA officials said.

Freese projected that if the economy turns around in the next few years, the number of vehicle trips might climb again, bringing as many as 2,500 cars into San Juan each day if the city served as the end point for the toll road.

"I'm afraid that it will be a segment that ends here for 20 years," she said of the plan to build up to Ortega Highway. "I'd like to see it end in San Clemente so we can at least share the burden before it gets to Camp Pendleton."

Representatives of several business and economic organizations were present at the meeting to voice their support of the new plan. They said the extension is the best way to alleviate congestion on the 5 freeway, which runs parallel to the 241.

"We encourage the project, whether incrementally or one big swoop," said Mark Bodenhamer, CEO of the .

Jim Leach, who chairs the South Orange County Regional Chamber of Commerce, told the council his organization would begin a campaign to educate businesses about the benefits of the project and mobilize leaders "so the voice of business community is heard loud and clear."

Four residents said they do not like the Transportation Corridor Agency's latest proposal. Their reasons varied from environmental issues to the initial segment creating more traffic problems for San Juan Capistrano to it being a mechanism to serve Rancho Capistrano developers.

"San Juan Capistrano will become the toilet of South O.C.," said resident Ian Smith. "Can you imagine what’s going to happen at 3 o'clock in the afternoon? I beseech you: Do not give this your blessing. If you do, we’re going to be so clogged up in this town with traffic."

The board of directors of the Transportation Corridor Agency will decide Thursday whether to authorize initial planning—engineering and financing—of the initial segment. Actual construction would require final approval from the board.


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