WHP

WILD HERITAGE PLANNERS
JACK EIDT

Email: JackEidt@yahoo.com

A Letter from jack to the Govenor...

January 18, 2008

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: OPPOSITION TO THE SR241 TOLL ROAD EXTENSION

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
Wild Heritage Planners, an organization dedicated to sustainable environmental planning based in Orange County, strongly opposes your decision to support the Foothill South Toll Road Extension. Spending $1.2 billion on a toll road for a few sprawling foothill communities that would destroy a state park and wilderness conservancy would also preclude a much needed upgrade of Interstate 5, the existing lifeline between San Diego and Los Angeles. Transportation Corridor Agencies’ own traffic studies have shown that by optimizing the I-5 and extending key local arterials, superior traffic relief would be provided for the coming thirty years of growth and development.

As members of the stakeholders committee to the South Orange County Major Investment Study by the OC Transportation Authority, we assert that significant and irreversible environmental effects from this road extension do not justify its questionable utility to the overall transportation network. Studies done by Smart Mobility, Inc. and other traffic engineers illustrate that improvement of I-5 with a community-sensitive design would reduce right-of-way impacts. And in any event, considering the growth of intra-regional traffic, this freeway corridor must be upgraded, smoothing out the curves and grade changes, providing room to underground the LOS-SAN rail corridor so necessary to goods and human movement for the coming decades.

San Onofre State Beach gets over two million visitors to the beach portion each year, and over one hundred and sixty thousand visitors to the park’s two campgrounds. The San Mateo Creek is the last free-flowing and undeveloped watershed left between Baja and Ventura County, home to eleven threatened and endangered plant and animal species protected under state and federal law. To consider $100 million as sufficient mitigation for our lost park, destroyed wildlife habitat, and polluted surf break at Trestles is ludicrous.

Great leaders make the hard choices; financing infrastructure from federal and state sources has been the engine of our economy since Eisenhower established the interstate system. Toll roads are not free, and motorists will be paying for generations because of our politicians’ self-interest.

We find it unfortunate that as our Governor you have decided to improperly inject politics into the Coastal Commission decision-making process, which should be based on facts and laws. We hope that in the future you will not interfere with independent and nonpolitical commissions so they can fairly represent California’s best interest, not yours.

Sincerely,
Jack Eidt
Director of Planning
Wild Heritage Planners
Board Member
OC Friends of Harbors, Beaches, and Parks

Cc: Patrick Kruer; Mark Delaplane

THE WILD HERITAGE PLAN for Rancho Mission Viejo
The Smart Growth Solution

The Problem:
Rancho Mission Viejo (RMV) and the County of Orange have approved a new city for the foothills east of San Juan Capistrano and Ladera Ranch for almost 40,000 new residents and 5 million square feet of commercial/office space. In addition, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency approved a 16-mile extension of the Foothill South Toll Road (SR 241) that will decimate the Donna O’Neill Land Conservancy and the San Onofre State Beach/San Mateo Campground and pollute the pristine water quality at Trestles Beach.

The Opportunity:
The Wild Heritage Plan for RMV calls for consolidating the new development into four clustered urban villages at varying densities, centered around a system of mixed use civic plazas and public space, all connected with pedestrian walkways, bike paths and local streets laid out in a grid. This would leave the balance of the 23,000 acres as permanent open space, ranch, recreational parkland and wilderness, to become the San Mateo Creek Watershed Land Conservancy. Instead of bisecting the land with a toll road, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) should build the 241/73 Beltway Connection with the Interstate 5 near Avery Parkway. This would provide a dedicated access road for the burgeoning foothill communities while protecting the land south of Ortega Highway as permanent open space.

Wild Canyons and Rolling Hillsides – Home to Seven Endangered Species.
For 120 years, Rancho Mission Viejo has kept a secret of the wild gems that roam their oak woodland canyons and sage/scrub covered hillsides. The place still reflects the pastoral era of the California Missions – cattle intermingle with packs of coyotes and hundreds of migratory birds perch along the sycamore- and alder-covered riverbeds. Mule deer hop in twos and threes, bobcats and mountain lion roam the banks of the perennial streams, and the spirits of the Acjachemen or Juaneño Indians can be felt in the air. By keeping this amazing wilderness a secret, most local residents had no idea what was lost when the “master planned” communities of Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, and Ladera were built.

Considered an environmental “hotspot” because of the health of the ecosystem, it is home to a number of rare, threatened or endangered species. Arroyo toad, cactus wren, California gnatcatcher, mountain lion, and the southern steelhead trout are all known to populate the hillsides and creeks of the Ranch. From a habitat preservation standpoint, wilderness corridors are necessary to connect the beach with the foothills and interior mountains via river drainages and canyon bottoms. Access to a fresh water source is vital for survival, especially during the hot summers. They need rough mountains to make their dens and hide away, and open grassy hillsides to hunt and forage.

In order to protect this important resource, Wild Heritage Planners proposed their urban village land use plan that would preserve more than 17,023 acres of RMV. Through litigation sponsored by Friends of the Foothills, Sierra Club, Endangered Habitats League, Laguna Greenbelt, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, RMV and the County adopted the Wild Heritage Land Use Plan in summer of 2005. This included environmentally sensitive habitats such as Chiquita Canyon and the 12,000-acre San Mateo Creek Watershed. The settlement maintained intact a significant block of wilderness land integrated with existing protected lands, including the Upper Chiquita Conservation Area, Riley and Caspers Wilderness Parks, the Donna O’Neill Land Conservancy, San Mateo Campground, and San Onofre State Beach. Unfortunately, the Foothill South Toll Road has now been approved through this wilderness, threatening to ruin one of the last wild gems on the southern California coast.

Looming Gridlock and a Toll Road Gone Wrong.
Rancho Mission Viejo’s Master Plan calls for homes and commercial development sufficient for 40,000 new residents, but lacks a comprehensive traffic vision to deal with all the cars headed for our already overstressed transportation infrastructure. As proposed, their County-approved traffic plan would dump thousands of peak hour trips onto arterial streets in San Juan Capistrano, Mission Viejo, Ladera, Santa Margarita and San Clemente, turning Ortega Highway and Crown Valley Parkway into mini-freeways that will move at gridlock speed. No new arterials have been proposed to connect the eastern canyons with the beaches and employment centers to the west and north – the OCTA must address this deficiency before construction begins.

The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) has approved extending the Foothill South Toll Road (SR 241) from its present terminus at Oso Parkway near Coto de Caza south to connect with the San Diego Freeway (I-5) at Camp Pendleton. This would cut through the Donna O’Neill Land Conservancy (DOLC) and San Onofre State Beach/San Mateo Campground. Flyover ramps are planned to span the I-5 along the estuary/wetlands at the mouth of San Mateo Creek near Trestles Beach to connect with the freeway near Basilone Road. Completing a road from Trestles to Yorba Linda will do nothing to ease the oncoming gridlock from regional and local traffic heading toward Newport, Irvine, and Los Angeles.

Wild Heritage Planners (WHP) has proposed a better plan.

Finish the Foothill-South AND Save Wilderness Habitat and Trestles.
RMV needs a dedicated access road that would bring the more than 40,000 new residents to employment and shopping centers in Newport and Long Beach. By extending the Foothill 241 south through RMV and west to the Interstate 5 and San Joaquin Hills (SR 73) Toll Road – the system could be completed as a generally circular “Beltway.” This would provide an alternate route for residents of Coto, Rancho Santa Margarita, Ladera, Mission Viejo, Forster Ranch, and Talega to points west and north. The 241/73 Beltway Extension would preclude the need to extend the toll road south of Ortega. Thereafter, we could seek protection in perpetuity for the DOLC and San Onofre State Beach – to become the San Mateo Creek Watershed Land Conservancy.

Fix the 5 First!
Of course, for regional San Diego-to LA traffic, increasing capacity on Interstate 5 south of the El Toro ‘Y’ to Camp Pendleton should be of primary importance. OCTA should allocate the money now as part of Measure M to fix the I-5 first, the only way to get traffic moving through South OC.

Part of the rationale for the toll road route through the San Mateo Creek watershed was to facilitate development of those hills. With the significant reduction of houses and shopping centers planned, a new transportation facility is no longer needed. A comprehensive capacity enhancement of Interstate 5 should deal sufficiently with projected traffic volumes for South Orange County. The planned improvement of Avenida La Pata could become the significant north-south thoroughfare for local traffic trips from San Clemente to Rancho Santa Margarita, making a viable alternative to the Interstate 5.

WHP advocates a better way to utilize this wilderness without cutting down the hills and poisoning the rivers and building an unnecessary transportation facility: Create a San Mateo Watershed Land Conservancy.

San Mateo Watershed Land Conservancy.
The land just adjacent to the Donna O’Neill Land Conservancy (DOLC) must be preserved intact, free from the threat of a toll road and future urbanization. Given the increasing need for new parklands, the public should be allowed limited access to this land for educational and recreational uses. The programs presently utilized by DOLC should be extended to the entire wilderness area. Partnerships with educational groups could lead to construction of interpretive centers and areas set aside for ecological study for use by Saddleback, Cal State Fullerton, or UCI. Along with the local Juaneño/Acjachemen Band of Indians, a recreated pueblo and interpretive site could be established at Panhe near San Mateo Campground, the former village encountered by the Portola expedition in 1769. A working ranch museum could also be created to educate tourists and locals about the rich history of this land.

Hiking and biking trails and picnic areas should also be created to involve the public in the grandeur of this wild resource.

Time to Act on The Wild Heritage Plan!
Litigation sponsored by a coalition of local and national environmental groups against the TCA approval of the “Green Alignment” and their deficient Environmental Impact Statement/ Environmental Impact Report is ongoing. As well, State Attorney General Bill Lockyer has filed suit against the TCA on behalf of the people of California, the Native American Heritage Commission and the State Parks Commission. Contact Governor Schwarzenegger, the California Coastal Commission, and your local politicians to inform them that there is still time to protect this valuable resource from disastrous urban sprawl by implementing the Wild Heritage Plan for Rancho Mission Viejo and the San Mateo Watershed Land Conservancy.

Save the Ranch. Save Trestles. Stop the Foothill-South Toll Road below Ortega.

Jack Eidt is a writer and an independent Environmental Planner based out of Los Angeles and Orange County. He is a graduate of the UC Santa Barbara Environmental Studies Program and received his Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA. He has worked for three planning consultants in Orange County, and was Project Manager for The Disneyland Resort expansion during the planning and permitting phase.

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