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The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (F/ETCA) Board of Directors urges all elected State representatives to oppose recommendations made by a California State Assembly Budget Subcommittee #5 on May 3, 2006 (Item 2660, Issue 5) that are designed to stop completion of Orange County’s toll road system. Such recommendations would take local control away from Orange County and prevent the completion of a long-planned highway project that is critical to improving mobility and reducing traffic congestion in Southern California.
WHEREAS, the Foothill Transportation Corridor, or State Route 241, was placed on the County of Orange’s Master Plan of Arterial Highways in 1981 to handle projected increases in population, housing, and jobs and is a key component of the Southern California Regional Transportation Plans adopted by the Southern California Association of Governments and the San Diego Association of Governments;
WHEREAS, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (F/ETCA), a joint-powers government agency made up of the County of Orange and 12 cities, was created in 1986 to plan, finance, build and operate State Routes 241, 261, and 133, also known as the Foothill and Eastern Toll Roads in eastern and southern Orange County. These roads, initially planned as state-funded highways, were financed by toll-revenue bonds by the F/ETCA because state funds were not available to build them as traditional highways;
WHEREAS, the Foothill and Eastern Toll Roads currently carry nearly 200,000 trips per weekday. The final 16-mile segment of the Foothill Toll Road, a project known as Foothill-South, would extend the 241 south to the I-5 Freeway and is the last piece of Orange County’s planned 67-mile toll road system;
WHEREAS, since the mid-1990s, the F/ETCA has worked in an unprecedented collaborative effort with the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Caltrans, and U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton. These agencies have worked to identify and analyze various project alternatives to address the increasing traffic congestion and the facility of goods movement in South Orange County while minimizing the environmental impacts;
WHEREAS, this collaborative effort by the F/ETCA, state, and federal agencies included the development of a $17-million Environmental Impact Report/Subsequent Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/SEIR) over the past six years that exhaustively analyzed the potential impacts of numerous toll road and non-toll road project alternatives, including the widening of the I-5 Freeway;
WHEREAS, the conclusion of this collaborative effort resulted in the F/ETCA Board of Directors, on Feb. 23, 2006, certifying the Final EIR and selecting a preferred toll-road alternative;
WHEREAS, the F/ETCA Board has determined that the preferred alternative provides the greatest amount of traffic relief to I-5 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have determined that the preferred alternative is the Preliminary Least Environmentally Damaging, Practicable Alternative;
WHEREAS, studies show that other alternatives, such as widening the I-5 Freeway, have severe negative impacts to local communities. Widening the I-5 through south Orange County to handle the projected increase in traffic on I-5 would require the removal of more than 800 homes, nearly 400 businesses, resulting in the elimination of 5,000 jobs at a cost to state taxpayers of $2 billion;
WHEREAS, there is no identified funding to adequately widen I-5 to meet future traffic demand, nor is funding included in the State’s infrastructure bond measure recently passed by the Legislature;
WHEREAS, construction of Foothill-South requires no state tax dollars. As with the TCAs’ existing toll roads, construction of these publicly owned highways is funded primarily through toll-revenue bonds, serving as a model of how public-private partnerships can successfully meet major infrastructure needs;
WHEREAS, a portion of the toll road crosses through Camp Pendleton inland of the I-5 Freeway, not on the beach. The portion that crosses through Camp Pendleton is leased to the State for operation of San Onofre State Park. No inland or coastal campsites will be removed;
WHEREAS, the United States Marine Corps has determined that the alignment adopted by the F/ETCA is the only alternative on Camp Pendleton that is consistent with the mission and operation of the U.S. Marine Corps Base – Camp Pendleton;
WHEREAS, polls consistently show that a majority of Orange County residents support the completion of the 241 Toll Road;
WHEREAS, in association with construction of the existing 51-mile toll road system, the Transportation Corridor Agencies have preserved or restored nearly 2,000 acres of sensitive native habitat and have successfully implemented numerous mitigation measures that have protected wildlife species, proving that projects can built and balanced with environmental protection;
WHEREAS, the recommendations by Assembly Budget Subcommittee #5 are inconsistent with established state policy that local and regional transportation planning agencies have the primary authority to identify local and regional transportation improvements;
WHEREAS, the recommendation by Assembly Budget Subcommittee #5 to prohibit a “private” toll road through San Onofre State Beach inaccurately characterizes the project. In fact, the Foothill Toll Road will be a public facility operated by a public agency that is governed by elected officials, just as the existing 51-mile toll-road system is operated today;
WHEREAS, the recommendation by Assembly Budget Subcommittee #5 to increase Caltrans’ budget by $450,000 to fund a study of transportation alternatives is a waste of scarce transportation funds and would constitute a misuse of taxpayer dollars. Numerous possible toll road and non-toll road alternatives, and the potential impacts of those alternatives, have been thoroughly analyzed by local, state and federal agencies, as documented in the Final EIR document certified by the F/ETCA Board on Feb. 23, 2006;
THEREFORE, be it resolved, that the F/ETCA Board of Directors opposes the actions of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee #5 and urges all elected state representatives in their efforts to protect local control and Orange County’s ability to build transportation improvements that enhance mobility, improve quality of life, and create jobs with the least impact to the environment and local communities.
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