August 26, 2008

Commerce Dept. rules for hearing trouble foes of San Onofre toll road

By Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

The U.S. Department of Commerce yesterday said it will hold a public hearing on a divisive proposal for extending a toll road to connect San Diego and Orange counties.

For months, environmentalists had urged the agency to hold the meeting. But now they're infuriated because of rules that they said will discourage public participation.

Commerce officials said the hearing will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in the O'Brien Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

It's the same venue where 3,500 people turned out for a February hearing by the state Coastal Commission, which rejected the project as too harmful to the environment.

The commission is involved because the toll-road extension would reach the coastline, and the Commerce Department has a say because part of the tollway would be on federal land.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies want to lengthen state Route 241 by 16 miles - from Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita to Interstate 5 at Basilone Road. Their proposed route would reduce congestion on I-5, but it would cut through a nature reserve in Orange County and a state park at San Onofre.

Environmentalists originally hailed yesterday's announcement about the hearing, which is optional for the federal government. But their cheers quickly turned to jeers after they read four pages of requirements for the meeting, such as:

People who want to testify must send a request on paper. The letter must arrive no later than Sept. 12 at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Office of the General Counsel in Silver Spring, Md. No requests submitted by fax, voice mail or e-mail will be accepted.

Elected officials will have first priority for testifying, followed by representatives of organizations and American Indian tribes. Members of the general public will then be allowed to give testimony, but time constraints may limit the number of those speakers.

Such guidelines for a public hearing are "highly unusual if not unprecedented," said Dan Silver of the Endangered Habitats League in Los Angeles. "They represent a red-tape barrier against the very public input they claim they desire.

Initially, the Transportation Corridor Agencies opposed holding a public hearing. In a letter sent to federal officials in March, lawyers for the toll road agency said another meeting would merely repeat the "circus atmosphere" of the Coastal Commission's hearing "in which supporters of the project were booed and jeered by opponents of the project. Yesterday, the agency reversed its position.

"We look forward to telling our story," said Jennifer Seaton, spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

Lance MacLean, a Mission Viejo councilman and member of the toll road agency's board, said he's happy about the federal hearing.

"It will afford (us) an opportunity to correct the misinformation that occurred at the politically charged hearing in February before the Coastal Commission," he said.