...

Calif torn between commute, surf break

Society Materials 6 February 2008 23:15 (UTC +04:00)

( AP )- Two of California's favorite pastimes - surfing and driving - are on a collision course as state officials consider building a toll road to one of the world's best surf breaks.

Plans for 16 miles of asphalt ending near Trestles, the "Yosemite of Surfing," have galvanized surfers and environmentalists. They argue the project would wipe out endangered species, ruin the park and block the sediment deposits that create the world-class waves.

Proponents, including weary commuters, say the $875 million project will end crushing gridlock on Interstate 5 between Orange County and San Diego, which logs more than 125,000 cars a day.

Studies commissioned by the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which finances and builds Orange County's toll roads, estimate that by 2025, a 16-mile drive on the freeway will take an hour.

The California Coastal Commission met Wednesday to vote on whether the proposal meets Federal Coastal Management Act standards - a requirement for it to move forward. Thousands of people streamed into the 3,000-seat Del Mar Fairgrounds just north of San Diego more than an hour after the hearing started and hundreds more gathered outside or in overflow rooms to listen in.

Many carried signs and wore T-shirts against the toll road, including ones that read "Honk for Trestles" and "Highway from Hell." The turnpike's supporters hoisted signs that read " 241 Toll Road: Drive less. Live more."

Last month, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrat state Treasurer Bill Lockyer weighed in, with the governor in favor of the road and Lockyer opposed.

Those on both sides see something more than a battle over a few lanes of pavement. The debate has attracted more than 500 video postings on YouTube and spawned dozens of pro- and anti-toll road Web sites, protests, statehouse rallies and blogs .

"We in California are confronting a very important moment and that is, 'How do we solve our infrastructure needs?'" said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation. "Are we just going to elbow parks out of the way or are we going to treat them as the treasured resources they are?"

Environmentalists say the toll road will destroy habitat for nearly a half-dozen threatened or endangered species, including the Pacific pocket mouse. They also say it will cut 161 camp sites and create a concrete eyesore in the middle of the 2,100-acre San Onofre State Beach, which stretches from the coastal bluffs to the dry interior canyons. San Onofre is the state's fifth-most popular park and attracts 2 1/2 million visitors a year.

Surfers worry the road will block sandy runoff from the San Mateo Creek watershed, which they believe creates the wave breaks that earn Trestles its coveted spot on the World Championship Tour.

Transportation officials, however, counter that the road's alignment was tweaked to avoid sensitive habitat. They say changes in sediment flow will not affect Trestles.

"We've done the science behind this," said Lance MacLean, chairman of the Foothill Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency. "The last thing I want on my tombstone when I die is, 'This is the guy who built the project that destroyed Trestles.'"

MacLean said the alternative - a widening of Interstate 5 - would mean the destruction of more than 1,200 homes and businesses in an area set to add 14,000 new homes in the next 25 years.

"There's a human factor here that you have to take into account," MacLean said. "Who's protecting the residents and the businesses and the citizens, instead of the pocket mouse?"

Latest

Latest