Stop the Toll Road: Overview of the FTC-South toll road

FTC-South Toll Road:

The proposed Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South) is a sixteen miles long, toll road highway that, if constructed as planned, will substantially degrade San Onofre State Beach (home to the famous Trestles surf breaks), bisect some of the last open space in South Orange County, and pave over and fragment vital habitat that is critical for the survival of no fewer than seven endangered species, including the Southern Steelhead trout.
The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), which is responsible for constructing the expensive road, has projected that the FTC-South will cost over $1 billion. The project will be funded by non-recourse bonds, development impact fees (that are already being added to real estate sales in Southern Orange County). Moreover, TCA is also seeking tens of millions of dollars of public money for the FTC-South toll road.

Damage from the Toll Road:

Not only will the FTC-South be extraordinarily expensive (costing nearly $53 million a mile) but it will also be extraordinarily damaging. The road will run directly through San Onofre Beach State Park. The park, which is 2028.8 acres in size, is part of one of the last large coastal open spaces in Southern California and its campgrounds are used as a retreat by many Californians. In a report written by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department concluded that construction of the toll road "will result in a take of the functional use of the majority of the [park] and may have significant direct or indirect impacts to park wetland, access and visual resources." With well over one million visitors annually, popular San Onofre Beach State Park is one of the most visited California State Parks.
The endangered Arroyo toad

Another special feature of the area that will be damaged by the FTC-South is the habitat supported by San Mateo Creek. San Mateo Creek runs from the mountains through San Onofre State Beach Park to the ocean, where it meets the famous Trestles beaches. The creek is part of one of the last largely undeveloped coastal watersheds in Southern California, forming the backbone of a very complex ecosystem. The habitat supported by San Mateo Creek is a refuge for at least seven threatened and endangered species, including the Southern Steelhead trout, Pacific pocket mouse, arroyo toad, least Bell's vireo, California gnatcatcher, Riverside fairy shrimp, tidewater goby and southwestern willow flycatcher. The FTC-South will destroy habitat for these species, some of it critical to their survival and recovery. For example, the road would cut through canyons which are home to a rare maritime core population of gnatcatchers, directly and indirectly impacting 74 pair of the 100 pairs of gnatcatchers in Southern California. Further, the FTC-South would cut off the Pacific Pocket mouse population from the San Mateo watershed and isolate it on a hilltop. Additionally, the water quality of the San Mateo Basin and the Trestles beaches would be degraded. The world famous wave resources of the Trestles surf breaks would also be negatively impacted by the FTC-South as the road will alter the natural sediment flow in San Mateo Creek changing the near-shore sandbars at the mouth of the creek that are responsible for the high-quality wave shape of the Trestles surf breaks.

No Traffic Relief:

TCA claims that the FTC-South will provide relief of traffic congestion along Interstate 5 contradict their own FTC-South traffic projections that rely on cannibalizing San Diego County bound traffic from the I-15 and feeding that Inland Empire traffic to the I-5 via the toll roads. To add insult to injury, this traffic would be added to the I-5 via a large footprint interchange (visible from the Trestles surf breaks) to be constructed over the sensitive San Mateo Creek within the San Onofre Beach State Park.

Furthermore, TCA's traffic claims do not take into account the important fact that the FTC-South toll road highway would be built through UNDEVELOPED land, and that the FTC-South toll road itself would facilitate and promote development that, without the toll road, may not have been built. In other words, the FTC-South toll road will act as a feeder road for the I-5, bringing the I-5 new traffic from the new, large developments that the toll road helped make possible.

In other words, constructing the toll road highway will INCREASE, not decrease, traffic on the I-5. The southbound (and, to a lesser effect, the northbound) stretch of I-5 starting in south San Clemente where the proposed toll road will merge with I-5, will see a dramatic increase in traffic. And the I-5 is already at "over-capacity" along this stretch of highway.

TCA Over-estimates the Need for the FTC-South Toll Road

The TCA overestimates the "need" for the FTC-South toll road, by overestimating the amount of traffic from the "Inland Empire" that would use the FTC-South toll road. The TCA believes that Inland Empire people bound for San Diego County will spend the $9 or so for a round-trip on the toll road, instead of taking the no-cost choice of the faster and under-capacity I-15. For toll road segments already built, the TCA has a track record of overestimating traffic from the Inland Empire.

The TCA overestimates the "need" for the FTC-South toll road by going by the assumption that the undeveloped land the toll road would traverse would be developed. The TCA's traffic projections and justification for the toll road does not consider the very real, possible alternative of that undevelped area (South Orange County's last coastal wilderness area) remaining undeveloped.

Help the Surfrider Foundation Fight the FTC-South Toll Road:

The Surfrider Foundation South Orange County Chapter has been actively fighting the toll road project for many years now. If you live in South Orange County or North San Diego County, and you'd like to help out in the fight against the toll road, then please come to the next chapter meeting held every 2nd Wednesday of the month at the Community Center in San Clemente. Here's chapter meeting and contact info.

Friends of the Foothills Coalition

A coalition of organizations to fight the FTC-South toll road and the Rancho Mission Viejo development (15,000 new homes and 7 million sq. ft. of office space) has formed as "Friends of the Foothills," and includes Laguna Greenbelt, Laguna Canyon Foundation, National Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and the Surfrider Foundation. The coalition believes the destruction of the San Onofre State Beach Park, the destruction of some of the last open space in Southern California, and the harm to endangered and threatened species are costs not worth the questionable benefits of this $900 million toll road.

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