241 Toll Extension Will Cause More Traffic Than It Solves: City

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — The city of San Clemente continues to battle against the expansion of the SR-241 Toll Road through south Orange County, this time through combating the multiple agencies assigned to the issues. According to San Clemente's city manager, in a recent press release, the TCA, OCTA are what needs a reboot, not the county's roads.

IBI Group, an internationally respected planning, engineering and technology firm retained by Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), Orange County and numerous cities throughout Orange County, released its report on the proposed SR-241 Toll Road extension proposed by the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA).

Using data and models provided by the OCTA, IBI found that building the SR-241 Extension will do virtually nothing to enhance the mobility projects currently planned in the OCTA Master Plan of Arterial Highways (MPAH) 2040 buildout.

In fact, the IBI Group study found that the SR-241 Toll Road Extension, which is supported only by the TCA, will actually increase Vehicle Miles Traveled and Vehicle Hours Delayed for Orange County residents as compared to OCTA’s 2040 plan.

“The numbers don’t lie,” City of San Clemente Councilmember & Foothill/Eastern Corridor Transportation Corridor Agency Board Member Kathy Ward said. “Why would anyone spend billions of dollars to fund a new toll road when it would actually make traffic worse for South Orange County when it can actually be improved for less than 10% of the cost of this new toll road?”

According to data provided by the OCTA, the proposed SR-241 Toll Road Extension will only
serve around 10,000-15,000 drivers a day despite costing approximately $2,000,000,000 to construct.

At this rate, the average revenue from the new toll road would not cover the debt service on the new borrowing necessary to construct it. In 2014, the TCA already voted to refinance over $1,000,000,000 in existing bonds, extending repayment for toll roads built in 1997 until 2050.
“Utilizing the adopted countywide traffic model and socio-economic data, it is forecast that
building the SR-241 Toll Road Extension would not result in significant relief of traffic congestion in the region” said Mike Arizabal of IBI Group. “Simply building the approved Measure M2 and MPAH 2040 projects provides significant benefit to the region for substantially less cost than the proposed Toll Road Extension.”

“Most transit agencies and local governments look at new construction and good land
use policies to determine the best ways to reduce traffic,” said Stan Oftelie, former CEO of both
the OCTA and TCA. “The TCA is looking solely at how to increase its revenue to appease the
bondholders covering its over-extended debt. It makes no sense to spend billions for the same
effect on traffic as spending a few million.”

TCA, which was originally formed in 1986, oversees the San Joaquin Hills, Foothill and Eastern
Toll Roads. The TCA has not built any new toll roads since 1996, existing solely to continue to collect development fees, to manage the existing roads, and to propose new toll roads to justify TCA’s continued existence while spending millions to battle Orange County residents and other stakeholders who oppose TCA projects. The new SR-241 Toll Road Extension would mostly benefit those traveling from Los Angeles County to San Diego County, with little actual benefit for those living and working in Orange County.

“Orange County needs one and only one transportation agency to pursue regional solutions to
traffic—and that’s the OCTA,” stated Mark McGuire, a long-time San Clemente resident and land use attorney. “The TCA only has legislative authority to build toll roads. The old proverb ‘If all you
have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’ applies to the TCA. We need to continue implementing OCTA’s real regional traffic solutions – not TCA’s destructive and ineffective toll road extension.”

Efforts to consolidate the TCA’s function with other agencies have been around since the
1980s. In 1996, Paul Glaab, the director of public affairs for the TCA, stated “We're a single-purpose public agency, [whose purpose] is to finance, design and build the roads and then go out of business.” Since 1996, the TCA has not built any new toll roads nor have they gone out of business.

“The time has finally come to consolidate transportation agencies in Orange County,” said City
of San Clemente Mayor Tim Brown. “Starting with the Orange County Board of Supervisors, we need to shift all regional traffic planning, including the ability to finance, design and build toll roads, into one entity. The TCA should remain to service its bond obligations and manage the toll roads it already runs. All other functions should be moved to the OCTA.”

Photo: San Clemente Trails - courtesy Sheila Shokraee