PUBLIC SCOPING SR-241 TOLL ROAD EXTENSION OSO PARKWAY TO SD COUNTY LINE

COMMENT IN OPPOSITION - Part 2

I SUPPORT THE NO BUILD OPTION

 

Date: December 3, 2019

Dawn Urbanek, San Clemente Resident
Taxpayer and Student Advocate Capistrano Unified School District 

PUBLIC SCOPING COMMENT PART 2 DOCUMENTATION

 

| PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 3 CONTINUED | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6

City of San Clemente
100 Avenida Presidio
San Clemente, CA 92672
(949) 361-8200
Mayor Pro Tem Dan Bane 
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Council Members:
Laura Ferguson
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Chris Hamm       
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Gene James
Kathleen Ward     
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

OC Board of Supervisors
333 W. Santa Ana Blvd.,
Santa Ana, CA 92701
(714) 834-3550
Lisa Bartlett
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Michelle Steel
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Andrew Do
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Donald P. Wagner
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Doug Chaffee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Senator Pat Bates
24031 El Toro Road,
Suite 201A
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Phone: 949.598.5850
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Assemblyman Bill Brough
29122 Rancho Viejo Road,
Suite 111,
San Juan Capistrano CA 92675
(949) 347-7301
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Toks Omishakin
Director CalTrans 
1120 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 657-5060 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Caltrans District 12 
1750 East 4th Street,
Suite 100
Santa Ana CA 92705
(657) 328-6000

Attn: Env/SCTRE Scoping
Ryan Chamberlain, Director
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TCA
125 Pacifica,
Irvine, CA 92618
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Rancho Mission Viejo
28811 Ortega Hwy.
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Laura Coley Eisenberg, Senior Vice President—Open Space Resource Management
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

OCTA
550 S. Main Street
Orange, CA 92868
Darrell E. Johnson, Chief Executive Officer    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

California Regional Water Quality Control Board
San Diego Region
2375 Northside Drive,
Suite 100
San Diego, Ca. 92018
(619) 516-1990
David Gibson
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
California Regional Water Quality Control Board
Los Angeles Region
320 West Fourth Street, Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Phone: (213) 576-6600
Deborah Smith
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
US Fish & Wildlife
Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife
2177 Salk Avenue, Suite 250
Carlsbad, California 92008
Phone: 760- 431-9440 X 307
Jonathan Snyder, Division Chief,
Los Angeles and Orange counties
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
1416 9th St 12th Floor,
Sacramento, CA 95814
Director Charlton H. Bonham
(916) 653-7667
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Los Angeles District
Corice ("Cori") Farrar
Chief, Orange & Riverside Counties Section
South Coast Branch
Regulatory Division
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Office: 213-452-3296
Government Mobile: 213-309-4862

Capistrano Unified School District
33122 Valle Rd,
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
(949) 234-9200 Phone
Board of Trustees
President Gila Jones
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Vice President Martha McNicholas
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Clerk Patricia Holloway
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Board Member Krista Castellanos
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Board Member Amy Hanacek
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Board Member Jim Reardon
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
 

 

SUMMARY

In Public Scoping Comment in Opposition to SR-241 Toll Road Extension Oso Parkway to SD County Line (Part 1)1 it was established that the alignment of the original "F" Street"; designated as a collector road that was designed to connect to Tesoro Creek Drive and terminate at Oso Parkway, in order to provide a separate entrance and exit to Tesoro High School, was modified. The designation of the road was changed from a "Collector Road", to a County of Orange "Arterial Highway" named Los Patrones Parkway.  The alignment of modified "F" Street was shifted approximately 800' to the east to align with the on and off ramps of the SR-241 Toll Road that terminated at Oso Parkway. The objective was to enable a direct connection between the SR-241 Toll Road and Los Patrones Parkway which was being designed and constructed to Toll Road specifications.

The TCA is paying for Los Patrones Parkway.

Caltrans is overseeing the design and construction. 

Los Patrones is being built to Toll Rod Specifications.

They are building a Toll Road without Federal environmental review. 

There is no valid NEPA or CEQA for the construction of SR-241 south of the Oso Parkway Bridge in its current alignment.

TCA, Caltrans, the County of Orange, and Rancho Mission Viejo are building the same Toll Road that was denied wastewater discharge permits five times by multiple entities (The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California Coastal Commission and the United States Secretary of Commerce) who all cited:

"... impacts would be permanent, irreversible, and, for the most part, unmitigable". 

"No other alternative alignment poses the threat of unmitigable and irrevocable impacts of such magnitude".

Because the road is now 800 feet closer to Tesoro High School (a sensitive receptor); and a Habitat Conservation area, a new environmental review should be opened with Caltrans as the lead agency for NEPA.

New environmental studies should be conducted at Tesoro High School so that any threats to the health and safety of Tesoro High School students and staff can be appropriately mitigated.

New environmental studies should be conducted within the habitat reserve next to Tesoro High School in order to determine what mitigations will be needed to protect wildlife corridors, sensitive plant and animal species and ensure water quality for the region.

 

STATEMENT OF FACTS

1. Tesoro High School is a "sensitive receptor". Sensitive receptors include, but are not limited to, hospitals, schools, daycare facilities, elderly housing and convalescent facilities. These are areas where the occupants are more susceptible to the adverse effects of exposure to toxic chemicals, pesticides, and other pollutants.

2. Tesoro High School is located in the southwest corner of Oso Parkway, adjacent to the proposed segment of the Tesoro Extension of SR- 241 from Oso Parkway to Cow Camp Road 2

3. "F" Street was originally designated a collector road designed to connect Cow Camp Road to Tesoro Creek Road (Tesoro High School's driveway), and terminate at Oso Parkway. The purpose of the road was to provide a second entrance and exit to Tesoro High School. Separately, and approximatey 800' farther to the east is SR- 241 North that terminates at the Oso Parkway Bridge. 

4. Two Separate Roads were originally suppose to be built 3:

1. "F" Street a Free Collector Road that was to connect to Tesoro Creek Road and then terminate at Oso Parkway, 

2. The Tesoro Extension of SR-24, a 5.5 mile segment from Oso Parkway to Cow Camp Road to be completed in 2 pahses:

Phase I: Oso Parkway to Chiquita Canyon Road

 and

Phase II: Chiquita Canyon Road to Cow Camp

Screen_Shot_2019-12-01_at_12.54.59_PM.png

5. Now there is only one road being built, the Tesoro Extension of SR-241 800 feet closer to Tesoro High School and the Habitat Reserve; a 10% shift in alignment.

Screen_Shot_2019-12-03_at_4.44.21_AM.png

 

4. All work must stop until a new environmental review is completed with Caltrans as the lead agency for NEPA based on the following substantial changes in the project:

1. There is no valid EIR for Tesoro High School as it is currently built. Due to environmental concerns, the design of the school had to be flipped, and the Capistrano Unified School District was forced to purchase two additional parcels of land in order to avoid any construction on the Habitat Reserve next to the school and to be able to build ball fields for Tesoro High School. 

2. The elimination of original "F" Street as a Collector Road designed to provide a second entrance and exit to Tesoro High School poses significant safety risks to Tesoro High School students and staff. All schools should have multiple ways to get in and out of the campus in the event of an emergency. Due to a single driveway; the elimination of busing (long lines of idling cars) at Tesoro and the lack of adequate parking, in the event of an emergency it would be impossible for emergency crew to enter the school and for the school to be safely evacuated in a timely manor.

3. The 10% shift in the alignment of original "F" Street to align with the on and off ramps of SR-241 at the Oso bridge, coupled with the change in the roads designation from a Collector Road to a County Arterial Road with agreements to turn the road over to TCA/Caltrans to be transitioned to a tolled road invalidates all previous findings of the environmental effects this project will have on Tesoro High School and the adjacent Habitat Conservation Area including but not limited to:

Soils and Geology

Air Quality

Hydrology

Biological Resources

Cultural Resources

Asthetics

Transportation and Circulation

Public Serviced and Facilities:

          • Sheriff- Coroner
          • California Highwy Patrol
          • Fire Protection
          • Water and Wastewater Resources
          • Waste Disposal
          • Electricity
          • Natural Gas
          • Telephone
          • Public Transportation

requiring a new environmental review of the health and safety risks to Tesoro students and staff with Caltrans as the lead agency for NEPA.

4. Rancho Mission Viejo requested an amendment to the Orange County Southern Subregion Habitat Conservation Plan (SSHCP) in order to get permission to re-align original "F" Street outside the approved impact for the facility betweeen Oso Park Way and the southern development area in Planning Area (PA) 2.  The maps below show the effect that the "minor modification" will have on sensitive plant and endangered animal species in the Habitat Reserve.

Screen_Shot_2019-12-02_at_3.29.14_AM.png 

Screen_Shot_2019-12-02_at_3.42.59_AM.png5. The appeal to the United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service Concluded the following:

Screen_Shot_2019-12-03_at_5.29.39_AM.png

Screen_Shot_2019-12-03_at_5.32.11_AM.png

6. In Rancho Mission Viejo's appeal to US Fish and Wildlife for a "minor amendment", Rancho Mission Viejo failed to disclose the fact that what was actually being built was not modified "F" Street (a free Arterial Road), but the Tesoro Extension of SR-241 (a toll road). A 10% shift in the alignment of SR-241 800' closer to Tesoro High School and the Habitat Reserve is not a "minor amendment". The request should have been denied and a new environmental review with Caltrans as the lead agency for NEPA should have been required.

CONCLUSIONS

There is no valid NEPA or CEQA for the construction south of the Oso Parkway Bridge. Construction of SR-241 south of Oso Parkway must be stopped until Caltrans, as the lead agency for NEPA opens a new environmental review of the enviornmental effects on Tesoro High School and the Habitat Reserve can be appropriatly identified and mitigated. Each of these concerns will be addressed separately in future comments.

DOCUMENTATION

Public Scoping SR-241 Toll Road Extension Oso Parkway to San Diego County Line Comment in Opposition - Part 1  https://www.cusdwatch.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/1218-public-scoping-comment-part-1

Final Environmental Impact Report for Chiquita Canyon High School March 1996 Volume I page 1 [The EIR was received as part of a Public Records Request]

Draft Environmental Impact Report No 589: The Ranch Plan General Plan Amendment/Zone Change (PA 01-114) Volume 1: Draft Program EIR. State Clearinghouse Number 2003021141 June 10, 2004  http://www.ocpublicworks.com/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?blobid=45926 Exhibit 3-22 Proposed Circulation Network with SR-241.

January 30, 2015 Letter from United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife re: [FWS-OR-15B0086-15CPA0119] granting RMV "minor amendment" to "F" Street. https://cusdwatch.com/index.php/24-march-14-2018-cusd-bot-meeting/681-united-states-department-of-the-interior-fish-and-wildlife-service-fws-or-15b0086-15cpa0119-january-30-20