Roads Lawsuit Filed By Capistrano School District

A lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Capistrano Unified School District against an Orange County agency that regulates its tollways and Caltrans. The district has alleged that two south county bridge and road projects will harm two schools via noise and air pollution. The county's attorney has said that environmental lawsuits will fail.

At issue is the way county officials approved an environmental impact report for the Oso Bridge and Los Patrones Parkway projects near Tesoro High School and Esencia grade school.

The county's attorney, Leon Page, was undaunted by the litigation, which was filed in Orange County Superior Court. He said he told attorneys for the school district that they had no case, in part because they missed deadlines to object.

Any lawsuit alleging violations of the California Environmental Quality Act will fail, Page said. "I said specifically, 'that dog won't hunt,' because the statute of limitations on challenging the environmental documentation for the Oso Bridge and Los Patrones Parkway projects had expired," Page said.

Moreover, Page said, some of the requests from the school district to minimize the impact of the road projects have already been adopted.

School officials are concerned about dust, air and noise pollution affecting the schools, said Ryan Burris, a spokesman for the district.

"We also have some issues with the way the (environmental) report was put together and approved by the county," Burris said.

It's possible the district's complaint will be combined with a lawsuit filed by the city of San Clemente challenging plans by the Transportation Corridor Agency, which oversees the county's toll roads, to extend toll roads in south county to alleviate traffic jams on the San Diego (5) Freeway in south county, Burris said.

Some critics of the Oso Bridge and Los Patrones Parkway projects view the work as a way to put in place segments of the toll roads if extensions are approved. Toll road officials have said the plans are just that, and that nothing concrete has been approved yet.

Toll road officials also maintain that something must be done eventually to alleviate traffic on the 5 Freeway because of expected population growth in the area.

City News Service, with Ashley Ludwig, Patch Editor

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