A small but enthusiastic crowd welcomed the Solana Beach staff and consultants who reviewed their 196 page report(available on the City of Solana Beach web page) on the effects of the proposed expansion on the City of Solana Beach.
The report criticizes the CalTrans Draft Environmental Impact Report for being “ambiguous and unstable”. The Draft EIR discusses the legally required NO BUILD option and four options that call for expansion of the existing freeway.It does not, as legally required, state a Preferred Option and it does not discuss other mass transit options. Experts hired by Solana Beach described this report as not in compliance with State and Federal law and in need of being totally recalled, rewritten and then re-circulated. Council Member Dave Roberts stated that “we should get our money back from CalTrans” for having to expend $80,000 to prepare this report.
Recent reports on the effect of the I-5 expansion on the cities of Del Mar, Carlsbad and Oceanside are now available. The Oceanside report describes in detail the extremely negative impact of the proposed expansion on the city and its residents and questions the modest improvement, if any. The Carlsbad and Del Mar reports are both very critical of the methodology, the omissions of key sections (greenhouse gas emission, air pollution) and the totally ambivalent nature of the report make it nearly impossible to comment on. The general consensus: the Draft EIR was a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.
Don’t forget to get comments in to CalTrans by the deadline: Tuesday of next week.
Send to: Shay Lynn Harrison, Environmental Analysis Branch Chief
CA Department of Transportation – District 11
Division of Environmental Analysis, MS 242
4050 Taylor Street
San Diego , CA 92110
Electronic Mail: I-5_NCC_EIR_EIS@dot.ca.gov
Steve Goetsch
Solana Beach , CA
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