Lawsuits Filed Over $200 Billion Transportation Plan

We all knew this was coming, so come it did, albeit from a different, but entirely welcome direction.

Lawsuits filed over $200B transportation plan

Environmentalists contend scheme favors freeways over public transit

Written by Christopher Cadelago  10:20 a.m., Nov. 28, 2011

Two environmental organizations challenged a plan outlining $200 billion in regional transportation projects through 2050, alleging Monday that the San Diego Association of Governments’ planned investments in freeways would come at the expense of public transit, increased pollution and exacerbated global climate change.

The lawsuit brought by the Cleveland National Forest Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity alleges that regional transportation officials replied on inadequate environmental studies in approving the long-range planning document on Oct. 28.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, lists several violations of the California Environmental Quality Act.

“The time to move aggressively toward a more sustainable way of life is upon us,” said Jack Shu, president of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation. “SANDAG’s plan promotes an unsustainable vision for San Diego County: More traffic, less transit; more pollution, no solutions.”

SANDAG's chief spokesman said the agency had yet to review the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.

The 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, regarded as a blueprint for the transportation network over the next four decades, includes projects to add 156 miles of trolley service, 130 miles of managed highway lanes, and nearly $4 billion for bicycle and pedestrian projects, among other things. It also calls for turning the downtown trolley lines into a subway.

SANDAG at the time the plan was approved said transit should receive about half of the total funding. But most of the public transit improvements would be delayed for decades and, once completed, would come up short of the robust network needed and instead encourage more driving, according to the lawsuit.

On greenhouse gas reduction goals, the plan says the county would double its target by 2015 and meet it in 2030, the two state-mandated deadlines. After that, the document projects the region would lose ground in pollution reduction.

“SANDAG’s plan flies in the face of everything we know about climate change,” Kevin Bundy, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. “The science is clear: We need ambitious, lasting reductions in climate pollution by 2050, and that means livable communities with access to transit systems that really work. More freeways and sprawl won’t get us there.”

I-5 Widening Project

There is a deafening silence around Harbor Pointe. It's a combination of the residents and the City of Carlsbad showing a seemingly lackadaisical attitude toward the I-5 widening project that will potentially increase the size of the 5 freeway to 14 lanes. Yes, you read that right, 14 lanes! Ten traffic lanes and 4 carpool or HOV lanes as CalTrans likes to call them.

Add to that, a sound wall approximately sixteen or seventeen feet high running down the complete length of Harbor Pointe from Poinsettia to Palomar Airport Road that will make life here like living in a fish bowl. But wait, there's more. The sound wall is not a given at any rate. It's "recommended" that it be built to minimize the enormous noise impact the project will have, but it's also "not reasonable" because CalTrans and the rest of the people who plan these things didn't plan enough money to protect humans from the effects of the project. So. it may or may not be built. The latest scenario is that it's less and less likely to be built as time goes on and money dwindles. That in itself is scary enough! And, in any case, the information that is contained on the CalTrans releases called an EIR/EIS appears faulty to say the least. (They won't respond in detail to anyone...just generalities which leaves us all very suspect! And you all know how much any of us trust the State of California when it comes to telling the truth about anything or spending money!)

Here's a link to the EIR/EIS for your perusal. It's interesting how much time they take to assure they protect wildlife and how little they took to assure humans are protected. Great time and cost spent on concern about how disconnected some community members might be, and how the freeway might split a community in some places, but total disregard for the rest of the community in others. Just unbelievable.

To see the proposal page just for Harbor Pointe, go to Part Two, Page 54. That's just the pictorial; the rest of the entire document bears review, especially Part 3 about sound, etc.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist11/Env_docs/I-5NCCDraft.html

Time to get off the dime and contact the City of Carlsbad, your state and county officials and anyone you can think of that will help stop this debacle from happening. Here are several links to groups fighting this so you can see what they are presently doing:

Torrey Pines Community Planning Board  http://www.torreypinescommunity.org/

P.L.A.G.U.E. website  http://www.i-5plague.com/

Another group actively campaigning against this debacle is CAFE, Citizens Against Freeway Expansion

Another great site:  Citizens for Smart Freeway Planning   http://smartfreeway.ning.com/ 

CalTrans admits this won't solve the traffic problem, just push it back further down the line. There are a sprinkling of dollars for public transportation to help assuage the conscience of the community but only a pittance. We need better community public transit, not ribbons of concrete. Pollution, noise, dirt and congestion for years, all for what? So they can stand back and wonder what to do next when the answer was at hand 50 years ago...public transit? Light rail, commuter rail, more scheduling (not less like we have now) better funding for rail and bus, more feeder lines, better paratransit systems to get people to the Coaster and other transit.

If cities like St. Louis can do it, why can't we? Their transportation system makes ours look like crap, and ours was started first. In fact, they looked at the San Diego Trolley as a model for their system. Thank God they took the good and then ran away, because their system and bus and paratransit actually serves the people of a city much larger with huge suburbs. While out system just continues to disintegrate while some fools invest in concrete.

One wonderful legacy for our kids, eh?