The South County political machine that killed an El Toro airport is revving up to derail another ambitious public works proposal: a tunnel linking Orange County and the Inland Empire.
And, as with El Toro, the anti-tunnel effort could hit little resistance, if any at all.
Across South County, politicians have come out in force against the tunnel idea. Aliso Viejo’s mayor even called it “ludicrous.” Behind the scenes, some of the activists and consultants who helped kill El Toro are taking aim at the tunnel.
At the same time, few heavy hitters from North County,the area most impacted by chronic congestion on the Riverside (91) Freeway,are championing the tunnel.
The situation has the flavor of history repeating. The county’s bid to turn the former El Toro Marine base into an airport was overwhelmed by South County opposition and Irvine’s competing proposal for a big park,actually a series of parks with homes and businesses.
Next week, transportation officials are set to hold a final meeting related to a $3.3 million study of ways to ease congestion on the Riverside Freeway, the only major link between OC and the Inland Empire.
The Orange County Transportation Authority is set to choose a plan for easing congestion in December. The tunnel through the Santa Ana Mountains is among the options.
Nearly everyone agrees something needs to be done. As proposed, the tunnel would run from the Irvine area through the Santa Ana Mountains and into Riverside County.
But some South County officials argue a 12-mile tunnel would bring added traffic, overwhelm beaches with visitors and hurt sensitive areas in and around the Cleveland National Forest.
Council members of Irvine, Laguna Beach, Lake Forest, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel have spoken against a tunnel.
The Irvine Company, another key player in the debate, opposes the tunnel.
Cathryn DeYoung, a Laguna Niguel councilwoman, has used the tunnel issue in her bid for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors.
“Stop Them,” reads a DeYoung campaign mailer depicting cars streaming to the beach cities. “Stop North County and Riverside politicians,” it goes on to say.
Forde & Mollrich, the consultants who helped kill an El Toro airport and now are promoting the Great Park, created the mailer. Forde & Mollrich also has worked with Irvine Councilman Larry Agran, the Great Park architect whose name is most associated with defeating the airport.
DeYoung said she and others will mobilize if OCTA backs a tunnel.
“I would definitely step up and lead the fight if they are serious about doing it,” DeYoung said. “It’s a waste of funds. We can’t afford to spend our limited transportation dollars on that type of a project.”
DeYoung may not face much of a fight.
Yorba Linda appears to be the only North County city backing a tunnel, and tepidly at that. Its council last week passed a resolution in favor of further study.
Anaheim, North County’s dominant city, arguably is most impacted by traffic on the Riverside Freeway. The city’s mayor, Curt Pringle, has emerged as a visionary, with big plans for transforming Anaheim into an urban hub for the county.
Pringle is pragmatic about the tunnel. The idea is worth exploring for the long term, he said, but for now he is focused on finding more immediate traffic relief, such as expanding the Riverside Freeway.
The tunnel would cost two or three times more and take four times as long, he said.
“I have to figure out how I can resolve the No. 1 issue in my community, which is traffic,” Pringle said. “This is what’s important to me,to address the short-term unbearable conditions on the 91.”
The tunnel debate is politically different than the fight over a commercial airport at El Toro, Pringle said. The need for an airport required selling, he said, whereas most people already know some congestion fix is essential.
“Everybody every day uses a road,” Pringle said.
There are reasons why some in South County could support a tunnel, he said. Some may visit family in the Inland Empire who can’t afford to live here, he said. Or they might appreciate another way to get to Palm Springs or Las Vegas.
“Those levels of awareness exist,” Pringle said. “I don’t need to sell that.”
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who heads the county’s largest city by population, didn’t return a call for comment on the tunnel.
Bill Campbell, county supervisor representing an area stretching from Anaheim to Irvine and chairman of OCTA, said cheaper, more immediate fixes are the priority. After those fixes are done, action could be taken on the tunnel proposal in 10 years or so, he said.
The tunnel’s most prominent proponent could be John Moorlach, the county’s treasurer-tax collector and a candidate for supervisor for Huntington Beach and other areas.
“I am definitely pro-tunnel,” Moorlach said. “It is something that needs to be fully explored and pursued.”
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California wants a tunnel to bring water from Lake Mathews to South County, Moorlach said. It makes sense to combine that with traffic and share costs, he said.
“We have to get employees to south and central OC,” Moorlach said.
Other options are unrealistic, according to Moorlach. A second deck on the Riverside Freeway isn’t feasible because of earthquakes and construction would be too disruptive, he said. Expanding Ortega Highway, which runs from San Juan Capistrano to Lake Elsinore, isn’t realistic from an environmental perspective, he said.
“Once I’m a supervisor, then I’m going to do everything I can” in support of the tunnel, Moorlach said.
There are signs of support for a tunnel, according to Moorlach.
Two congressmen and a former colleague,Gary Miller, Ken Calvert and Christopher Cox,got millions of dollars to study the issue. That shows they could back a tunnel, according to Moorlach.
“I think the study will show this is not only a visionary alternative but it makes sense,” he said.
Miller, a Republican congressman whose district covers parts of Orange and Riverside counties, won’t support a tunnel until a $3 million study on alternatives to the Riverside Freeway wraps up later this year, spokesman Kevin McKee said.
The issue stands to come into play for state Sen. John Campbell, front-runner for Cox’s former congressional seat representing Irvine and other areas. Cox himself supported studying the tunnel but was lukewarm on the proposal.
Campbell said he favors expanding links between OC and the Inland Empire. As a former businessman, he said the issue is one of housing affordability for workers.
“It’s going to be a problem for businesses in Orange County in the future, if we don’t get some access to more affordable housing,” Campbell said.
Expanding the Riverside Freeway and Ortega Highway are “much cheaper and much more politically and technically feasible than a tunnel,” Campbell said.
“That being said, I’m certainly willing to look at the tunnel idea,” he said. “It obviously has a lot of obstacles. I don’t think we should be putting all of our eggs in one basket.”
The Riverside Freeway logs about 250,000 car trips a day. The total is expected to reach 400,000 trips by 2025.
As it is, peak congestion on the freeway floods streets in Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda. During rush hour, some commuters and truckers even pull over to wait out traffic.
The tunnel debate has been overshadowed by talk of renewing Measure M, OC’s half-cent sales tax for transportation projects.
Measure M was approved by voters 15 years ago and is expected to provide $4.2 billion for transportation improvements in the county by the time it expires in 2011.
The tax could be extended by at least a two-thirds majority vote before then.
Some North County officials worry too much tunnel talk could muck up voter interest in Measure M’s renewal, according to sources.
Anaheim’s Pringle said Measure M doesn’t provide enough funding for a tunnel. Other funds must be found if a tunnel is ever to get built, he said.
“I want to disconnect the tunnel from Measure M,” Pringle said.
Cost estimates for a tunnel run anywhere from $3 billion to $8 billion.
Bill Vardoulis, an engineer who has been pushing for a tunnel that carries cars and water, said bonds financed via tolls could fund a tunnel. Taxpayers would be off the hook, he said.
The funding question likely is enough to kill the tunnel, according to Karl Warkomski, mayor of Aliso Viejo. He said a political fight likely is superfluous.
“I don’t think this is going to go anywhere,” Warkomski said. “There is no funding mechanism for this.”
Warkomski, a member of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, said when he first heard of the tunnel, “I thought I was on ‘Candid Camera.'”
