I want to congratulate NRDC's Southern California Ecosystems Team -- led by Joel Reynolds -- for a tremendous victory last week. After over a decade of fighting, we may have finally killed one of the most senseless and destructive road projects in the country. The Transportation Corridor Agencies has been trying for years to construct a multi-lane tollroad through some of the last untouched spaces in Orange County. The TCA's preferred route would have bisected one of California's most popular parks, the San Onofre State Beach Park, which is home to the "Trestles," a world-class surfing beach. It also would have taken out vast swaths of habitat essential to over half a dozen endangered species, including the California gnatcatcher, the Pacific pocket mouse, and one of the very last streams that support southern steelhead trout.
Last week the Department of Commerce rejected an appeal the TCA had filed challenging a determination by the California Coastal Commission that the tollroad was inconsistent with California's coastal plan. This decision, which reflects years of work by NRDC and our partners, all but eliminates the tollroad's most likely route and makes it much less likely this boondoggle will never be built. I fought the tollroad as part of NRDC's ecosystems team for six years, before I moved to our Chicago office and, let me tell you, this is a sweet, sweet victory.