Newsom signs law keeping San Onofre beach off limits to toll road

After years of successfully battling the extension of the 241 toll road to San Onofre State Beach, opponents got a major reinforcement Friday, Sept. 25,  when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that bans outright new roads in the area.

The law goes beyond the terms of a 2016 settlement that the Transportation Corridor Agency reached with surfers and other “Save Trestles” activists, in which the toll road operator agreed not to pursue an extension in the San Onofre area.

Now, new roads of any virtually any type — not just toll roads — will be prohibited “in or encroaching on San Onofre State Beach” as well as the O’Neill Conservancy and San Mateo watershed inland from the beach.

The new law, AB 1426, is also intended to render moot ongoing legal challenges of the 2016 settlement by the city of San Clemente and a San Clemente homeowners group. The city and homeowners association had been fighting the settlement because of concerns that alternative routes would impact the city.

“We’re thrilled that Gov. Newsom and the Legislature agree that protecting Trestles and San Onofre State Beach from damaging road projects is a clear state priority,” said Stefanie Sekich-Quinn of the Surfrider Foundation, which led the charge against a toll road extension that would have terminated near the world-class Trestles surf break.

The southern extension of the road, also known as the Foothill Transportation Corridor, had been in the planning stages for nearly 20 years. It was designed to relieve traffic on the Interstate 5 and provide more direct access to southbound travel on the freeway from Riverside and San Bernardino counties as well as from developing communities in southeast Orange County.

Environmentalists opposed the extension, saying it would impact habitat for endangered and threatened species. Surfers opposed it because of concerns it would increase sediment in stormwater runoff, which in turn would alter the underwater contours of the Trestles break. Opponents also worried about the additional crowds it would attract to the state beach.

Last year, a free four-lane road dubbed Los Patrones Parkway was completed, extending from the southern terminus of the 241 toll road at Oso Parkway to Cow Camp Road. From there, southbound traffic takes the Ortega Highway to Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano, improving access to the freeway — though not as much as envisioned with the original toll road plan.

And in March, the toll road agency voted unanimously to abandon further pursuit of any toll road extension.

Despite their opposition to the 2016 settlement restricting the southern-most link of the toll road, San Clemente and the homeowners group, The Reserve Maintenance Corporation, chose to not oppose the new legislation.

“We do not believe that AB 1426 will make a toll road through San Clemente more likely,” Acting City Manager Erik Lund said. “We call on the legislature to pass the exact same measure for our protected open space in our city.”