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(E-mail ALL the OCTA Board Members by clicking HERE.)
In a major setback to proponents of adding tolls to the 405 Freeway, the Huntington Beach City Council turned against their Mayor Don Hansen, an OCTA Director and vocal toll supporter. Hansen has touted the idea of of using $1.67 Billion in taxpayer dollars as the primary source of funding for Toll/Expres Lanes on the 405 Freeway. Hansen’s rejection came on a bipartisan vote as Council Members Shaw, Boardman, Dwyer and Harper all voted to recommend that OCTA select Alternative 2, which delivers two new free lanes in a project expected to be completed by 2019.
Huntington Beach’s Council joins Costa Mesa, Seal Beach, Westminster, Long Beach, Rossmoor, and an association of south LA County cities in questioning the OCTA scheme to bring in billions in new toll revenue under the guise of “congestion relief”.
Public testimony focused on several flaws in the plan to add tolls, including a clear violation of the contract with voters in Measure M, which promised that any major changes to the plan approved by voters would be resubmitted to voters. Hansen continued to insist that Measure M only promised one new lane, and anything beyond one lane was “extra”. Critics noted that we would go from a freeway configuration with five free lanes to a new configuration with five free lanes and two toll lanes. Commentors also noted that “freeways” were mentioned over 150 times in information presented to voters regarding the plan for spending Measure M sales tax money, while the words “toll”, “toll lanes” and “Express Lanes were never mentioned. Council Member Devin Dwyer cited respect for the voters’ intent as the major reason for his vote in favor of new free lanes on the Freeway.
Further information noted in public comments included the one “Big Lie” – that the toll scheme was not about the billions in new revenue, but instead was proposed for “congestion relief”. This claim was based on projections from one report regarding one section of the 405 Freeway in one direction during one hour on a weekday in 2040. Another more recent report commissioned by OCTA to evaluate traffic and revenue showed markedly different numbers, including that each freeway lane would carry 94% more volume than each toll/express lane if you looked at 365 days a year and 24 hours a day.
Another issue noted by Council Member Joe Shaw regarded the many questions raised repeatedly by the public and other cities about what happens when traffic from carpool lanes, free lanes and toll lanes would merge back and forth. The West County Connector project now under construction will provide smooth direct connections between carpool lanes on the 405, 605 and 22. The proposed toll lanes would generate significant new merging movements, as two-thirds of the vehicles that qualify as carpools would be forced to use the free lanes, while vehicles willing to pay tolls would merge into the two left lanes, but then be forced to merge back into the free lanes at the Los Angeles County line traveling northbound or when the southbound toll lanes ended in Costa Mesa.
Proposed new carpool restrictions for the toll lanes would require three passengers in any vehicle while current car pool requirements are for two passengers.
The next cities to vote on the proposed toll lanes are Fountain Valley and La Palma, which both have meetings tonight. The Fountain Valley staff report recommends supporting the proposal with two free lanes and rejecting the scheme for converting lanes to Toll/Express facilities.
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Our Coverage Thus Far:
- “Lexus Lanes” on the 405? Help Stop the Latest Toll Road Outrage!
- Perfect Circularity: A 405 Toll Lane for the Sole Purpose of Funding a 405 Toll Lane?
- OCTA’s Will Kempton to Betray OC Voters?
- Proposal Unites Enemies in Costa Mesa, against HB Mayor Don Hansen.
- 405 Toll-Gate For Dummies: How the proposed toll lanes are illegal.
- My Modest Proposal to build “Expensiveways” on the 405
- A Taxpayer Bailout for the Failed 73 San Joaquin Hills Toll Road?
- Seal Beach and Westminster to Join Costa Mesa in opposing 405 tolls
- OCTA expects BILLIONS in revenue from 405 Tolls!
- 405 Toll Projection – $2.95 for Three Miles!
- Cooking the Books with Two VERY different sets of numbers…
- How We Can Defeat the 405 Toll Lanes! And … Meet Your OCTA Board!
- Huntington Beach Mayor Hansen Rebuffed by his own City Council
AND NOW, somebody has created the excellent…
No 405 Tolls.Com!
E-mail ALL the OCTA Board Members by clicking HERE.
That was a great meeting – we went into it expecting defeat, from what we’d seen in HB’s previous study session. The only councilmen we knew we had on our side were responsible Democrats Connie Boardman (whose motion it was) and Joe Shaw. But we’d done all the lobbying we could, and gave some apparently effective presentations.
And the vote really was bipartisan, as well it should have been, as this is not a left-right or partisan issue at all – Republicans Matt Harper and Devin Dwyer joined the side that is looking out for taxpayers and voters.
And that was in defiance of Mayor Hansen, the OCTA Board Member and fervent Toll Lane advocate, who we know had been pressuring his fellow Republicans to vote his way, and trying to PRESENT it as a partisan question. Ridiculously I might add, after the unanimous vote against Toll Lanes from all-Republican Costa Mesa, and the near-unanimous votes from mostly-Republican Seal Beach and Westminster. Toll Lanes are just, not a conservative thing at all.
The Mayor was joined in his Toll-cheering by challenged Repug Carchio and confusing liberal developer-Dem Keith Bohr.
It’s still hard to figure out exactly why Hansen is so enamored with toll lanes. He doesn’t seem to be a hand-in-lots-of-pots pol like Pulido, Amante, and Glaab. He really seems to believe that Toll Lanes are the wave of the future to be embraced, and sees it as additional “choice” for Americans who might feel like paying to go faster, and refuses to see how that is a theft from the rest of us.
All our arguments, which he characterizes as “throwing everything at [the toll lanes]” carry no weight with him, and he responded by throwing everything he could think back at us (but late in the meeting when most of us were gone.)
He feels sure that “most folks are not really against tolls,” but just suffering from “construction fatigue” in certain areas – which sure doesn’t explain why they’re supporting Alternative 2 which is just as much construction as Alt 3.
He warns that this is the last possible moment for us to do ANYTHING, and yet promises that somehow Alt 2 and Alt 3 will somehow magically “morph” into something that everyone will like.
He talks about all the property we are going to have to acquire in 100 years, as though everybody’s still going to be driving their own gas-guzzling cars in 2112, but ten times more!
He says there’s “no question” that OCTA is correct in their position that Alternative 3 fulfills Measure M’s promise of “one new free lane” – even though we demonstrated with kindergarten-level graphics that that’s not the case.
And he conveniently ignored every argument that was inconvenient to him – I could list them, but I must go prepare for Fountain Valley now…
Oh, the meeting was packed – mostly with people who were there to argue for and against FIREWORKS. NONE of them were aware of the plan to put Toll Lanes on the 405 … and ALL of them wanted to know more.
The HB meetings are widely televised AND watched by HB citizens. Hundreds and hundreds of people heard our arguments AND saw our signs advertising “No 405 Tolls.com.” An evening well spent.
Amazing! I grew up in SE HB and am well aware of the lousy access to any freeways from there. It’s the 405 or nothing, and the 405 is often an elevated parking lot. HB is one place where I would expect a proposal to add lanes to the 405 without actually adding free lanes to the 405 to be a political career destroying. Good for Matt Harper and Devin Dwyer for being convinced; good for Connie and Joe for not needing to be convinced.
As for Mayor Hansen, since he’s so hot on this idea I hereby dub him “Toll Lanes Don.”
Kudos to the OJ for its diligence on this issue. Your contributors have done yeoman duty, digging up facts, seasoning them with opinion and blasting them out to the world. Keep up the good work.
*blush*
Vern,
Great job! No one wants toll roads! When is Garden Grove going to put this issue on the agenda? Are the various city councils required to take a formal vote? Anyone on the OCTA board that votes in favor of toll roads should pack their bags for they will no longer be holding elected office. No one wants toll roads!!!
At this point, I think that the questions are not whether Alternative 3 will go into effect — it won’t — but:
We’re now to the point where it’s no longer merely “we’re not going to do this,” but becoming “OK, which of you are going to lose your cushy staff jobs for not counseling against OCTA spending this much money, time, effort, and good will trying to MAKE everyone do it?”
So far we’ve been playing defense. If this goes on for much longer, we may be playing offense. At some point, when a mistake made by a public agency is large enough, heads have to roll.
Yeah, we need to bring this to GG and Los Al next.
In Los Al, their Mayor, Troy Edgar, is running for Assembly. He should come out against this. (We’ve tried to get a hold of his opponent Travis Allen, but our patience has worn out.)
Tell us, Robin … does Mayor Bill Dalton (an OCTA Board member) have to run for re-election any time soon?
Submitted by Councilmember Connie Boardman – Request Council recommend to the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) Board an alternative proposal for the widening of the 405 freeway that includes no Toll Lanes
Recommended Action:
Request that the City Council make a recommendation to the OCTA Board that they pursue either Alternative One or Alternative Two as described in the EIR for the 405 improvements. Neither of these alternatives includes adding toll lanes to the 405 freeway. This alternative expands the lanes by two each way without the addition of toll lanes.
Approved 4-3 (Hansen, Carchio, Bohr no)
Good Work Connie!!!!
Oh – and I should add cj, that the measure you quote, was amended at the last minute to be specifically an endorsement for Alternative 2. This was Matt Harper’s amendment (raising eyebrows) quickly seconded by Joe Shaw.
Fountain Valley followed their staff report, and the requests of all four speakers (including me and Diana Carey) voting to support Alternative 2 and oppose Alternative 3. The vote was four to zero, with councilman Crandall abstaining because he is on the OCTA Board and he felt it was improper to vote on the issue before the actual Board vote.
Funny, Mayor Hansen did not feel so constrained.
I wonder about Crandall. He didn’t look at me the whole time I was speaking, though all the other members did, and smiled. After I was seated he corrected me on one of my contentions – that the extra revenue from tolls, after Alt. 3 construction is paid for, could go to anything OCTA wants. Crandall says that’s not true, that the spending would need to be kept “in the corridor.”
When I reported that to Quimby, he responded, “Ah, but how are they defining the ‘corridor?’ How widely? It COULD include Pulido’s Santa Ana streetcar project!” – which was the example I used in my speech.
In any case, all the affected cities are falling like dominoes – what do we have now, something like 6 to 0 against Toll Lanes. Later tonight we should hear from La Palma (which isn’t exactly close to the 405 but interested anyway.)
Will Santa Ana have this before their council?
Santa Ana? Garden Grove? Every City in Orange County should put this on their agenda so we can see which Council Members support tolls on our freeways.
Each and every one of the 34 cities in Orange County approved the capital plan in Measure M, which never once mentioned tolls or Express lanes, but used the word “Freeway” 158 times.
OCTA representatives have indicated that these lanes will only be successful in the long run if they are implemented on EVERY Freeway in Southern California .
Vern,
Mayor Dalton is termed out. He can run for city council if he chooses. The next city council meeting is Tuesday, July 24th. The agenda will be posted, on the city website, after 5pm this Thursday. I will check and report back to you late Thursday evening. We need to see where they stand on this ill conceived concept to create toll roads.
Just in from LA PALMA – who also met last night:
Tiny La Palma, about 10 miles north of the 405 – but still OC TAXPAYERS who are paying for the construction – weighed in UNANIMOUSLY against Alternative 3, Mayor Ralph Rodriguez tells me.
Here’s the La Palma twist – most of the council also opposes the extra lane of Alternative 2, with its additional $100 million cost from a source “to be determined” … so they voted 4-1 in favor of Alternative ONE.
Texts RR: “Only 2 supported alt 2, due to additional costs and impact to communities. Alt 1 is what voters approved, all felt $ and authorization of M2 dictated delivering on promise.”
This is all true. Alt 1 is a hard pill to swallow though, because 1) it won’t really ease our traffic that much, by any accounts, and 2) looking at 2 lanes for $1.4B vs. 1 lane for $1.3B, you feel foolish not to grab the nearly 2-for-the-price-of-1 deal … especially since you know this opportunity isn’t gonna come around ever again … at least for decades, when we hopefully won’t be talking about any more freeway widening. (Impossible as that is for Mayor Hansen to imagine.)