Meetings about Ripoffs! Poseidon Tonight, 405 Tolls Tomorrow Morning!

Clear your schedules, especially if you can make it to the central coast over the next 24 hours!  Meetings about ripoffs abound!

Will OCTA outsource its toll collection on the 405 to Poseidon? They have no plans to do so, so why did I just give them the idea?

Tonight, Huntington Beach Councilman Joe Shaw reminds us, is an important meeting about the proposed Poseidon Desalination plant!

Important Poseidon Alert! 

If you care about southeast Huntington Beach, about good water policy and about preventing large increases in water rates: please attend tonight’s meeting on the Poseidon desalination scheme which will be heard by the Coastal Commission next Wednesday. 

Tonight,
Thursday 11/7
7 PM
Eader Elementary School
9291 Banning Ave (between Bushard and Magnolia), Huntington Beach, CA 92646 

As for tomorrow morning — well, Vern has just published a magnum opus about this, so I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I DO want you to mark your calendars!  OCTA IS VOTING ON TOLL ROADS!

Orange County Transportation Authority Headquarters
600 South Main Street,
First Floor – Room 154
Orange, California
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM 

Check in later for more on the substance about that; for now, set up your carpools!  To the ramparts!  (I have real doubts about that “ends at 10:30” thing, by the way.)  It says that the PDF of the agenda packet is here.  Here are the relevant items: #9 and #10.

Orange County Local Transportation Authority Regular Calendar Matter

9. Recommendations for the Interstate 405 Improvement Project Between State Route 55 and Interstate 605 (Rose Casey/Jim Beil)

Overview

On September 23, 2013, the Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors directed staff to continue development of Measure M2 Project K which adds one general purpose lane in each direction on Interstate 405 between Euclid Street and Interstate 605, and to examine options to resolve Interstate 405 high-occupancy vehicle lane degradation. It is recommended that the Board of Directors select Alternative 3 for the Interstate 405 Improvement Project. This alternative continues the delivery of Measure M2 Project K, offers the most significant improvement to mobility, provides regional connectivity to State Route 73, and supports local decision making in addressing high-occupancy vehicle lane degradation.

Committee Recommendations (reflects change from staff recommendations)

1. Continue forward on the current track to develop Alternative 1.

2. Direct the Orange County Transportation Authority, Chief Executive Officer, to coordinate:

a. A meeting with Secretary Kelly and all southern California counties and their elected designees to discuss toll road policy by March or April 2014.

b. A meeting with the Washington D.C. equivalents to discuss the same.

c. Specifically identify the corridor city projects that will need to be funded in the next decade and beyond and the dollar amounts associated with such an initiative.

d. Meet and confer with the corridor cities to initiative its list of projects needed and the funding necessary from excess toll revenues from the project.

e. Set out a time-line of no more than four months to secure an understanding of the issues in order to properly sequence and build support for a policy discussion that is too critical to continue to handle as presently sequenced.

3. Initiate public outreach for all the Interstate 405 Alternatives.

4. Continue to look at high-occupancy vehicle concepts as OCTA knows them.

5. Provide the opportunity costs to stay with Alternative 1 versus Alternative 3.

So that’s the state of play with Item 9 on the Toll Lane proposal.  Then there’s this:

10. Public Comments

At this time, members of the public may address the Board of Directors regarding any items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Board of Directors, but no action may be taken on off-agenda items unless authorized by law. Comments shall be limited to three (3) minutes per speaker, unless different time limits are set by the Chairman subject to the approval of the Board of Directors.

And that’s where YOU come in!  Let them know what you think of the Middle-Class Bypass!