Toll road at MacArthur declared legal

Susan McCormack

NEWPORT BEACH -- Five years after a local group first sued to halt the

conversion of part of Newport Coast Drive into a toll road, a federal

appeals court has ruled that the conversion is legal.

Where the private toll road and the public street meet, motorists have

two options: pay a toll of 50 cents to get to MacArthur Boulevard, or

take a slightly longer detour under the toll road to Bonita Canyon Drive,

which connects to MacArthur. The detour is longer than the 1.3-mile toll

road route to the boulevard.The Newport Coast Drive Defense Fund

challenged the Transportation Corridor Agency’s right to charge tolls on

a public road. Formed in the early 1990s, the group was primarily opposed

to the conversion of 1.35 miles of the drive into part of the 17-mile San

Joaquin Hills Toll Road.

The group filed a lawsuit against the San Joaquin Hills Transportation

Corridor Agency in 1994. An Orange County Superior Court judge decided

the agency had the legal authority to incorporate the street into the

toll road. The decision was made without a hearing because the group

filed the suit “too late,” according to court documents.

The decision also stated that a development agreement between the county

and the Irvine Co., which built Newport Coast Drive in 1991 and turned it

over to the county in 1994, allowed for the conversion for two main

reasons: the drive was built as an interim roadway until the

transportation corridor was constructed, and an environmental impact

report conducted on the site in 1991 supported the conversion.

The group appealed the decision, which the appellate court denied last

week, stating “the argument is without merit” for the same reasons as the

first lawsuit.

Ron Kennedy, president of the group, called the decision a “sham” because

he had not been heard in court again. Kennedy said his group will appeal

the decision.

“All we’re asking for is to have a right to get in front of a judge to

argue the issues,” Kennedy said.