COMMUNITY NEWS
Judge: Recirculate Hwy 1 HOV Lane EIR O n July 12, the Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steven Gevercer ruled against Caltrans, finding its environmental impact report for “High Occupancy Vehicle” lanes along an 8.9-mile stretch of Highway 1 in Santa Cruz County is inadequate. The ruling orders Caltrans to recirculate a focused draft EIR for public review and comment addressing three topics: 1) The Tier I HOV lane project baseline year of 2035, which was changed between the draft and final EIR 2) The Tier I project description, which the judge called a “moving target” because it had three possible alternatives and no preferred alternative, with one to be chosen later 3) Health effects for Mobile Source Air Toxics (pollutants emitted by cars and trucks) relating to HOV lanes, as the HOV lanes are expected to be operational after 2035. The draft EIR, issued in November 2015, used traffic counts from 2001 and 2003, prompting complaints from the public. In response Caltrans conducted new traffic counts in 2016, and chose that as the baseline for the “Tier II” auxiliary lanes, selecting the No Build 2035 as the baseline Shannon Munz, spokeswoman for the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission said, “Caltrans and RTC will be taking steps toward addressing the court’s order and plan to recirculate the analysis for the three focused topics in the coming months. Caltrans and RTC look forward to improving the analysis and gaining valuable input from the public through the focused recirculation process.” The ruling will likely delay the HOV lanes project as time is spent on updating information and getting feedback from the public. The Santa Cruz-based Campaign for Sustainable Transportation and the Sierra Club challenged the environmental impact report. They focused their arguments on the “Tier I” project to add HOV lanes, which includes reconstructed interchanges, not the “Tier II” project to add auxiliary lanes on a 1.4-mile stretch of Highway 1 from 41st Avenue to Soquel Avenue. Rick Longinotti, who chairs the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation, said,
“This decision means our Regional Transportation Commission has an opportunity to reconsider transportation strategies other than the pie-in-the sky notion that it will build HOV lanes from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, which an RTC report admits is unfunded until ‘after 2035.’” He added, “What people do not realize is that the RTC has no effective plan to offer commuters who are stuck in traffic.” Longinotti contends the only component of the Highway 1 expansion project that can be funded is auxiliary lanes (exitonly lanes) from Santa Cruz to State Park Drive in Aptos. “Why would we build auxiliary lanes that offer no safety or congestion benefit, when we could spend the money offering real alternatives to being stuck in traffic?” he asked. He also believes the new EIR will need to conform to a new law, SB 743, requiring mitigation of projects that increase vehicle miles traveled, the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases in the state. Campaign for Sustainable Transportation is asking that the RTC convert their plan to build auxiliary lanes to a bus-only lane on the shoulder of the highway. A dedicated bus lane project would offer a substantial number of commuters a viable alternative to sitting stuck in traffic, and not worsen the evening commute, according to Longinotti. “Rather than keep pushing an unsustainable project that doesn’t solve congestion, we’re asking the RTC to engage in community dialogue about funding solutions that work,” he said. The judge rejected arguments from the challengers, saying they did not show that changes in greenhouse gas emissions data represented a significant impact and that Caltrans was not required to consider their preferred alternative, rail transportation on the Santa Cruz Branch Line. n
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