In a letter of August 4, 2004, Attorney General Bill Lockyer came out strongly against the route preferred by the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA), the road’s sponsor.  “The building of a multilane toll road through the heart of San Onofre State Beach is unacceptable . . . This small island of serenity in an area undergoing massive development must be protected.”



Mr. Lockyer’s comments, dated August 4, 2004, were submitted to the TCA in response to a draft environmental impact report (DEIR).  The focus of his comments was the impact to San Onofre State Beach, a popular and unique state park at the northern end of Camp Pendleton.  According to the Calif. Dept. of Parks and Recreation, these impacts would be so severe that most of the park would have to be abandoned.  The Parks Dept. also submitted comments highly critical  of the proposed highway.

EHL is also opposed to the tollroad extension, not only for its impacts on the state park but because, throughout its route, it would cut through the most intact coastal landscape left in Southern California.  EHL and other conservation groups submitted extensive comments on the DEIR through the law firm of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger.