El Toro Road Traffic Light Project Met with Skepticism

A plan to sync traffic signals on El Toro Road from the inland canyons to Laguna Beach hit a red light at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

The plan would coordinate 39 traffic signals on or near El Toro throughout six Orange County cities, with the goal of reducing the amount of backup at the on-ramps to El Toro from the 5 freeway at peak hours.

But Mayor Peter Herzog said the project appeared to him to have been undertaken without enough input from Lake Forest residents and elected officials. He was the council member who pulled from the consent calender a proposed memorandum of understanding between Lake Forest, OCTA, Caltrans, the county of Orange and the other affected Orange County cities.

The city of Lake Forest is already in the midst of a to coordinate traffic signals throughout the city, and Herzog said he was concerned that the OCTA might interfere with the progress Lake Forest has made.

"Basically, I see this as us turning over this traffic synchronization project for El Toro Road over to OCTA," Herzog said.

Councilwoman Kathryn McCullough said she thought the plan, as proposed, was underdeveloped and would result in more traffic on Lake Forest surface streets.

"I'm really upset with this," she said. "It's a band-aid; it's not a fix."

Councilman Scott Voigts agreed, saying the project would take traffic from the freeway and dump it onto Lake Forest's arterials.

But Councilman Mark Tettemer cautioned against viewing El Toro Road traffic near the freeway too negatively, given that the recently rennovated shopping centers along are now thriving.

"The ideas that these are cars being foisted onto us—this is commerce coming to our town," Tettemer said. "This is what happens when you revitalize an area. Darn it—people want to come. That's a good thing."

The council voted unanimously to table the approval for at least a month. During that time, the city staff will gather more information and Herzog, , will speak with OCTA CEO Will Kempton, Herzog said.