Improvements on El Toro, Jeronimo and Rockfield Awarded $1.5 Million by State

Update, 12:09 p.m.: The headline mentioned Trabuco Road when it should have mentioned Jeronimo. Patch regrets the error.

A plan to beautify portions of El Toro Road, Jeronimo Road and Rockfield Boulevard received a $1.5-million boost from the California Transportation Commission Thursday.

The three projects are part of an effort to overhaul the look of Lake Forest's major thoroughfares with landscaped medians and roadsides. Studies show that such measures will make people drive more slowly along the roads and thereby reduce the number of accidents on them, the city staff says.

, the Orange County Transportation Authority voted to recommend that the state allocate $500,000 to each project. On Thursday, the California Transportation Commission did so, including the Lake Forest streetscaping in the $101 million it assigned to transportation projects throughout the state.

"What you do with a road project is try to cobble together as many different transportation funding sources as you can," said Mayor Peter Herzog, an OCTA board member, when interviewed in January about the projects. "This is one of those sources."

The first phase of the planned streetscaping project on El Toro Road includes the road's portion from Muirlands Boulevard to Jeronimo Road. The planned first phase of the Jeronimo Road project will add landscaping between El Toro Road and Los Alisos Boulevard. The Rockfield Boulevard project, as well, will affect the stretch between El Toro Road and Los Aliso Boulevard.

"It's both a traffic improvement and an aesthetic improvement," Herzog said.

For more information, visit the city of Lake Forest's streetscapes Web page.