Air-Quality Efforts Affecting Road Projects, Consultant Says
SANTA ANA — A consultant warned local transportation planners Monday that air-quality officials increasingly are making decisions affecting their projects.
Consultant Jeanne Spinner LaMar told the Orange County Transportation Commission that, “like it or not,†anti-smog efforts were prompting many decisions that could set back plans for Orange County’s transportation improvements.
Already, Caltrans has been forced to drop plans for a special merge lane on a widened stretch of the Santa Ana Freeway because critics said it would be used like a regular lane, drawing motorists who might have found other routes and means of transportation.
Spinner LaMar recommended that the commission appoint representatives to sit on regional boards and commissions which have vacancies. But Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder successfully urged panel members to hold direct talks with, for example, the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Commission Chairman Dana W. Reed agreed to appoint a subcommittee to meet with the Air Quality Management District and Environmental Protection Agency.
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