CAPISTRANO BEACH : Restored Bus Routes Upset Some Residents

Although it was a victory for bus riders, residents along the south end of Camino Capistrano are fuming about a decision by Orange County Transportation Authority officials Monday to bring large passenger buses back into their neighborhood.

In a unanimous vote, the OCTA Board of Directors decided to restore service for bus Lines 1 and 85 back to K mart Plaza off Camino de Estrella in San Clemente from Dana Point.

While bus Line 85 will still avoid Capistrano Beach neighborhoods by making a U-turn from the K mart Plaza back to Interstate 5, Line 1 will again make a loop from K mart Plaza down Camino de Estrella, along the south end of Camino Capistrano and back up along Camino Mira Costa from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., seven days a week.

The new service will start Dec. 6.

In September, OCTA officials started terminating the two bus lines at Domingo Road in the Doheny Park area of Dana Point, rather than having the buses continue through Capistrano Beach along two-lane Camino Capistrano to the shopping plaza.

A weekday minibus Line 394 was added to shuttle riders between Dana Point and San Clemente, a move that brought relief to residents along Camino Capistrano who had long complained of the noise and pollution caused by the large buses.

But since then, OCTA has been deluged by unexpected complaints from riders, many of them senior citizens, who were unable to get to and from the K mart Plaza as conveniently as they would have liked, said Ellen Harvey, OCTA manager of commute management services.

About 40 people have complained to OCTA by phone, while 1,250 signed petitions demanding their former bus service back.

“They didn’t like the wait, and the (Domingo Road) location wasn’t a destination point,” Harvey said. “A lot of our customers are seniors, so they were kind of scared waiting there.”

Weekend service was also limited for many of the senior citizens.

“It’s a compromise position,” Harvey said about the service changes. Where 90 large buses once passed along all of Camino Capistrano before September, only 23 will now pass along the southern end of the road, Harvey said.

“We had competing interests here,” she added. “There are still some unhappy people.”

Karen Lowery-Russell, who lives on Camino Capistrano at Camino de Estrella, is one of those unhappy people. Not only will the passenger buses pass by her home once again, the buses making U-turns along Camino de Estrella from K mart Plaza pass right by her back yard.

In recent weeks, Lowery-Russell said she’s gotten used to hearing the sounds of the ocean, instead of large noisy bus passing her door.

“It’s been wonderful in the past couple months,” she said. “The real issue is that these large buses do not belong in a residential area. I’m going to be listening to buses every half hour. I’m going to get to wake up to a bus roaring down the street every morning.”

The changes approved Monday were supported by the San Clemente City Council but opposed by the Dana Point City Council.

Dana Point Mayor Karen Lloreda, a Capistrano Beach resident, said she doesn’t believe that OCTA has heard the last of the issue and pledged to seek better long-term solutions.

“We shouldn’t be in an adversarial position to begin with,” Lloreda said.

“This shouldn’t be agency against agency or resident against rider. We need to look at using shuttles everywhere where there is a residential area.”