State Agency OpposesToll Road Through San Onofre Park

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 28, 2007 at 12:28 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

A proposal to build a toll road through the state park at San Onofre State Beach is getting a thumbs down from a state agency staff report. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce explains.

A proposal to build a toll road through the state park at San Onofre State Beach is getting a thumbs down from a state agency staff report. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce explains.

The California State Parks Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council says the proposed six-lane Foothill South toll road would damage the state park. The group's say the California Coastal Commission's staff report recommends rejecting the 16-mile long toll road proposal.

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James Birkelund is an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council who has read the 236-page report.

Birkelund : It finds in addition to destroying the park the staff concluded that this is the most environmentally destructive alternative. So I think what's clear is the Foothill South is uniquely destructive and it's exactly the sort of project that the coastal act was designed to prevent.

He says the road would fragment one of the last remaining watersheds and coastal canyon ecosystems in Southern California. Supporters say it will relieve congestion on part of I-5. The coastal commission considers the toll road proposal at its October 11th meeting in San Pedro.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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